Metacognitive Theory Applied Research In The Teaching Of English Reading

Metacognition was put forward by Flavell in 1970s, featuring the cognition of cognitive activities themselves as its essence. Metacognition plays an important role in the learners'thinking activities, and metacognitive training which combines specific disciplines not only can improve the basic skills of specific disciplines but also can promote the improvement of the students'auto-learning abilities. Reading is a metacognitive activity. The reader should intentionally regulate and control the reading processes and adopt appropriate strategies to solve the problems in them.The thesis made a positivist research, and in the current study, the subjects were chosen from two intact classes of Heilongjiang University. The research based on the results of the initial questionnaire on metacognitive level was conducted through metacognitive training in the experimental class for 16 weeks. All the data collected were calculated by SPSS (Statistical Program for Social Science) 11.0. The results indicate that metacognitive training is more effective than conventional teaching method in enhancing the reading achievement of the freshmen of non-English majors. Besides, the reading performance by the intermediate and lower level readers'is remarkably enhanced, while high level readers don't improve much. The fact that the intermediate and low level readers benefit more than the high level readers from the training indicates that the training is of great importance for the majority of intermediate and low reading level students in the ongoing reading class.