The Impact Of Metacognitive Strategy Instruction On Relative Clause Learning Of Senior High School Student

Since 1970 s, numerous studies have been done on learning strategies. It is acknowledged that effective learning strategies can facilitate students’ language learning, among which metacognitive strategy is of the core status. In terms of metacognitive strategy, most studies are conducted among learners with a relatively high level of proficiency in English, while the present research takes senior high school students as its subjects, whose English language proficiency is at a low level in comparison with learners in higher grades.The thesis is aimed at discovering the influence of metacognitive strategy instruction on senior high school students’ grammar learning. The researcher employs O’Malley and Chamot’s CALLA(the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach) model in the metacognitive strategy training, which is integrated with the targeted grammar item—restrictive relative clause. The subjects are from two natural classes in Senior 1, the NO.82 Middle School of Xi’an. The experimental group will receive a combination of non-metacognitive(cognitive strategies and social-affective strategies) and metacognitive strategies training, while the comparison group will only receive the non-metacognitive strategies training. The findings of the experiment are listed as follows:(1) The subjects in the experimental group can surpass the subjects in the comparison group in the learning of relative clause after the instruction of metacognitive strategies in the grammar learning.(2) After the instruction of metacognitive strategy in the grammar learning, the subjects in the experimental group have improved their awareness of using metacognitive strategies in grammar learning.(3) Among the metacognitive strategies employed by the subjects in the experimental group, the increase in self-monitoring is the most notable. And the progress the experimental group makes in the two tests is correlated with the increased frequency of use in three categories of metacognitive strategy, including directed attention, self-management and self-monitoring.