Metacognition And EFL Listening Instruction

This thesis reports a study of the effect of metacognitive training on listening instruction. Metacognition is important to foreign language learning and teaching because it involves the knowledge and control of learning. The thesis developed an innovative metacognitive framework using a "teaching as problem solving" perspective to analyze instructional practice of EFL listening comprehension: We adopted Anderson's three-phase theory to analyze the causes of listeners' difficulties so as to reflect upon the listening process. We believe that if a listener is aware of what his problems are and how they are related to the listening process, then it is possible for him to take steps to adopt relative strategies to deal with actual or anticipated cognitive failure.One hundred and fifty eight non-English major students from three intact classes participated in the one-term study: one class of 50 which received metacognitive instruction comprised Experimental Group 1; another class of 52 comprised Experimental Group 2, receiving strategy instruction without metacognitive component; and the last class of 56 served as Comparison Group receiving normal instruction. Data were obtained and analyzed through the performance of a set of three listening tasks on a pre-post basis by three groups. Thirty students out of the total 158 were selected on a volunteer basis to provide additional data in the form of verbal report protocols regarding their strategy use after the treatment. These students represented three different levels of listening ability in their respective classes (high-level, mid-level and low-level). The results showed that metacognitive training helped students improve their listening performance as well as their views towards foreign language learning.