Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Foreign language teaching has become a hot issue for many years, and so hasteaching design. During the last two decades, more and more researchers andteachers begin to realize that the responsibility for learning a foreign languagesuccessfully lies with the student themselves, not teachers. In the past years, a greatchange has taken place in the field of English education. As a result of thedevelopment of English teaching approach，the center of classroom teaching is beingshifted from the teacher to students. Accordingly，the focus of instructional designhas shifted from teaching to learning itself，which means that students should takeresponsibility for their own study. As a result，learning strategies should be taught inaddition to the four basic language skills so that students will know how to managetheir own study. China is a country with the largest population learning English as aforeign language，but researches about foreign language learning strategy areinadequate，especially when it comes to writing. For many foreign language learners,especially Chinese students，the improvement of writing ability is indeed a hugechallenge.
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1.2 Significance of the Study
Since so many problems exist in senior high school EFL writing learning andteaching, and students are required to develop English learning strategies duringsenior high school periods, it is significant to discuss language learning strategiesfrom the perspective of writing instructional design. Metacognition, especiallymetacognitive strategy plays an important role in students' language learning.Metacognition has been proved to be closely and positively related to students'autonomous learning. Metacognition and metacognitive strategies can makecontribution to ideal student-based classroom. Moreover, with metacognition andmetacognitive strategies, students' ability in managing their own study and regulatingthe use of some other strategies can be developed successfully.Metacognition knowledge and metacognitive strategy have so far not been paidenough attention to in China. Some previous studies mainly concern learningstrategy preferences，the relationship between learning strategy and academicachievement and so on. Researches about the relationship between learning strategytraining and language teaching design are relatively limited. Similar research fromthe perspective of the combination of metacognitive strategy and the teaching designof specific language skill is insufficient, too. Relatively speaking, more researcherslay emphasis on the application of metacognitive strategy to the instruction ofreading skill. Some researches that involve the teaching of writing skill always selectvocational college and university as research background. Studies on metacognitivestrategy-based training in English writing in senior high school，and how senior highschool students use metacognitive strategy in English writing have been neglected sofar. Current researches tell us little about metacognitive strategies integrated withsenior high school writing instructional design.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Metacognition
Different researchers hold different opinions about the definition andclassification of metacognition and metacognition strategy. Many researchers havemade their own contribution to the study of this new theory. As one of the mostinfluential theories in psychology, metacognition has been used in many differentfields of foreign language teaching and learning. The definition of metacognition was first put forward by American psychologistJohn Flavell in the 1970s. He defined metacognition as "one's knowledge concerningone's own cognitive processes and products or anything related to them”.Metacognition means thinking about thinking. It refers to the ability to be aware ofone's own learning behaviors, such as self-monitoring and planning. After that，manyresearchers have come up with their own comprehension about the definition ofmetacognition. According to Kluwe (1982)，metacognition is the positive cognitiveprocess specifically related to one's own cognitive activity, such as “a) the thinkingsubject has some knowledge about his own thinking and that of other persons; b) thethinking subject may monitor and regulate the course of his own thinking." InBrown's opinion，metacognition should be considered as knowledge and controlabout cognition. It includes knowledge about cognition and knowledge about theregulation of cognition. Knowledge about cognition means knowledge aboutpersonal cognitive abilities. Knowledge about the regulation of cognition includesthe planning，monitoring and evaluating individual's cognitive procedures andabilities.
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2.2 Writing
In this chapter, four approaches to SF/SL writing instruction are to be presented，namely product-based writing，genre-based writing，process-based writing andmetacognitive-strategy-based writing.Writing in EFL classroom is dissimilar to writing in reality. As all languagelearners know，“how to write" is the crux of foreign language learning, especially offoreign language writing. More and more researchers are engaged in the study ofwriting instruction，which makes it necessary to discuss the four approaches toSL/FL writing instruction listed as follows. Product-based approach is based on the modal of teacher-centered teachingapproach and emphasizes the accuracy of graimnatical knowledge. As a result, littleinstructional time is devoted to planning, drafting or revising composition. This kindof approach requires learners to organize writing products according to the rule offoreign language. Nunan (1999) is a representative of product-based writing，and heclaims that the final result of writing is crucial.
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Chapter 3 Research Design......... 29
3.1 Research Questions....... 29
3.2 Instruments....... 30
3.3 Procedure.......31
Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Reflection .......51
4.1 Analysis of Questionaire and Interviews .......51
4.1.1 Questionnaire and Interviews with Students....... 51
4.1.2 Interview with Teachers .......55
4.2 Reflection ....... 56
Chapter 5 Conclusion....... 59
5.1 Summary of the Study....... 59
5.2 Limitations of the Study........ 60
5.3 Suggestions for Further Studies .......61
Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Reflection
4.1 Analysis of Questionnaire and Interviews
At the beginning of training，students were given metacognitive strategyquestionnaires before the lesson. The questionnaires attached as Appendix I，werecollected immediately after they were done. Forty questionnaires were sent out andall had been handed in. The questions are five-scale Likert-type, which are composedof a statement to which respondents would indicate one of the five responses; never or almost never true of me, 2= usually not true of me，3= some what true of me，4= usually true of me，5= always or almost always true of me. Students wererequired to offer true answers to the questions according to their actual situation bychoosing the proper number. This above data proved that in the beginning the subjects were about at the samelevel in metacognitive strategies use. That is to say，most students only scored about60 points in this questionnaire. Only one student scored above eighty. It can beinferred that for students in this senior high school，they have no awareness to usethese metacognitive strategies to manage their writing. More than half of the studentswere lower than the average score. The level of metacognitive strategies is relativelylow. Most of the students rarely use metacognitive strategies in writing.
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Conclusion
Theoretically, it has been reported that the use of metacognitive strategies canimprove the efficiency of English writing. So，this paper makes an attempt to applythe metacognitive strategies to the teaching design of English writing class in seniorhigh schools. A brief summaiy of the study will be demonstrated as follows.To answer the research questions, with the help of questionnaire and interviews,the author develops a writing instructional design for senior two students. Althoughsome steps and activities had been changed or omitted，the teaching design wasimplemented basically as planned.From the result of interviews and questionnaire, it can be found that students inClass One Senior One are lack of relevant knowledge of metacognitive strategies.After the lesson，almost one half of the students could use what they had leamt in thefirst lesson and finished writing the paragraph about small talk. They could noticeSheldon's problems and some of them could express their opinions about these socialproblems. With the help of the teacher, they paid attention to the task and focused onone certain aspect. Under the guidance of the teacher and monitoring card orevaluation card, students could manage and evaluate their own writings as expected.
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Reference (omitted)