The Implementation Of Metacognitive Strategy Training In Junior One Students

In the past few decades, learning strategy has become one of the hottest topics in the field of language learning and teaching. The research process has experienced from exploratory in nature to more theory-based and more scientific. The focus on improving learning efficiency for students and lightening the burden has resulted in researchers paying more attention to learning strategies.Metacognitive strategy training has been emphasized since 1980s. However, researchers focused their study on students at the college level and senior high school students, and studies targeted at junior middle school students are scarce. This paper reviews researches on metacognitive strategies at home and abroad and analyzes current teaching and learning situations in China. The author will mainly study the implementation of metacognitive strategy training in junior middle school students. The purposes of the study are to investigate the characteristics of metacognitive strategies used by middle school students, detect the differences in strategy use between high and low achievement groups, and examine the correlation between the learning strategy employment and English achievement.The author carried out a 16-week training program based on metacognitive strategies among 54 Junior One students of Dezhou Yuehua School, with 27 students in the experimental class (EC) and 27 students in the control class (CC). Before the program, a metacognitive strategy questionnaire was compiled to assess the students' metacognitive strategies. Before and after the training, pretest and posttest were carried out on language proficiency. The students of Experimental class were provided with necessary metacognitive strategies training. After 16-week' training, the results reveal that the students in EC were obviously superior to the students in CC on metacognitive conscious and language proficiency.Therefore, the metacognitive strategy training improved students' metacognitive strategies effectively, learning autonomy and language proficiency. Through the training, the students in EC could effectively plan their English learning, monitor their English learning process and evaluate their English learning results, which enhanced their English learning confidence and motivation and made them learn autonomously.