A Study Of Chinese Middle School Students' Metacognitive Strategies In L2 Reading

Since Flavell advocated the theory of metacognition, increasing numbers of studies have been undertaken to investigate the relationship between metacognition and different learning tasks. It is now broadly acknowledged that metacognition plays an important role in various cognitive activities such as reading, listening, speaking and writing. According to research, metacognition can improve students' learning efficiency, help students understand and memorize learning tasks and help students evaluate their learning results. As a component of metacognition, the theory of metacognitive strategies has become a new focus in language teaching, especially in L2 reading. More and more teachers and researchers have noticed the importance of metacognitive strategies for reading. Many new empirical studies on metacognitive strategies have been conducted on the basis of relevant theories.Scholarly research at home and abroad has concluded from relevant empirical studies: 1) Metacognitive strategies distinguish between high-level and low-level readers; 2) Certain metacognitive strategies improve readers' reading ability; 3) Metacognitive strategies play an important role in L2 reading. Unfortunately, these studies have certain shortcomings. Research by foreign scholars does not aim for English learners in China. Researchers in China, when studying metacognitive strategies, mainly talk about college students. They do not pay attention to middle school students. Most research in China neglects the important variable of English level. These findings help to frame the current study. Its purpose is to investigate the relationship between metacognitive strategies and reading ability of 55 junior high school students. The theoretical model for this study is based on O'Malley and Chamot's theory of metacognitive strategies. Furthermore, this study pays special attention to the control variable of English level and how it influences metacognitive strategies and reading ability.This thesis is composed of four parts:Chapter One is a brief overview of relevant literature. This chapter first...