2.3.2 Metacognitive Listening Awareness and Strategies
2.3.2 metacognitive listening awareness and strategiesthis section first introduces methods that studies have used to investigate metacognitive listening awareness and strategies. then it reports studies of metacognitive listening awareness-raising. finally this section reviews research in metacognitive listening strategy training.
2.3.2.1 methods to investigate metacognitive listening awareness and strategies
the scope of listening strategy research has recently expanded to emphasize learners' metacognitive knowledge. listeners are asked to explicitly report their perceptions about themselves, their understanding of listening demands, their cognitive goals, their approach to listening tasks, and their listening strategies. to elicit learners' metacognitive knowledge about listening, various procedures have been used, most commonly diaries (goh, 1997), interviews (goh, 2002a), and questionnaires (goh, 2002b; vandergrift, 2002 & 2005a). results of these studies have shown that l2 learners possess knowledge about listening process, albeit to varying degrees, and that this knowledge appears to be linked to listening abilities.
one common method that researchers have used to assess learners' metacognitive awareness in listening is the analysis of diaries. goh (1997) administered one of the earliest studies examining metacognitive awareness of l2 listeners through diaries. forty adult chinese esl learners in singapore were asked to keep a diary for ten weeks about their listening study, i. e., their reflections on what they did to understand better and how they practiced their listening after class. goh argued that keeping a diary provided the right stimulus for students to reflect on their listening.
in addition to such qualitative analysis of texts as diaries, questionnaires have also been used. vandergrift (2005a) used an 18-item questionnaire to assess students' metacognitive awareness of the listening processes and strategies. participants rated the extent to which the item in the questionnaire described their actual use of each strategy on a scale ranging from 1 to 5. a high score indicated strong agreement with the statement of the item. however, results of the study were limited because the questionnaire used in the study was not sufficiently comprehensive (18 items only) and had not been subjected to rigorous validation procedures.
to make up for the inadequacy of the instrument, vandergrift et al. (2006) developed the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (malq) to assess l2 learners' awareness and perceived use of listening strategies. to validate the malq, vandergrift and his colleagues conducted an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis with two large and different samples of language learners. based on flavell's (1979) theoretical model of metacognition, the malq consists of 21items related to five metacognitive factors: problem solving, planning-evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge and directed attention. table 4 shows the strategies in each of the five distinct metacognitive factors based on vandergrift et al. (2006, p.462). participants rated the extent to which the items in the questionnaire described their perception and actual use of strategies on a scale ranging from 1 to 6. a high score indicated strong agreement with the statement of the item.
the malq has been used extensively to measure changes in listeners' metacognitive awareness (e. g., mareschal, 2007; o'bryan & hegelheimer, 2009; vandergrift & tafaghodtari, 2010), and the questionnaire can be administered retrospectively, i. e. immediately after a listening task, or at any time during a listening course, depending on its purpose. in addition to being a research instrument, this questionnaire can also be used as a teaching tool for raising learners' awareness about l2 listening, as was in the study by coskun (2010).
table 4 metacognitive strategies by the five factors in the malq
(source: vandergrift et al., 2006, p.462)
2.3.2.2 metacognitive listening awareness raising studies
raising learners' metacognitive awareness about listening has been advocated for a long time now (e. g., mendelsohn, 1994). esl/efl teachers are advised to help their students to develop metacognitive listening awareness. given the importance of metacognitive awareness in successful listening, researchers began to investigate the effect of raising learners' awareness on listening comprehension. several recent studies have shown that metacognitive knowledge can be increased through classroom instruction (e. g., vandergrift, 2002 & 2003b) or peer-peer dialogue (cross, 2010).
