A Study On The Application Of Metacognitive Strategies In College Students’ Speaking Teaching

Learning strategies have attracted increasing interests and caused extensive research about second language learning and teaching in the past several decades. Many linguists hold the opinion that learning strategies are the crucial elements in the process of language acquisition. Metacognitive strategies have already been proved to be a high-order executive language skill that plays an essential role in language learning.The definition of metacognition is always concluded as “cognition about cognition”. Metacognition existing in the procedure of executing and monitoring information is the individuals’ knowledge about their own knowledge and the ability to monitor the procedure of the activity. Metacognitive strategy which is one of the learning strategies are regarded as the preparative stage before the practical use of learning strategies. English learners using metacognitive strategies and learning strategies often have an excellent grasp of English speaking.The thesis adopted the first-year students of English majors in Dalian Technology College and non-English majors in Dalian Medical University of Zhongshan College as samples, and tested the first-year students’ speaking English abilities. The author adopted three methods to do the research. They are students’ weekly reports, questionnaires and tests. The main purpose is to study the significance of metacognitive strategies use in speaking and to make a description of the general strategies use in the process of speaking.There are five chapters in the thesis. Chapter One is a general introduction of the thesis, covering the necessity, significance, purpose and organization of the study. Chapter Two is a brief literature review of learning strategies home and abroad, the research and methods of metacognitive strategies in the past. Chapter Three is research methodology including students’ weekly reports, questionnaire and tests. Chapter Four proposes data analysis and major findings. The author employs the student’ weekly reports to observe the students’ progress and problems. By using questionnaire, the students’ awareness of metacognitive strategies is achieved. By comparing the scores of English majors and non-English majors in the pre-test and post-test, the author draws a conclusion that metacognitive strategies in oral English teaching are effective. Chapter Five is the conclusion of the research. It emphasizes on the necessity of oral English teaching and learning. It generalizes the implications of the research. Meanwhile, the limitations and suggestions are stated in this research.