Improving listening comprehension skills relying on metacognitive strategies – Focus on vocabulary and specific l2 instruction

© 2016, Institute for Educational Research. All rights reserved. The present paper aims at investigating the application of an instructional method specifically focused on the expansion of metacognitive awareness and its effect on Serbian EFL students’ listening comprehension. The current study is a follow- up research of a similar study by Vandergrift and Tafaghodtari (2010). However, we sought to expand the previous research by investigating the relationship between the students’ current level of L2 (target language) vocabulary and listening test scores. Our study likewise differed in the sample of participants, the target language, teaching and testing material used, and the duration of the very experiment. To answer the proposed research questions we conducted an experiment with 57 Serbian secondary school EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners divided into experimental (n=27) and control group (n=30). The results of the pre- and post-tests of the two groups showed the beneficial effects of developing metacognitive strategies and the strong positive correlation between the level of vocabulary and listening comprehension. The paper underlines important pedagogical implications especially regarding the enhancement of metacognitive awareness and vocabulary proficiency of students in order to improve performance on listening comprehension tasks

Good English Pronunciation Users and their Pronunciation Learning Strategies

The study investigates pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) deployed by those with good English pronunciation, as well as their beliefs concerning the variables that affect pronunciation competence. In order to collect data for analysis this study surveyed 61 participants who had learned English as a foreign language. They comprised 28 higher education teachers and scholars specialising in English phonetics and phonology, who were defined as good pronunciation users (GPU), and 33 EFL teacher training students, viewed as average pronunciation learners (APL). This cohort responded to a survey on pronunciation learning strategies and expressed their views on several aspects affecting the L2 pronunciation learning process. These aspects were: age of the first contact with L2 (age of onset), motivation, exposure to the target language, the teacher’s pronunciation model, and learning strategies. The study used both open- and close-ended question formats to collect data from both GPU and APL. The analyses of the data helped to create a tentative profile of a successful L2 pronunciation learner

Affective factors and strategy use in a distance language context: a pilot study using think-aloud verbal protocols

This paper reports on a small-scale ethnographic pilot study using think-aloud verbal protocols (TAPs), which was carried out with novice distance learners of French. The study aimed to extend knowledge of the distance language learner experience through allowing learners to talk freely about the positive and negative emotions they were experiencing as they tackled two designated language tasks, and the strategies they used to manage these emotions. The study was prompted by the lack of research into affect in the distance context, despite a growing view that affective control may have special importance in this setting, given the isolation and the need for learners to exercise greater self-regulation than their classroom colleagues (White, 2003; Harris, 2003). Think-alouds were selected for their potential to ‘tap’ processes that are normally hidden, among learners that are hard to reach. The findings from the pilot, despite its small-scale nature, gave useful insights into affect and strategy use by this group of learners. With regard to the research tool, the paper concludes that while there are limitations to the use of TAPs, they nevertheless provide a unique method of gathering data from learners in a distance setting who are rarely given a voice

The Effect and Importance of Authentic Language Exposure in Improving Listening Comprehension

Abstract An increasing number of international students choose to study English in United States so they have the authentic language environment to effectively improve their language skills. The current study conducts a statistical analysis to examine the relationship between learners’ outside-of-class language activities and their listening comprehension performance in listening tests. In addition to language activities, learners’ metacognitive awareness level and self-efficacy level are examined with respect to their relationships to learners’ listening comprehension performance. Based on the survey, learners do get involved in different outside-of-class English language activities and enjoy an authentic language environment by studying abroad. Also, the results of the regression analysis reveal evidence on the significant correlations between some outside-of-class activities and listening comprehension performance. Activities such as having people speaking English around or being spoken to and English reading are shown to be significantly correlated with learners’ listening comprehension improvement either positively or negatively. Furthermore, the analysis shows a positive relationship between learners’ self-efficacy level and their listening comprehension level, and suggests the necessity to help leaners improve their self-efficacy performance

Metacognitive Instruction in L2 French: An Analysis of Listening Performance and Automaticity

The goal of the present study was to investigate the instructional potential of metacognitive strategies to improve listening comprehension and the automaticity of listening processes. Metacognition can be described as focusing attention on the cognitive processes one is currently using. In the classroom, metacognitive listening instruction means guiding learners in applying metacognition to learning by monitoring the mental strategies they use while listening, evaluating the relative success of these strategies, and planning for future listening experiences. I argue that providing students with these tools to monitor and regulate the perceptual and cognitive processes involved in listening contributes significantly to building toward the automaticity of those processes, leading to improved performance and reduced reaction time on listening assessments. In order to test this hypothesis, a pretest—treatment—posttest design was adopted and seven intact sections of second-semester French were randomly assigned to the control or experimental condition. The experimental groups were instructed in using metacognitive strategies to regulate the listening process while the control groups were simply exposed to the listening passages and asked to verify comprehension. Results showed that treatment condition alone did not account for improvement in listening comprehension or automaticity. Differences were found, however, based on initial listening proficiency and metacognitive awareness: low proficiency learners in both conditions outperformed all high proficiency learners in listening gains over time. Initial level of metacognitive awareness had a significant impact on gains in listening performance, indicating that the learners in the experimental group who began the study with low metacognitive awareness achieved higher gains in listening. This suggests that increasing metacognitive awareness through instruction is effective in improving listening comprehension. A potential ceiling effect was indicated, however, since those who began the study with high metacognitive awareness in the control condition improved their listening more than those in the experimental condition. An analysis of reaction time gain scores suggested that automaticity was not affected by initial listening proficiency. On the other hand, it was the learners in the control condition with low initial metacognitive awareness who decreased their reaction time compared to other subgroups over the course of the study, suggesting that metacognitive abilities are indeed related to automaticity. On the whole, these results indicate that initial level of metacognitive awareness has a differential impact on listening comprehension gains as well as reaction time. This supports the idea that increasing metacognition can help learners to improve listening skills; however, further research must be done in order to clarify the nature of these interrelationships