vandergrift investigated the effect of a strategy-based approach on student awareness of the listening process. in two investigations, students were guided in the use of prediction, individual planning, peer discussions, and post-listening reflections. both beginner-level elementary school students (vandergrift, 2002) and beginner-level university students of french (vandergrift, 2003b) exposed to such an approach found it motivating to learn to understand rapid, authentic-type texts and responded overwhelmingly in favor of this approach. students commented on the power of predictions for successful listening, the importance of collaboration with a partner for monitoring, and the confidence-building role of this approach for enhancing their ability to comprehend oral texts. vandergrift's sequence for guided listening was adopted for teaching tertiary-level chinese esl students; they too reported increased motivation, confidence, and strategy knowledge (liu & goh, 2006).
from a sociocultural perspective, cross (2010) administered a small-scale study exploring metacognitive awareness of l2 listening in japan. twelve japanese female adult efl learners were put in 6 pairs and enrolled in five 90-minute lessons. in each lesson, the participants followed the pedagogical cycle based on vandergrift (2007), i. e., the five stages consisted of prediction: first listening, second listening, verification, and reflection (p.199). the pedagogical cycle was modified to include explicit sharing, selecting, and reflecting on listening strategies by learners as a mechanism for stimulating their metacognitive awareness. unlike the studies by vandergrift (2002 & 2003b), the participants in this study did not receive any input from the researcher throughout the research, but autonomously completed the task sequence at their own pace guided by a prompt sheet. the listening texts used in the study were bbc news videotexts. each of the five lessons was audio and video recorded for subsequent transcription and analysis. at the end of each session, learners spent 15 minutes individually writing in a diary their reflections on the pedagogical cycle, news videotext, successes and difficulties, working with their partner, and what they felt they learned from their partner in the lesson.
the study results of cross (2010) showed that peer-to-peer dialogue was the central mechanism mediating the construction and co-construction of metacognitive awareness, and it also acted as the primary unit of analysis. the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the six pairs' dialogues and corresponding diary entries showed that through the dialogues they took part in as part of the structured pedagogical cycle, they were able to exploit opportunities to enhance their l2 metacognitive listening awareness.
2.3.2.3 metacognitive listening strategy training studies
research on the effects of metacognitive instruction has provided preliminary evidence that performance, confidence, and motivation can be enhanced through classroom instruction (e. g., goh & yusnita, 2006; vandergrift & tafaghodtari, 2010).
one common approach to metacognitive instruction in listening is a sequence of activities that encourage planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies usedwhen listening to a selected text. chamot (1995) suggested a procedure where teachers model how they themselves use strategies when listening to a tape or watching a video with new information. before listening, the teacher would read aloud about what he or she already knows about the topic and what words one might expect to hear. after listening to a short segment of the text, the teacher would read aloud again, describing the mental processes involved during listening, commenting also on whether the predictions have been confirmed or rejected. finally, the teacher evaluates his or her use of strategies for the particular text. listening tasks that guide students through the process of listening, i. e., by engaging them in the use of prediction, monitoring, evaluating, and problem solving, can help learners develop the metacognitive knowledge critical to the development of self-regulated listening.
to explore the benefits of metacognitive listening training, goh & yusnita (2006) conducted a small-scale study with 10 primary school pupils in singapore. eight listening lessons were conducted. each lesson followed a three-stage sequence: listen, answer—reflect—report, and discuss. in an additional lesson conducted the week after the last listening lesson, each pupil wrote a short reflection on their listening ability at the end of the eight sessions so as to consolidate their metacognitive knowledge about the listening process. to assess the value of metacognitive instruction, the researchers also compared the pupils' listening test scores before and after the intervention. the results led the researchers to a conclusion that the process-based lessons had two benefits for young l2 learners. firstly, the pupils reported an increase in their confidence and metacognitive knowledge. more specifically, their strategy knowledge had increased. secondly, there was strong indication that metacognitive instruction had contributed to the pupils' improvement in listening test scores.
