Meta-cognitive Strategy Training And The Cultivation Of Autonomous Learninig Ability Of High School Students

With the deepening development of English teaching reform in senior high schools, theimportance of autonomous learning has been well recognized. However, the situation ofsenior high school students’ autonomous learning ability is still at a low level, where thereexist differences between individual learners in English learning. Therefore, it is necessaryto cultivate their autonomous learning abilities purposefully.Autonomous learning is the process in which learners adjust their learning methodsaccording to their need to make their own learning efficient, while “meta-cognitivestrategies are actions which provide a way for learners to coordinate their own learningprocess.” Meta-cognitive strategies play an important role in cultivating students’autonomous learning abilities, which is changeable and can be improved. Meanwhile,autonomous learning provides ample space for meta-cognitive strategy training. Since the1970’s, researchers abroad have studied the relevance between meta-cognitive strategies andautonomous learning, providing the theory and practice basis for the research. And since the1980’s, the studies related to autonomous learning and meta-cognitive strategies have beenon the rise in China, offering new ideas for improving students’ autonomous learningabilities. However, the studies, which focus on the correlation between meta-cognitivestrategies and English teaching in senior high schools, are in the initial stage, whereresearchers focus on the combination between meta-cognitive strategy training and one oflanguage skills. This research aims to probe how to cultivate students’ autonomous learningabilities by meta-cognitive strategy training, attempting to advance English teaching insenior high schools.This study carries out analysis and discussion on the necessity, theoretical basis and thetraining methods of cultivating senior high school students’ autonomous learning abilitiesthrough meta-cognitive strategy training, attempting to prove the feasibility of this researchin practice. Based on the questionnaires and teaching experiment of100senior high schoolstudents in Wenshang No.1senior high school in Jining, the present study intends to explorehow to cultivate senior high school students’ autonomous learning abilities bymeta-cognitive strategy training. The major objectives are to investigate the situation ofsenior high school students’ application of meta-cognitive strategies in English learning.Meanwhile, the changes of the students’ scores and the improvement of autonomouslearning abilities before and after meta-cognitive strategy training are analyzed. During theresearch process, the author focuses on improving the awareness of meta-cognitive strategies, applying “centering on your learning”,“arranging and planning your learning”and “evaluating your learning” to English teaching, aiming to improve students’ languageskills.By using SPSS19.0, the data are analyzed and discussed, and the research finds that:senior high school students’ application of meta-cognitive strategies in English learning is ata low level, especially the strategy of “evaluating your learning” which is seldom used bystudents. However, the students use “centering on your learning” frequently and teachersshould instruct them in using “arranging and planning your learning”. However, it has beenproved that the situation of students’ application of meta-cognitive strategies is improved bymeta-cognitive strategy training and the students make great progress in English learning.The research proves that it is possible to train students to use meta-cognitive strategies inEnglish learning, which can improve their autonomous learning abilities effectively.According to the analysis of this study, some proposals and suggestions are providedfor senior school English teachers. Teachers should pay attention to enhancing students’awareness of meta-cognitive strategies and guide them to use learning strategies. Thestudents should be encouraged to direct and evaluate their own learning. However, there arestill some problems to be further solved by researchers and scholars. The existing problemscan be concluded as the follows. Firstly, it is not clear whether meta-cognitive strategytraining has a lasting influence on students’ English learning. Then it is uncertain whetherstudents’ autonomous learning abilities affect their scores. Lastly, the arrangement of thesubjects and classes makes it difficult to conduct the experiment. It is sincerely hoped thatthe present research can provide both theoretical and practical enlightenment to enhancingstudents’ autonomous learning abilities and improving English teaching in senior highschools.