A Comparative Study Of Metacognitive Strategies Use Between College English Achievers And Underachievers

With the renewal of teaching concepts and the reform of English education,it has become a trend to advocate autonomous learning in the teaching process and adhere to the student-centered teaching pattern.Under this background,more and more educational workers begin to pay attention to the study of learning strategies in order to improve students' learning efficiency.As a high-level of management skill,metacognitive strategy is essential for successfully planning,monitoring,and evaluating learning activities,performing a central function in improving the learning effect.Therefore,scholars at home and abroad are increasingly conscious of the importance and necessity of metacognitive strategies.In China,the existing researches on English metacognitive strategies mainly attached importance to foreign language teaching in higher vocational schools and middle schools.The research subjects mainly involve college students,junior college students,English majors and non-English majors in ordinary universities.At the same time,the majority of the current researchers on English metacognitive strategies are combined with specific language skills,such as listening,reading,writing or vocabulary.Generally speaking,most of these studies are based on a single group of students,but few of them are involved in the study of English metacognitive strategies among different groups of students,especially those who compare college English achievers and underachievers.Therefore,the paper makes a comparative study of metacognitive strategies use between college English achievers and underachievers.There are quite a few differences between achievers and underachievers in the aspects of thinking mode,learning concepts,knowledge structure,learning methods and so on.This thesis makes a comparative analysis of them,which is helpful to grasp the present situation of students' metacognitive strategies use and beneficial to understand the basic situation of students' English learning.In the meantime,it can provide a reference for improving and perfecting countermeasures.In this study,101 students from two sophomore classes of history major in Shanxi Normal University were selected as the respondents,including 51 students in Class One and50 students in Class Two.According to the principle of normal distribution and the results of two English final examinations in freshman school year,the author selected the top 20% of the students in the whole sample as achievers,and the last 20% were regarded as underachievers.Therefore,this study makes a comparative study of the use of English metacognitive strategies among 40 achievers and underachievers.With the help of questionnaires and interviews,and by using SPSS22.0 statistical software,the study aims to answer these questions:(1)What is the present situation of metacognitive strategies use by college English achievers and underachievers?(2)What are the differences in the use of specific metacognitive strategies between college English achievers and underachievers?(3)What are the factors that affect the differences in the use of metacognitive strategies between college English achievers and underachievers?The results of the study show that:First,on the whole,the overall frequency of English metacognitive strategies used by underachievers is lower than that of achievers.The mean of achievers in using metacognitive strategies is 3.40 points;however,underachievers get 2.38 points of using metacognitive strategies.The frequency of metacognitive strategies used by achievers belongs to middle level,while that of underachievers is in low level.It indicates that achievers have a better employment of metacognitive strategies than underachievers.Second,there are significant differences between college achievers and underachievers' use of metacognitive strategies in English learning.Achievers use metacognitive strategies more frequently in their English learning,while underachievers use metacognitive strategies less frequently.As far as specific strategies are concerned,achievers and underachievers differ the most in monitoring strategies,followed by selective attention and planning strategies.On the contrary,for evaluating strategies,the difference between the two groups is smaller than other three metacognitive strategies.This reveals that achievers can not only make reasonable learning plans,monitor their own learning process,assess learning outcomes,but also strive to improve the learning environment and make full use of English learning opportunities.However,for underachievers,their metacognitive strategies are used less frequently,which indicates that they lack metacognitive knowledge.In the meantime,they are too dependent on instructors to plan,manage and supervise their English learning independently.Third,there are four main factors that cause these differences:(1)Students have different interest in English learning.(2)Traditional teaching methods still occupy a dominant position in English teaching.(3)Students lack training in the use of metacognitive strategies in English.(4)Teachers' teaching of metacognitive strategies is not perfect enough.By comparing and analyzing the metacognitive strategies use of college English achievers with underachievers,the study has important theoretical and practical value for both instructors and students.On the one hand,it is conductive to enrich the research results in the field of metacognitive strategies and provide both college English teachers and students with some theoretical instructions.On the other hand,it is conductive to strengthen students' understanding and mastery of metacognitive strategies,help students stimulate their interest in learning and determine their own learning objectives,adjust their learning plans in time,cultivate the ability of self-management and autonomous learning,effectively monitor learning activities and evaluate learning outcomes,improve the efficiency of classroom teaching.In addition,it can help instructors to understand the current situation and differences of metacognitive strategies used by college English achievers and underachievers so as to adjust the contents of classroom teaching,adopt appropriate teaching methods,guide students to learn the rules of metacognitive strategies and find out some solutions to help college students to learn more effectively.Meanwhile,it is helpful to promote the development of college English teachers,provide a reference for teachers' teaching work reform and better carry out the teaching work,and put forward the corresponding countermeasures to better carry out the teachers' teaching work.