A Research On Junior Middle School Students' Meta-cognitive Strategies In English Autonomous Learning

With the development of society and the reform of English education, it is essential for the learners to have English autonomous learning ability. The junior middle school students are at the key stage to develop autonomous learning ability, because their physical and mental development provides good foundation. Among many factors affecting autonomous learning ability, meta-cognitive strategies play an important role. Therefore, the research on junior middle school students'use of meta-cognitive strategies in English autonomous learning can not only improve English teaching and learning but also is good for the students to cultivate autonomous learning ability. Based on the questionnaires of 103 junior middle school students in Kangcheng Experimental School of Shanghai, and by using of SPSS 17.0, the author does research on their English autonomous learning. The findings are as follows:1. The high-achieving students have higher level of English autonomous learning than the lower-scoring students, and there are differences between them in the six aspects of autonomous learning.2. In English autonomous learning, the high-achieving students have higher frequencies and percentage than the lower-scoring students in using meta-cognitive strategies.3. In English autonomous learning, there are significant differences between the high-achieving and lower-scoring students in the use of meta-cognitive strategies. The high-achieving students are better at using each meta-cognitive strategy and the whole meta-cognitive strategies.4. On the whole, the use of meta-cognitive strategies has significant and positive correlation with English achievement. Especially, self-monitoring and self-evaluating have higher correlations with English achievement, compared with the others.By comparing the high-achieving and lower-scoring students, the author sums up some implications for training meta-cognitive strategies in autonomous learning as follows:1. English teachers should raise their awareness of meta-cognitive strategies and enrich their knowledge of them;2. According to the characteristics of the four aspects of meta-cognitive strategies, English teachers should adopt many methods to train students to use meta-cognitive strategies, such as group discussion, individual guidance.3. English teachers should play the role as trainers, advisors, or assistants, not as controllers. The training activities should be student-centered.