The Application Of Metacognition To English Extensive Reading In Senior High School

Metacognition which is called "cognition about cognition, knowing about knowing" is one's awareness and regulation of his cognition. Reading is considered as an activity not only involving cognition, but also metacognition.Different scholars hold different views about metacognition. Among them, Flavell's and Brown's are the most striking. Flavell categorize metacognition into the knowledge of metacognition and metacognitive experience. Brown has summarized metacognition activities under two distinct but conceptually related categories-activities that are concerned with (a) conscious reflection on one' s cognitive abilities and (b) self-regulatory mechanism during on-going attempts to learning to learn or solve problems.This essays deals with the metacognitive strategies in extensive reading for English learners in senior high school in Shenyang. The author takes three natural classes in a senior high school as the subject. It aims at recognizing the relationship between metacognitive strategies adopted by senior students in extensive reading and their reading ability through questionair.The result shows that the students who well employ metacognitive strategies perform better than those who do not in extensive reading. It improved that training students in metacognitive strategies does facilitate English extensive reading. It also suggests that in the process of teaching the strategies it can also facilitate the students' comprehensive English ability.