The Application Of Metacognition In Senior English Reading Teaching

Due to the importance of reading in senior English teaching, how to improve students'English reading proficiency has long been a common concern of English teachers. It was not until the 1960s that the focus of English teaching research shifted from"how to teach"to"how to learn". For the first time, it was widely acknowledged that training students how to read was even more important. Teachers should consider how to foster student's ability to read independently. The task of the Senior English New Curriculum Standards is to develop not only the students'language knowledge and skills but also a good learning habit and strategy. More specific demands are set in the Senior English Curriculum Standards, which also throw more light on the research on English reading.Drawing on the research on metacognition at home and abroad, the aim of the study is to probe how to integrate the training and application into English reading teaching for senior high school students, by investigating the senior high school students'metacognition in English reading. In order to test whether or not metacognition-based classroom instruction can help to foster and improve students'reading proficiency, the author used a questionnaire based on metacognition for language learning to assess the students'current use of metacognition. During this program, the training of metacognition was integrated into classroom teaching. The results indicate that metacognitive training is more effective than conventional teaching method in enhancing the reading achievement of senior high school students. Students were not only provided with necessary metacognitive knowledge about English reading but also to reflect their own strength and weakness. Students were made to realize that reading comprehension should always be seen as a kind of process—an active search for meaning process; a process of an application of different kinds of knowledge; a strategic process; and an interactive process. This kind of process needed planning, monitoring, evaluating and eventually revising to ensure improved reading performance.The result suggests that the metacognitive training contributes to the enhancement of students'reading motivation and helps students to plan, monitor, regulate and evaluate their reading effectively. Most important of all, once the students master these metacognitive strategies, they become the real master of their English learning, which will benefit them all their life.