A Study Of Developing Junior Middle School Students’ English Autonomous Learning Ability Based On Metacognitive Strategies Training

With the development of Chinese education, more and more researchers believe that the current teaching objective is developing students’ autonomous learning ability and teaching them how to learn. Aimed at this, researchers have made active exploration and put forward various opinions. Many scholars hold that developing learners’ grasp of metacognitive strategies is an important way to enhance their autonomous learning ability. The current teaching practice witnesses that junior middle school students study passively, rely on teachers too much, lack efficient learning methods and so on. Therefore, the paper attempts to explore the development of junior middle school students’ English autonomous learning ability through metacognitive strategies training so that students can solve those problems mentioned above. In addition, researchers agree that the study of developing students’ autonomous learning ability based on metacognitive strategies training is of great academic significance and practical significance.Based on literature review, the paper takes two classes of Grade seven in Qingdao Ling Shanwei junior middle school as subjects, one of which is the experimental class and the other one the controlled class. Before the experiment, with the help of the previous literature, two questionnaires, which include a questionnaire on students’ use of metacognitive strategies and a questionnaire on learner autonomy, are formulated to investigate the present situation of the two classes. Then a proper training plan is made on the basis of the survey. The experimental class is trained to develop three metacognitive strategies including goal-setting and planning, self-monitoring and self-evaluation, while the controlled class still receives the normal English teaching. After the experiment, the same questionnaires are sent to the students and some students are picked out at random to be interviewed in order to investigate the post-experimental situation. All students are tested before and after the experiment. In addition, the paper carries out a follow-up survey of metacognitive strategies use in the experimental class after the experiment has been over for half a year. From the analysis on the collected data, the research result is obtained. After the experiment, the students’ English autonomous learning ability in the experimental class, the situation about their use of metacognitive strategies and their English performance are improved a lot. Most students’ learning methods are adjusted better and their English autonomous learning awareness is raised. Although some limitations exist in this study, it is expected that this paper can bring some enlightenment to the exploration of how to strengthen junior middle school students’ English autonomous learning ability.