An Interventional Research On Senior Three Students With LD In English Reading By Meta-cognitive Strategy Training

With the development of information and global economy, English is playing a more and more important role in our daily life. In terms of English teaching and learning, some students have normal intelligence but fail to satisfy the new curriculum. How to help the students has aroused much attention from educators, parents and the society.Meanwhile, the concept of meta-cognitive strategy has been attracting wider and wider attention since the 1980s. Numerous researches have shown that students who have mastered meta-cognitive strategies usually perform better than those who have not. In order to enable the students with LD to improve their English, the author conducted an experimental study by means of interventional research on students with LD. The study which lasted sixteen weeks adopted O Malley and Chamot s CALLA model and some other models to train the students meta-cognitive strategies. The English tests and questionnaires on meta-cognitive and reading strategies were designed to provide data for quantitative analysis with the help of SPSS. Apart from these, open-ended questions included in the first part of the questionnaire along with the interview with some of the students are served as data for qualitative analysis.The major findings presented in the thesis are as follows: 1. The LDS have limited knowledge of reading and learning strategy. They lack sufficient awareness of how strategies may help them improve their reading or learning more effectively, especially how meta-cognitive strategies manage and monitor their reading activity and bring cognitive strategies into full play. Meta-cognitive strategies are usually not employed by these students while cognitive ones are sometimes used. 2. Quality analysis shows meta-cognitive strategy training is accepted by those who are willing to learn, but it is less efficient for those who are not willing to learn. However, helping the students evaluate themselves can arouse their interest in learning and arouse their awareness of strategy use, especially meta-cognitive ones. 3. The experimental group does outperform the half-controlled group and the half-controlled group does outperform the controlled group in the immediate test after 16 weeks treatment. What s more, short-term treatment makes contributions to effective classroom management. The study provides some pedagogical enlightenment for EFL teaching and learning in China.