The Effects Of Metacognitive Strategies On The Width And Depth Of Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition

Metacognition was firstly proposed by American psychologist J. H. Flavell in 1976. It is the thinking about thinking. It includes active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of cognitive process to achieve cognitive goals. Metacognitive Strategies, one kind of learning strategies were firstly mentioned by Hosonfeld in 1977. They involve thinking about learning process, planning for learning, monitoring of comprehension or production while it is taking place, and self evaluation of learning after the language activity is finished. Scholars abroad explored the application of metacognitive strategies in language learning tasks in the late 1980s and 90s. Scholars at home have also studied metacognitive strategies' promotion to language skills like listening, speaking, reading and writing in recent years. However, few researches investigate their application to vocabulary acquisition. This thesis is intended to investigate the effects of metacognitive strategies on vocabulary acquisition from both aspects of width and depth.Combining with concrete vocabulary learning strategies, I performed a fourteen-week metacognitive strategies training on the experimental group. The pre-training tests showed that the experimental group and the control group are at the same level of vocabulary size, vocabulary depth and application of metacognitive strategies. After the training, the two groups' vocabulary size, vocabulary depth and application of metacognitive strategies in vocabulary learning were tested again with the same type of questionnaires with the pre-training ones. It was found that the experimental group used metacognitive strategies more often in vocabulary learning than the control group. Their vocabulary size was larger, and their command of words was deeper and more comprehensive than the control group's. Statistical analyses testified that the application of metacognitive strategies in vocabulary learning highly positively correlates with both the width and depth of vocabulary acquisition, and the former has great positive influences on the latter. The theoretical implication of this study is that it applies metacognitive strategies to English learning and teaching more extensively. Its practical implication is that it attracts English teachers' and learners' attention to the importance of metacognitive strategies in vocabulary acquisition. English teachers can improve vocabulary teaching effect if they employ metacognitive strategies in vocabulary teaching. English learners can enhance their abilities of autonomous study and reduce their blindness in vocabulary learning through the learning of metacognitive strategies.