Metacognitive Strategy Training In Vocational College English Vocabulary Teaching

In China, it is a big concern for the majority of English learners to learn English vocabulary effectively, especially for those in vocational colleges. In recent years, especially since1970s, linguists and teachers both at home and abroad have done a lot of researches on vocabulary learning strategy and strategy training has proved to be effective to the development of more effective and autonomous students. Researches into language learning strategies in China start from1980s, yet few researchers focus on the language learning strategies training (Wen,2003), and most researches on metacognitive strategies mainly focus on literature review and descriptive investigation of learners’metacognitive strategy use. Among all the learning strategies, metacognitive strategy is a higher-order executive skill that contains ability to consciously plan, monitor, manage and evaluate a learning process. However, no conclusion has been drawn on the effects of metacognitive strategy training on vocabulary learning. In the existing studies, researches on metacognitive strategies in language learning in China mainly focus on four-year students in universities, seldom in vocational colleges. Therefore, the present study is designed to find the effects of metacognitive strategy training on English vocabulary learning of vocational college students.The theoretical foundation of the present study is based on the concept and classification of metacognitive strategies by O’Malley and Chamot in1990, in which metacognitive strategy is thought to be a higher-level strategy that can help learners to improve their ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate in their learning process. Under the guidance of this theoretical framework, three categories of learners metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring and evaluating) in vocabulary learning are mainly studied in this research. In1994, O’Malley and Chamot proposed Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, which gives us a very useful framework for the language learning strategy studies. This approach contains a five-phase cycling sequence in strategy training, that is. preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation and expansion.This thesis reports a10-week metacognitive vocabulary learning strategy training with56non-English major freshmen, who are in the experimental class (EC) and another50students in the control class (CC) in Jining Vocational&Technological College. Before the training, the author first conducted a vocabulary metacognitive strategy questionnaire, after that an interview was carried out to look into the students’use of metacognitive strategies in vocabulary learning. In order to find out students’vocabulary performance, a vocabulary pre-test was also adopted. With the data collected and analyzed, the training which focuses on three metacognitive strategies:planning, monitoring and evaluating, was carried out. After the training, the same questionnaire and a vocabulary post-test were administrated to check the effects of the training on the metacognitive strategy use and vocabulary performance. All the data collected was analyzed with the help of SPSS13.0. Besides these, data from the interview and learning reports were qualitatively analyzed.According to the results of the training, metacognitive strategies are used more often by the students in the EC than those in the CC. Two classes have significant difference on planning and monitoring strategies but not on the evaluating strategies. Concerning the vocabulary performance, the students in the EC have made more progress than those in the CC. Also, there are two aspects that benefit the students:Firstly, the training help the students to become automatic learners. After the strategy training, they have learned how to make a suitable plan, set special goals, monitor their learning process, evaluate their learning performance, and make adjustment of their plans. So the students will take more responsibilities for their learning in the future study. Secondly, it improves the students’ motivation in their English learning.The results of the study prove that an explicit metacognitive strategy training is necessary and has a significantly positive effect on the vocabulary learning of non-English majors of vocational colleges. Besides, the training is effective in the promotion of students’learner autonomy in the language learning process.