The Assessment Of Metacognitive Strategies In A Task-based Approach

Learning strategies, especially metacognitive strategies, are of great importance in second/ foreign language learning and teaching. Questionnaires are useful tools eliciting students' typical, general strategies use. Strategy assessment in a real task context could add more vivid details to the big picture. This paper discusses the previous studies on learning strategies, contrasts metacognitive strategies against cognitive strategies by drawing upon relevant theories in psychology, analyses the 'task' in relation with its definition, components and difficulty. The paper goes on to describe a task-based strategy assessment study which checks: (1) the reliability of the whole set, and the two comprising parts—cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies—of the present reading strategy questionnaire respectively;(2) the effects of no task, easy task or difficult task on students' typical strategies use report, particularly their metacognitive strategies use report;(3) how students' reported strategies use differs across different task conditions. Finally, the paper concludes with implications for task-based strategy assessment and metacognitive strategies studies in the future.