The impact of metacognitive teaching strategies on college English learners’ reading proficiency : an action research study in Mainland China /

Open in iSearch

Student Theses

2026

Luo, Yaoyao

Thesis

Learning to learn is one of the major literacies in the core literacy of Chinese students’ development, which is the key to the gradual deepening of new curriculum reform in China. It suggests that teachers need to assist students to have lifelong learning and self-learning abilities. However, in current college English instruction across China, the predominant reliance on traditional teaching methods fails to align with the curriculum reform requirements. Metacognitive teaching strategies emerge as particularly suitable approaches for teachers to facilitate students’ learning to learn process. Thus, metacognitive teaching strategies are viable options to significantly improve students' learning capacities and address the issues raised by the new curriculum reform. Within the context of current college English instruction, several critical student needs have been identified: reading motivation, metacognitive awareness, learner autonomy and reading comprehension performance. However, there are few empirical studies that examined the impact of metacognitive teaching strategies on mainland China’s students’ reading motivation, metacognitive awareness, learner autonomy and reading comprehension performance in college English Classrooms. Therefore, the current study intends to fill this gap.At a university in Guangzhou, one class of 51 second-year non-English major students took part in the 4-week metacognitive teaching strategies courses with another class as the control group. Mixed methods of collecting both qualitative and quantitative data were used to evaluate students’ reading motivation, metacognitive awareness, learner autonomy and reading comprehension performance. Qualitative data included focus group interview, student reflection journals, audio recordings of students’ discussions, and the teacher’s reflective notebook. The quantitative data comprised pre- and post-study questionnaires measuring students' reading motivation, metacognitive awareness, and learner autonomy, alongside pre- and post-tests evaluating students' reading comprehension performance.The quantitative results showed that the metacognitive teaching strategies curriculum significantly improved reading comprehension performance, while also bringing about partial improvements in reading motivation and learner autonomy. In contrast, qualitative data affirmed positive impacts across all four outcomes (reading motivation, metacognitive awareness, learner autonomy and reading comprehension performance). The findings also revealed how the curriculum influenced these four outcomes and identified factors that hindered its implementation. Ultimately, it highlights the potential and practical pathways for effectively integrating metacognitive teaching strategies to foster college English learners' reading motivation, metacognitive awareness, learner autonomy, and reading comprehension performance. Such a study not only offers insights for promoting students' reading proficiency, teacher development, and future pedagogical research in mainland China's college English classrooms, but also reveals that metacognitive teaching strategies partially enhance reading motivation by fostering critical thinking and improve intrinsic motivation and learner autonomy through the integration of multiple metacognitive teaching strategies

LG51.H43 Dr 2026eb Luoyy

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/Mt10eoWQ