A Study On The Correlation Between Meta-cognitive Monitoring And Learner Autonomy Of Non-english Majors

With the development of meta-cognition in the linguistic field and the proposal of the concept “learner autonomy”(hereinafter called LA), scholars pay more and more attention to the correlation between meta-cognition and LA. Several categories of meta-cognitive monitoring(hereinafter called MM), such as planning, monitoring, evaluation and remedy, play important roles in autonomous learning, meanwhile, to a great extent, affect the learners’ autonomous learning ability. This thesis attempts to reveal the correlation between MM and LA of Chinese non-English majors through both questionnaire surveys and interview. Furthermore, the study endeavors to fill up the vacuum of previous researches targeting at MM in English learning. In the overseas, a great deal of previous empirical researches about meta-cognition have been done on students who use English as a second language, which are more concerned on the aspect of meta-cognitive knowledge but not meta-cognitive monitoring. On the bright side, these researches abroad elaborate the differences of meta-cognitive awareness among foreign English learners, which provide a new idea for the research of English autonomous learning ability of Chinese students who use English as a foreign language.The study subjects consists of 68 sophomores from two classes majoring in Computer at Hubei University of Technology. The study was divided into two phases, the first phase is the quantitative study, the meta-cognitive monitoring questionnaire(hereinafter called MMQ) and learner autonomy questionnaire(hereinafter called LAQ) based on the existing literature were compiled, aiming at exploring whether there is a significant and positive correlation between the planning/ monitoring/ evaluation/ remedy/ meta-cognitive monitoring and the students’ learner autonomy. And among the four factors, which one has the greatest correlation and contribution to learner autonomy. All data collected in this phase was keyed into SPSS 19.0 to do descriptive statistics analysis and Pearson’s correlation analysis. The second phase is a qualitative study, with the purpose of testifying the primarily quantitative analysis by making semi-structured interviews for voluntary students. The research findings are shown as follows:1. The descriptive statistics shows that: both the meta-cognitive monitoring and learner autonomy are in general at a low level for the non-English majors, and the use of each factor of meta-cognitive monitoring is with low frequency.2. The Pearson’s correlation analysis shows that: there is a significant and positive correlation between the planning/ monitoring/ evaluation/ remedy/ total score of meta-cognitive monitoring questionnaire and the students’ learner autonomy.3. The Pearson’s correlation analysis shows that: monitoring and evaluation strategies have the greatest correlation and contribution to LA level.The results form the interview also confirmed and testified the aforementioned quantitative data. It concluded the recognition and knowledge of meta-cognitive monitoring and demonstrated the importance of using meta-cognitive monitoring strategies in English learning. The results of this thesis shed light on a number of theoretical and practical implications regarding the correlation between meta-cognitive monitoring and learner autonomy. Meanwhile, it also provides some references to the cultivation of learner autonomy and university English teaching and learning.