Metacognition plays a vital role in the cultivation of autonomous learning capacity in the web-based College English learning environment.After a short training program,the trainees' metacognitive competence was somewhat upgraded,yet the sub-components of their metacognition failed to develop evenly,their metacognitive knowledge witnessing more progress than their metacognitive strategy.A bivariate correlation analysis shows a strong positive correlation between metacognitive knowledge and strategy,suggesting that the cultivation of metacognitive knowledge results in the improvement of metacognitive strategy.A test of between-subjects effects in the univariate analysis of variance reveals that the metacognitive knowledge of strategy variable and the metacognitive knowledge of person variable contribute most to the establishment of metacognitive strategy,highlighting a necessary shift of focus onto the two types of knowledge when furthering metacognition cultivation.