Metacognitive listening strategies awareness in learning English as a foreign language: a comparison between university and high-school students

AbstractThe present study investigated metacognitive listening strategies awareness among Iranian university and highschool students learning English as a foreign language. To achieve this goal, one hundred and twenty-two university students and one hundred and sixteen high-school students filled in the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) with five subparts including problem-solving, planning and evaluation, translation, person knowledge, and directed attention. The result of the data analysis revealed that university and high-school students were different with regard to their metacognitive listening strategies awareness in general, and in person knowledge and mental translation components

THE USE OF METACOGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES BY ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

The aim of this study is to determine the use of metacognitive listening strategies by EFL (English as a foreign language) learners in the Republic of North Macedonia. The participants in the study were two groups of EFL learners at two stages of language development: intermediate and advanced, in order to determine if the use of listening strategies changes with the development of language proficiency. The instrument used in the study is the MALQ questionnaire that investigates five groups of strategies: problem-solving, planning and evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge and directed attention. The results of the study showed that the students reported having a moderate amount of metacognition with an overall mean of 4.18 for high school students and 4.26 for university students. The Directed Attention, Person knowledge and Problem-solving strategies had higher scores and indicated a high level of awareness of these strategies for both groups, while Mental translation and Planning and evaluation showed an average level of awareness. The results provide valuable information to language teachers about the types of metacognitive listening strategies used by language learners so that they can make the necessary adjustments in their teaching methodology and strategy training of their students.  Article visualizations

Second language listening comprehension: The role of anxiety and enjoyment in listening metacognitive awareness

Emotion in second language acquisition (SLA) has recently received greater attention because it is largely implicated in daily conversations, which may affect second or foreign language (L2) use including listening comprehension. Most research into emotion and L2 listening comprehension is focused exclusively on anxiety, with an attempt to reduce its negative effects on individuals’ listening performance. With the arrival of positive psychology in SLA, researchers began to take a holistic view of a wider range of emotions including enjoyment that language learners experience during their L2 communication. The current study explored the relationships among listening anxiety, enjoyment, listening comprehension performance, and listening metacognitive awareness among a group of 410 international students in a Canadian university. Correlational analyses showed that listening anxiety was negatively correlated with enjoyment. However, these two variables shared only 18% of their variance, indicating that listening anxiety and enjoyment are related but independent emotions. This study suggests that anxiety and enjoyment in L2 listening are not the opposite ends of the same emotional continuum, but each serves a different purpose. L2 learners should work to find intriguing and enjoyable experiences in language learning, rather than focusing merely on reducing anxiety

Metacognitive Strategies Instruction and Its Relationship with Listening Anxiety and Listening Comprehension

ABSTRACT: This present paper aims at investigating the relationship between metacognitive strategies and its relationship with listening anxiety and listening comprehension. This paper summarizes the results of previous studies (Golehi, 2012) revealing that listening anxiety had negative correlation with listening comprehension and listening strategy use. The previous study (Golehi, 2012) shows that listening strategy used by learners plays an important part in reducing learners’ listening anxiety and improving learners’ listening comprehension. This paper will concern more on outlining metacognitive strategies and its relationship with listening anxiety and listening comprehension. The findings of this paper gained from some previous researches concerning in metacognitive strategies and its implication, particularly in listening comprehension

The Impact of Instructions: Perceptions of Note-taking and Awareness of Metacognitive Listening for ESL Students

Taking effective notes while listening to a lecture is one of the important strategies for students in order to fulfill their academic goals. A number of empirical studies have been done to emphasize its importance; however, much fewer studies focusing on the impact of note-taking instruction have been done. Moreover, not only note-taking strategies but also high listening strategies are required to take notes while listening. The current study investigated the impact of instructions of note-taking and listening on ESL students. A total number of 23 upper-intermediate ESL students experienced training of taking notes and metacognitive listening over a semester. Their perceptional change of note-taking strategies and growth in awareness of metacognitive listening strategies were measured by questionnaires. The participants took a listening test and answered survey questionnaires both pre- and post-instructions, and they were instructed to take notes while listening. The results indicated that students perceived that instruction of note-taking strategy was more helpful than metacognitive listening strategy for them. As for note-taking, students gained deeper insights of importance and practicality of note-taking strategy. As for metacognitive awareness of listening, it was found that metacognitive listening instruction enhanced the students to gain higher self-efficacy in L2 listening. Furthermore, a strong correlation between higher perceptions and awareness of their strategy uses and more significant development of listening performance was found. In other words, students who increased perceptions in note-taking and who realized their metacognitive listening strategy uses outperformed than those did not