An Application Of Meta-cognitive Strategies In Junior Middle School English Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary is important for foreign language learning.The English Curriculum Standards of Compulsory Education(2011:11)points out that the fifth grade junior middle school students are required to learn1500-1600 words and 200-300 idiomatic expressions.Meanwhile,teachers should help students to form and adjust their learning strategies.Among them,meta-cognitive strategies play an essential role in their learning process.Therefore,this study focuses on meta-cognitive strategies to promote junior middle school English vocabulary teaching.It mainly answers three questions:(1)What is the current situation of students’ application of meta-cognitive strategies?(2)How does the meta-cognitive strategy training improve students’ vocabulary level?(3)Besides the improvement of vocabulary level,what other positive effects does meta-cognitive strategy training have on junior middle school students’ English vocabulary learning?This research concentrates on the Grade Seven students of NO.24 Middle School in Guiyang City,Guizhou Province,and selects 88 parallel students of Class One and Class Four taught by the author to conduct an eighteen-week experiment.During the experiment,the experimental classadopted meta-cognitive strategy training in students’ vocabulary learning,while the control class used the school’s regular vocabulary teaching.Before the experiment,a structured interview was conducted among 24 English teachers throughout the school.During the experiment,the two classes were observed in the classroom.Besides,questionnaires and tests were conducted for the students in the two classes and 6 students in the experimental class were interviewed before and after the experiment.Based on the collected data,this study has the following findings:first of all,students’ application of evaluation strategy and planning strategy is at a medium level,while monitoring strategy is at a low level.Their most-frequently-used strategy is evaluation,while the least used is monitoring strategy.Secondly,the use of meta-cognitive strategies effectively improve students’ vocabulary level.Finally,students’ interests and attitudes towards English learning have undergone a positive change.At last,the author puts forward relevant suggestions for junior middle schools English vocabulary teaching,especially meta-cognitive strategy teaching,and points out the limitations of this study.