o'bryan & hegelheimer (2009) investigated the metacognitive listening strategy use and awareness of four intermediate students over a one-semester-long esl listening course at a university in the united states. a series of different types of classroom-based listening strategies were designed by the instructors and taught to the students in the form of podcasts which focused on either demonstrating or encouraging students to review and practice listening strategies. at the beginning and the end of the listening course, the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (vandergriftetal., 2006) was administered as a pretest-posttest instrument to explore the impact of listening strategy instruction and to assess the students'growing metacognitive awareness of strategies. verbal protocols, semi-structured interviews and student notes were also used as instruments to collect data for the investigation of the students' listening. the study identified students'use of such metacognitive strategies as double-check monitoring, comprehension monitoring, problem identification and advanced organization. the investigation of development of metacognitive awareness throughout the semester identified increased awareness in problem solving strategies and person knowledge but no change in the awareness of planning-evaluation strategies used by the students. contrary to the researchers' hypothesis, the study found that the lowest-proficiency student demonstrated an increase in the use of mental translation strategies after a one semester's listening course, a result matching vandergrift's (1997b) finding.
this study set a fine example of using mixed method approaches for both qualitative and quantitative data so as to achieve insight into students' listening comprehension strategies and the development of students' metacognitive awareness in listening. while the malq provided a quantitative measure, additional qualitative data such as interviews and notes helped to give a fuller understanding of students' responses on the malq. however, the findings of the study cannot be generalized as the sample consisted of only four students (due to class absence, only three participants completed the malq).
vandergrift & tafaghodtari (2010) carried out an empirical study to investigate the effects of a metacognitive, process-based approach to teaching 106 fsl (french as a second language) university-level students l2 listening over a semester. the experimental group listened to texts using a methodology that led learners through the metacognitive processes, whereas the same texts were taught to the control group without any guided attention to listening processes. a listening test was administered at the beginning and the end of the study, and the development in the students' metacognitive knowledge about listening was measured using the malq (vandergrift et al., 2006) at the beginning, middle, and end points of the study, immediately after a listening activity. results demonstrated that the group receiving the metacognitive instruction significantly outperformed the control group on thefinaltest of listening comprehension, and the less skilled listeners in the experimental group made greater gains than their more skilled peers in the group. the study also provided evidence of a growing awareness of the metacognitive processes underlying successful l2 listening.
a recent study by coskun (2010) investigated the effect of metacognitive strategy training on the listening performance of forty beginning-level students at a preparatory school of a turkish university. the students were divided into an experimental group and a control group (twenty students in each group). each listening task in the experimental group followed the “calla strategy training model” (chamot & o'malley, 1994), i. e., preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation and expansion. the metacognitive strategies embedded in the listening instruction included planning, monitoring, evaluation and problem identification strategies. as a strategy training instrument, the malq designed by vandergrift et al. (2006) was utilized to keep the students' metacognitive strategy awareness fresh throughout the training and to help them to use, identify and develop learning strategies in a systematic way. two listening comprehension tests were administered at the beginning and end of the training as the pre-test and posttest. both tests were designed to be similar to the listening activities in which the strategy training was embedded. the first part of the tests was guessing about the main topic of the text after listening to only the beginning of the recording. the second part of the tests required the students to listen to the entire text and answer some related multiple choice questions. results showed a significant difference in the posttest sores in favor of the experimental group. coskun thus concluded that the metacognitive strategy training facilitated l2 listening comprehension.
though the last two studies reviewed above involved listening comprehension tests and the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (malq), no attempt was made to investigate the relationship between students' listening proficiency and their metacognitive listening awareness. to the author's knowledge, there has been no study carried out to date investigating the relationship between learners' listening proficiency and their metacognitive listening awareness, in spite the malq could be utilized in this way.
findings from above the studies have indicated that metacognitive instruction in listening can be beneficial. goh (2008) summarized the benefits of metacognitive instruction in the following ways:
1. it improves affect in listening, helping learners to be more confident, more motivated and less anxious;
2. it has a positive effect on listening performance; and
3. weak listeners potentially benefit the greatest from it. (p.196)
the qualitative studies reviewed above point to the promise of a strategy-based approach to teaching l2 listening. although the results from these studies have been encouraging, most of the studies involved very small samples. except for vandergrift & tafaghodtari's study in 2010, the samples in most of the studies were under 20. thus their results are not generalizable.
another issue is how to best utilize the malq. besides using it as a tool to describe or assess changes in learner metacognition resulting from instruction (as in o'bryan & hegelheimer, 2009; vandergrift & tafaghodtari, 2010; and coskun, 2010), quantitative data collected from the malq can be correlated with the participants' listening test scores. by presenting correlations between listening proficiency and metacognitive awareness, studies in this area can examine the relationship between different listening strategies and listening comprehension, which is a purpose of the present research.
