An Empirical Study On Metacognitive Training To English Learners With Learning Disabilities In Common Junior High Schools In Nanjing

Based on Flavell’s metacognitive theory, confined in Wen Qiufang’s, Dong Qi’s, and Zheng Min’s classifications of metacognitive strategies, and combined with theories on learning disabilities, in this paper, a survey and constructive analysis on metacognition was made between an advanced training class of Nanjing Foreign Language School (a reference class) and XX Secondary high school in Qi Xia District (an experimental class), to find the gaps in metacognition between students with learning disabilities and good English achievers. Following is the discovery:The gaps in metacognition levels of English study between the students of experimental class and that of reference class was mainly reflected in the level of metacognition use. Then, together with interview and diary, debate and infiltration are employed to implement metacognitive training to the students in the experimental class, so as to enrich their metacognitive knowledge, enhance their metacognitive consciousness, and strengthen their abilities of metacognition use. Some conclusions can be made from the researching results: ① There are certain gaps in metacognition levels of English study between the poor English achievers and good English achievers of secondary high school, and the gap is mainly reflected in the level of metacognition use but not in metacognitive knowledge. ②Metacognitive strategies are not duly valued in high schools. Designed and specialized instruction and training are not considered by teachers in English teaching, let alone infiltrate metacognitive knowledge and strategies into daily English teaching. ③Metacognitive levels of students with learning disabilities can be enhanced by metacognitive training. ④English achievement increases along with the increase of Metacognitive levels.