The Application Of Metacognitive Strategies To English Reading Teaching In Senior Schools

As we all know, reading comprehension is quite important among the four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) of English. Not only is reading the most efficient and important channel to gain information, but also is the major means of English learning. However, there is no language environment for foreign language learners in China, so researchers and practitioners of English teaching have long attached importance to how to improve effectively learners' English reading proficiency and reading level. During recent years, a gradual shift about both the status between teaching and learning and the status between teachers and students has taken place in English teaching. The current language teaching has transferred from "teaching" to "learning" and teacher-centered instruction has been replaced by student-centered instruction, and therefore the focus of research has been shifted from "how to teach" to "how to learn". In the course of language learning, the Chinese senior students treat English reading as the main channel of acquiring information about language on account of lack of language environment. So it's quite important to foster students' ability to read independently in the process of English teaching. However, the class is large in Chinese senior schools and students are quite different in English proficiency. What's more, their ability of English reading is poor, which badly influences the effect of obtaining information by means of English reading. So how to solve this problem, help students enhance their ability of English reading and thus improve their whole language level is the problem that the author has long been pondering. In view of existing situation, the author attempts to develop students' reading strategies and attach importance to training students' reading strategies and encourages the students to apply them to their reading. Metacognition plays an important role in developing senior students' ability to read independently, because students without metacognitive approaches are essentially learners without direction and ability to review their progress, assess their accomplishments, and determine their future learning direction (O'Malley et al 1985). So it's important for students to master metacognitive strategies in improving English reading comprehension level, because of which the author starts with senior students' training of metacognitive strategies in an attempt to find the effective way of solving the problem. In recent years, many researchers have been absorbed in the research on metacognitive strategies, but few of them have paid attention to combining Chinese senior school students'metacognition with their reading process, let alone experimental research. In addition, senior school students often meet with many problems in English reading because of the lack of metacognitive strategies. Based on such a situation and the theory of metacognition proposed by Chamot and O'Malley, the author has referred to plenty of research on metacognition at home and abroad, focuses on how to integrate metacognitive strategy training into senior school English teaching, and a concrete model of metacognitive training is proposed. By means of metacognitive training, the students can learn how to set English reading goals, work out reading plan, choose reading methods, monitor learning process and evaluate learning outcome, thus gaining autonomous reading ability.In order to test the validity of metacognitive strategies in English reading, the author carried out a semester-long empirical teaching program among 120 students in Senior Three in Shijiazhuang No.2 Middle School, who are divided into two groups, a control group and an experimental group. By means of questionnaires, interviews, pre- and post- tests, and classroom experimentation, the thesis explores whether the application of metacognItive strategies to English reading can help improve the students'capability. The results of the study shows:not only do Chinese senior school students know little about metacognitive knowledge but also they make little use of the metacognitive strateges in English reading. Through this training, students' English reading proficiency in experimental group has been greatly improved. The results suggest that metacognitive strategy training has a positive effect on the English reading comprehension of senior school students and makes it possible for students to plan, monitor and evaluate their reading effectively. What is more important is that mastering the metacognitive strategies can make the students become real masters of their English learning, thus benefiting them all their life.