A Study On The Correlation Between Metacognitive Strategies And English Reading Achievements Of Non-English Major Postgraduates

Reading is one of the basic skills in English learning.Good reading strategies can improve reading skills effectively.Relevant researches have shown that metacognitive strategy is one of the most significant factors affecting reading.Metacognitive strategies are a kind of learning strategies,learners use metacognitive strategies to plan,monitor,adjust and evaluate learning tasks.Metacognitive strategies control the flow of information,monitor and guide the cognitive process,including planning strategies,monitoring strategies and evaluating strategies.Relevant studies show that the use of metacognitive strategies by learners during the reading process benefit to improve their reading speed and effect.At present,the researches on metacognitive strategies in English reading mainly concentrate on senior high school students and undergraduates,few researchers take the non-English major postgraduates as the research subjects.The subjects of the research include 47 non-English major postgraduates in Hunan University.This study employed both qualitative and quantitative method and use three types of instruments,which are the metacognitive strategies questionnaire,the open-ended questionnaire and reading comprehension test to study the following questions:(1)What metacognitive strategies do non-English major postgraduates adopt for English reading comprehension?(2)What are the differences in metacognitive strategies use between males and females?(3)Is there any correlation between metacognitive strategies and English reading achievements?If yes,what is it?The result of the study shows that(1)the overall use of metacognitive strategies for non-English major postgraduates is at a medium level.Among the three categories,the most used strategies are monitoring strategies,followed by planning strategies,and evaluating strategies are the least used strategies.(2)The frequency of metacognitive strategies used by male students is slightly higher than female students,but there is no significant difference.In the three categories of metacognitive strategies,there is also no significant difference between males and females,though male students use planning strategies and evaluating strategies a little more frequently than female students.(3)There is a significant weak positive correlation between non-English major postgraduates' overall use of metacognitive strategies and English reading achievements.Among the three categories,planning strategies have a significant moderate positive correlation with English reading achievements,while there is a weak correlation between monitoring strategies and English performance.Evaluating strategies have a relatively weak correlation with English reading achievements.This research has the realistic significance.First of all,it improves the teachers'understanding of the importance of metacognitive strategies,so as to improve the reading teaching methods,and ultimately enhance the reading teaching effect and quality.Second,it helps non-English major postgraduates to apply metacognitive strategies consciously in the reading process and improve reading efficiency.