IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AMONG EFL LEARNERS
Keywords:
listening comprehension; metacognitive strategy instruction; EFL; MALQ; process-oriented teachingAbstract
Listening is the most frequently used yet least explicitly taught of the four language skills. This study examined whether metacognitive strategy instruction, based on the pedagogical sequence proposed by Vandergrift and Goh (2012), improves the listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness of intermediate (B1) English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control-group design was used with 60 first-year university students, who were assigned to an experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=30). Over eight weeks, the experimental group followed a guided plan–monitor–evaluate cycle embedded in regular listening lessons, while the control group received conventional comprehension-question listening practice. Listening comprehension was measured with a 30-item test, and metacognitive awareness with the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ). The experimental group made significantly larger comprehension gains than the control group and showed marked increases in adaptive metacognitive strategies, together with reduced reliance on word-for-word mental translation. The findings support the integration of explicit, process-oriented metacognitive instruction into EFL listening curricula.
References
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Vandergrift, L., & Tafaghodtari, M. H. (2010). Teaching L2 learners how to listen does make a difference: An empirical study. Language Learning, 60(2), 470–497.
