A Study On The Effects Of Learning Journals On Less-skilled Junior High Students' English Learning Metacognitive Strategy

Since 1970s,foreign scholars have carried out a great amount of research into cognitive psychology and learning strategies,among which,metacognitive strategy attracted much attention.According to the new curriculum for English learning,junior high school students are expected to achieve level 5 of the metacognitive strategy,that is,they ought to set a reasonable learning plan according to their learning situation,monitor their learning process and evaluate their learning outcomes in order to achieve a better learning development.Research showed that student who has a better application of the metacognitive strategy can be more successful learner,hence,it is of great significance for teachers to cultivate students' metacognitive strategy.However,for a large number of students in junior high school,due to some non-intellectual factors(such as learning attitudes,learning strategies,learning methods and habits,etc.),their academic performance kept being unsatisfactory,they are called less-skilled students.Usually,the first year in junior high school is a golden time for the less-skilled students to catch up,therefore,if teachers can seize the opportunity and focus on the cultivation of their metacognitive strategy,twice the result will be got with half the effort.In this study,in order to help less-skilled students to catch up,the author attempts to cultivate their metacognitive strategy in English learning by the way of keeping learning journals.Learning journals can be defined as new educational tools in which teachers invite the less-skilled students to keep learning journals to assist their English learning.The learning journals are divided into three parts,the preview journals before the class,the in-class journals during the class and the review journals after the class,which correspond to the three parts of the metacognitive strategy:planning strategy,monitoring strategy and evaluation strategy respectively.The aim of this study is to solve three research questions after the intervention of learning journals:(1)What is the overall state of the application of metacognitive strategy among less-skilled students in junior high school English learning?(2)What are the effects of applying learning journals on the cultivation of less-skilled students' metacognitive strategy?(3)What are less-skilled students',attitudes towards learning journals?Subjects of this research were 26 students from two paralleled classes(15 boys and 11 girls)in junior 1 from Haiyun High School in Shenzhen,Guangdong.Before the experiment,all students were asked to complete the metacognitive strategy scale and attend the English entrance examination.Results showed that there were no significant differences between these two classes,therefore,two classes were randomly regarded as the control class and the experimental class.From February in 2018 to July in 2018,students in experimental class were required to keep learning journals along with the English learning while students in control class continue receiving the normal mode of English teaching.After the intervention of learning journals,students from two classes took part in the final English examination and complete the metacognitive strategy scale again.All the data from the experiment were analyzed by the social science statistic software SPSS 17.0.What's more,13 students from the EC were interviewed by the author and their learning journals were also analyzed.The results showed that:(1)The application of the metacognitive strategy among the less-skilled students is at a low level.Among the three parts of the metacognitive strategy,the application of the planning strategy is at the highest level while the application of the evaluation strategy is at the lowest level.(2)Learning journals have a positive effect on boosting less-skilled students5 English scores,after the training of the learning journals,most less-skilled students have made progress in their academic performance;learning journals have significantly improved the application of the planning strategy among the less-skilled students,through learning journals,students have learned how to make both long-term and short-term learning goals,especially the short-term ones,their ability of preview also developed;learning journals are powerful tools in the cultivation of the monitoring strategy,and the progress of the monitoring strategy is most evident in quantitative results,when recording learning journals,students become more aware of what is happening in their learning process,and their management over the learning also improved;learning journals are beneficial for less-skilled students to enhance the application of the evaluation strategy,but the progress is not as evident as that in monitoring strategy.However,by keeping learning journals,students can reflect on their learning content,learning methods and learning attitudes,the evaluation of the learning outcomes also has been developed to a higher level.(3)Less-skilled students hold positive attitudes towards learning journals.Research results reveal that most less-skilled students agree that they have benefited a lot from learning journals.They have improved their planning for English learning,their control of the learning activity and their awareness of the learning achievement,their English scores also have been improved.This research is only an attempt of learning journals in less-skilled students metacognitive strategy cultivation.Research results initially proved the progressive role of the learning journals and provided some enlightenment for English teaching.However,due to some subjective factors,this study needs to be further deepened and developed.