A Study Of The Application Of Metacognitive Strategies In High School English Writing Instruction

The task of the teaching foreign language is not only to let the students master the four basic skills, but also to master the ability of learning foreign language by themselves. The reaserchers of our courntry always think that the methods of teaching are important and they are looking for the best teaching methods.However, the result of teaching is not obvious. These years, the researchers increasingly realise that for the learners, the teaching methods are the outer effects and the inner effects of the learners are the most important. Since the 1970’s, when metacognition was put forward by Flavell firstly, more and more researches of the connection between the theory of metacognition and the foreign language teaching have been made. But these researches are about the connectiong between universities’ and academies’ students. Their researching results don’t cover the the strategies of metacognition and EFL writing in senior high schools’ students. In order to know about the reasonable connection between the knowledge of metacognition and the foreign language writing teaching, the writer makes an attempt to investigate the use of metacognitive strategy in EFL writing among the senior high school students. The thesis is trying to find a breakthrough point between metacognition theory and EFL writing in senior high school students and to provide some beneficial points for the English writing teaching in senior high school.The thesis firstly introduces the origin of this problem and the aims and significance of this research. Then it introduces the definition and the framework of metacognition. At the same time, it mainly review and comment on the strategies of metacognition and EFL writing in senior high school. According to these theories and the practical situation in foreign language writing teaching of senior high school students, in order to answer these four questions, the present study develops on the basis of three research questions:(1) What is the overall level of the metacognitive strategies used by the senior high school students in English writing?(2) Is it good for senior high students to put the metacognitive strategies into their English writing practice?(3) How to carry out the metacognitive strategy training in senior high school English writing instruction?In order to answer these three questions, the author conducts a quantitative study on a sample of 80 students from Mudanjiang No.2 high school for a term. Combining with qualitative and quantitative test method, the writer choose the questionnaires and the compositions practice in limited time or unlimited time to compare and research the ability of EFL writing and the awareness of metacognitive strategy. According to this research’s course and results, the writer concludes the causes of the influential application of metacognitive strategy in senior high school’s EFL writing and the approaches and the principles to cultivate the metacognitive strategy in senior high school’s EFL writing. Finally, the writer brings up the limitations and shortcomings of the study and also the prospect of the thesis.