An Empirical Study On The Application Of Metacognitive Strategy In English Vocabulary Learning In Senior High School

Vocabulary is the core of language learning, which plays an essential role in language learning. Although many teachers and students have already spent a lot of time on vocabulary, the effect of vocabulary learning is far from satisfying. Owing to the roles and situation of vocabulary, more and more studies about vocabulary learning strategies training appears.Metacognition was firstly put forward by John. H. Flavell(1976), which appeared in his book Cognitive Development. Metacognitive is a process of self-planning, self-regulating and self-evaluating, namely, the cognition about cognition. Metacognitive strategies are made up of planning strategies, monitoring strategies and evaluating strategies. Metacognitive strategies lay a higher position among learning strategies.Owing to the importance of metacognitive strategies in English vocabulary learning, this study goes from the following aspects:First, can metacognitive strategy enhance students’ vocabulary learning autonomy?Second, can metacognitive strategy improve students’ vocabulary scores?The participants were 84 students in Grade Two in Baotou No.1 Senior High School. There were two classes in this experiment: Class Two is assigned as experimental class, and Class Six as control class. Students in experimental class receive the vocabulary learning based on metacognitive strategies, while students in control class traditional vocabulary teaching method. The research applied quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the data from questionnaires, vocabulary tests and interview by SPSS17.0.The analysis indicates as follows:Firstly, metacognitive strategies improve learners’ vocabulary autonomy.Secondly, metacognitive strategies training increases the use of metacognitive strategies, especially in planning, regulating and evaluating. Metacognitive strategies improve students’ vocabulary scores and promote English proficiency.Generally speaking, vocabulary learning based on metacognitive strategies is feasible and valid. The vocabulary learning based on metacognitive strategies is better than the traditional method. This study also enlightens the teachers to transform their teaching concept in order to enrich students’ vocabulary learning.