A Survey Of The Application Of Meta-cognitive Strategies In English Vocabulary Learning In Senior High School

In English learning,vocabulary and grammar are regarded as the core elements of language knowledge.Vocabulary plays an important role in the process of language learning.Many experts and scholars who study language believe that vocabulary is the core of language learning.Therefore,vocabulary learning and expansion are both important and difficult in English learning in high school.Meta-cognitive strategies provide a new perspective for the study of English vocabulary learning.Some researches at home and abroad show that the application of meta-cognitive strategies in English vocabulary learning is helpful to improve the students’ abilities of learning planning,self-monitoring and self-evaluating and has a positive effect on improving the vocabulary level of English learners.In order to explore the overall situation of the use of meta-cognitive strategies in the process of English vocabulary learning by senior one students and to find out the existing problems and put forward corresponding teaching suggestions,226 students from five classes in the first grade of “The Attached High School to Nankai University” in Tianjin which is the author’s internship school were investigated.And then,five English teachers and 12 students(6 boys and 6 girls)with different English levels were interviewed according to the problems found in the analysis of questionnaires.Finally,the author collates and analyzes the collected qualitative and quantitative data.According to the results,the author has the following findings: 1)Generally speaking,the frequency of selective attention strategies used by senior one students in their daily English vocabulary learning is at the high level and the use of the other three strategies are at the medium level.Among them,the frequencyof using planning strategy is the lowest.2)There is no significant difference in the use of meta-cognitive strategies between boys and girls.Girls use meta-cognitive strategies a little more frequently than boys.3)Students of different English levels have significant differences in the use of selective attention strategies,which shows that students in high and medium English level use selective attention strategies more frequently than students in low English level.The author puts forward the following suggestions for the future English vocabulary teaching: 1)Teaching students the knowledge of meta-cognitive strategies and cultivate their awareness of using meta-cognitive strategies in their process of vocabulary learning,especially the planning strategy.2)Creating context and cultivating students’ consciousness of autonomous learning.3)Carrying out hierarchical teaching which means the teacher arranges different learning tasks for the students with different English levels which can improve their enthusiasm for learning.