The Application Of Meta-cognitive Strategy In Junior High School Students' English Vocabulary Learning

Many focuses are usually placed on vocabulary teaching and learning in junior high schools,because vocabulary serves as the basic part of language learning and it is the foundation of improving students' ability in listening,speaking,reading,writing and translation.However,at present,on the one hand,junior high school students lack enthusiasm,initiative of learning and the ability of independent thinking and self-reflection in their learning.On the other hand,the newly issued English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education list learning strategies as teaching goals and purposes,and clearly put forward that learning strategies have a great meaning for improving students' learning efficiency.All of the above reasons describe the importance of the guidance of effective vocabulary learning strategies.Among many vocabulary learning strategies,meta-cognitive strategy is a higher-level strategy,referring to students make plans for their learning contents,monitor their learning processes and evaluate their learning outcomes autonomously.Some previous studies show that meta-cognitive strategy plays a very important role in students' learning but most of them concern about reading,listening or the research subjects are college students.As a result,little attention is paid to the training of meta-cognitive strategy on vocabulary learning of junior high school students comparatively.Therefore,this thesis attempts to combine meta-cognitive strategy training with junior high school English vocabulary teaching,and to apply empirical research to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of meta-cognitive strategy training in junior high school English vocabulary teaching.Specifically,two research questions are answered in this thesis:(1)What influence does meta-cognitive strategy training have on the application of meta-cognitive strategy in vocabulary learning of students at different levels?(2)What effect does meta-cognitive strategy training have on the English vocabulary achievements of students at different levels? Experiment and questionnaire methods are employed and a10-week teaching experiment on 94 students of two intact classes is conducted in the 9th grade of Kangzhuang Middle School in Gangu County,Tianshui City of Gansu Province.Class One is randomly selected as the control class,using conventional English vocabularyteaching;Class Six is the experimental class,and meta-cognitive strategy is applied to vocabulary teaching.Before the experiment,all the students of two classes participate in a pre-vocabulary test and the experimental class fill out the meta-cognitive strategy questionnaire about vocabulary.After the experiment,the students of the two classes take part in a post-vocabulary test.Meanwhile,the students in the the experimental class fill out the meta-cognitive strategy questionnaire about vocabulary again.Pre-and postexperimental data are analyzed using software SPSS 22.0.The following findings are obtained in this thesis:(1)Meta-cognitive strategy training has a positive influence on junior high school students' meta-cognitive strategy use in their vocabulary learning.It can increase the frequency of meta-cognitive strategy use,especially planning and monitoring strategies,whereas there is no significant difference in evaluating strategy use before and after the training.What's more,meta-cognitive strategy training has different influences on the meta-cognitive strategy use in terms of planning,monitoring,and evaluating strategies of students at different levels in their English vocabulary learning.Specifically,meta-cognitive strategy training can significantly improve the frequency of planning,monitoring and evaluating strategies use of higher-level students;with regard to medium-level students,the training can significantly increase the frequency of planning and monitoring strategies use,and it can significantly improve the frequency of planning strategy use for lower-level students.(2)Meta-cognitive strategy training has an effective impact on students' English vocabulary achievements.It can significantly improve English vocabulary achievements of students at different levels.The above research results suggest that meta-cognitive strategy training to some extent guides English vocabulary learning of junior high school students.Therefore,in regular teaching,teachers should combine meta-cognitive strategy with vocabulary teaching,and provide appropriate guidance for students at different levels,so as to improve vocabulary teaching efficiency,students' enthusiasm and autonomy of learning,thereby to improve students' learning efficiency.