A Study On The Situation Of Meta-Cognitive Ability In English Learning Of High School Students

Metacognitive ability is a kind of ability which students can use to carry out effective monitoring and regulating their own learning process.The current curriculum reform makes it a new requirement to cultivate students' metacognitive ability,which is beneficial for students to improve their overall quality and learning efficiency.Based on the existing literature,previous studies mainly focus on the fields of mathematics,geography and multimedia learning at the university stage.The research which combines metacognitive ability with English learning of senior high school students is very limited.Therefore,this study has a certain academic value and a relatively strong and practical significance for classroom English teaching.This study,through a questionnaire survey,used a quantitative research method,to examine the metacognitive ability in English Learning of senior middle school students.Its sample was 146 senior high school students in a middle school in Kunming,Yunnan Province.The content of the questionnaire include three dimensions: metacognitive knowledge,metacognitive experience and metacognitive strategies.The survey data were analyzed by using SPSS 17.0 and data analysis included reliability analysis,validity testing,descriptive statistics,difference and correlation analyses.Results from data analysis show that:(1)The overall metacognitive ability in English learning of senior high school students is on the middle and low level;(2)The students' English achievement is positively related to their metacognitive knowledge,experience and strategy.Their metacognitive ability directly affects English achievement,and those with high English achievement have higher metacognitive ability;(3)No gender and age differences exist in metacognitive ability in students' English learning,and nor does urban and rural differences exist;(4)The subject division of senior high school students has a certain impact on students' English achievement.Based on the results of data analysis,the conclusions and implications of thisstudy are as follows:(1)Senior high school students' metacognitive ability is generally low,and they can not use metacognitive knowledge and strategies to effectively promote their English learning;(2)It is feasible and necessary to cultivate high school students' metacognitive ability,which will benefit all students.In the training process,teachers do not need to worry about the student's gender,age and urban and rural differences;(3)In daily classroom English teaching,teachers can employ reflection training to cultivate students' metacognitive consciousness;(4)English teachers can consciously teach students relevant knowledge,and constantly enrich their metacognitive knowledge;(5)English teachers need to create a situation and carry out a variety of activities so that students accumulate their metacognitive experience;(6)English teachers can set up problems to guide students to improve their ability to use metacognitive strategies.