A Study Of The Difference In The Use Of Metacognitive Strategies In English Reading By Senior High School Learners Of Different Proficiency

The ultimate goal in education is to promote learners to learn how to learn. In the past decades, researchers within the filed of education have gradually shifted their attention from teaching to learning, from teachers to students. A great interest has been put in the effective ways in which learners learn languages at home and abroad.As language learning strategy is considered to be the key to learners'success, learning strategy starts to attract researchers'attention. In the studies of learning strategy, the importance of metacognitive strategies is generally realized by researchers and it is found out that the application of metacognitive strategy is essential for learners of English. Some studies outside China have shown the significant role of metacognitive strategy in effective and successful language learning. Metacognitive strategy includes planning, monitoring, and evaluating. It involves planning for learning, thinking about learning and how to make it effective, self-monitoring during learning and self-evaluation of learning after the language activity is completed. It proves that metacognitive strategy is suitable for any kind of learning task, especially for reading.Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills and one of the ultimate goals in foreign language learning. Reading, among other things, is a process of psycholinguistic activity. In this activity, the reader actively combines his or her knowledge with the textual information in the process of planning, recognizing, guessing, inferring, proving, monitoring and evaluating etc. In this active process, strategies involved will affect the very process of reading comprehension, and the reader should intentionally regulate and control the reading process and adopt appropriate strategies to solve the problems during it. The traditional grammar-translation oriented teaching method for reading tends to overemphasize language form and overlook students'ability in language use. However, since the development of students'autonomy in learning is one ultimate goal of schooling, teachers should consider how to foster students'ability to read independently.Meacognitive strategies play a very important role in English reading. However, the studies on the two filed both at home and abroad just emphasize how to use metacognitive strategies in English reading. This thesis, drawing on the research on metacognitive strategies and English reading at home and abroad, tries to probe whether there is difference in the use of metacognitive strategies in English reading by Senior High School learners of different proficiency. Faced the current situation of Senior High School, this study could help Senior High School English teachers foster the qualified students in the more effective way.In addition, in order to test whether or not metacognitive strategies could be developed through classroom instruction, the author carried out a 6-week long teaching program based on metacognitive strategies among 60 students in No.48 Senior High School of Dalian City, Liaoning Province. Before the training starts, which bases on the metacognitive strategies, the students are required to finish a questionnaire and taken a pre-test. Six weeks later, the 60 students take the post-test. At last the three kinds of data are analyzed by SPSS. The result indicates that there is difference in the use of metacognitive strategies in English reading by Senior High School learners of different proficiency, and metacognitive strategies could be developed through classroom instruction.