2.3.2.1 methods to investigate metacognitive listening awareness and strategies
the scope of listening strategy research has recently expanded to emphasize learners' metacognitive knowledge. listeners are asked to explicitly report their perceptions about themselves, their understanding of listening demands, their cognitive goals, their approach to listening tasks, and their listening strategies. to elicit learners' metacognitive knowledge about listening, various procedures have been used, most commonly diaries (goh, 1997), interviews (goh, 2002a), and questionnaires (goh, 2002b; vandergrift, 2002 & 2005a). results of these studies have shown that l2 learners possess knowledge about listening process, albeit to varying degrees, and that this knowledge appears to be linked to listening abilities.
one common method that researchers have used to assess learners' metacognitive awareness in listening is the analysis of diaries. goh (1997) administered one of the earliest studies examining metacognitive awareness of l2 listeners through diaries. forty adult chinese esl learners in singapore were asked to keep a diary for ten weeks about their listening study, i. e., their reflections on what they did to understand better and how they practiced their listening after class. goh argued that keeping a diary provided the right stimulus for students to reflect on their listening.
in addition to such qualitative analysis of texts as diaries, questionnaires have also been used. vandergrift (2005a) used an 18-item questionnaire to assess students' metacognitive awareness of the listening processes and strategies. participants rated the extent to which the item in the questionnaire described their actual use of each strategy on a scale ranging from 1 to 5. a high score indicated strong agreement with the statement of the item. however, results of the study were limited because the questionnaire used in the study was not sufficiently comprehensive (18 items only) and had not been subjected to rigorous validation procedures.
to make up for the inadequacy of the instrument, vandergrift et al. (2006) developed the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (malq) to assess l2 learners' awareness and perceived use of listening strategies. to validate the malq, vandergrift and his colleagues conducted an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis with two large and different samples of language learners. based on flavell's (1979) theoretical model of metacognition, the malq consists of 21items related to five metacognitive factors: problem solving, planning-evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge and directed attention. table 4 shows the strategies in each of the five distinct metacognitive factors based on vandergrift et al. (2006, p.462). participants rated the extent to which the items in the questionnaire described their perception and actual use of strategies on a scale ranging from 1 to 6. a high score indicated strong agreement with the statement of the item.
the malq has been used extensively to measure changes in listeners' metacognitive awareness (e. g., mareschal, 2007; o'bryan & hegelheimer, 2009; vandergrift & tafaghodtari, 2010), and the questionnaire can be administered retrospectively, i. e. immediately after a listening task, or at any time during a listening course, depending on its purpose. in addition to being a research instrument, this questionnaire can also be used as a teaching tool for raising learners' awareness about l2 listening, as was in the study by coskun (2010).
table 4 metacognitive strategies by the five factors in the malq
(source: vandergrift et al., 2006, p.462)
2.3.2.2 metacognitive listening awareness raising studies
raising learners' metacognitive awareness about listening has been advocated for a long time now (e. g., mendelsohn, 1994). esl/efl teachers are advised to help their students to develop metacognitive listening awareness. given the importance of metacognitive awareness in successful listening, researchers began to investigate the effect of raising learners' awareness on listening comprehension. several recent studies have shown that metacognitive knowledge can be increased through classroom instruction (e. g., vandergrift, 2002 & 2003b) or peer-peer dialogue (cross, 2010).
vandergrift investigated the effect of a strategy-based approach on student awareness of the listening process. in two investigations, students were guided in the use of prediction, individual planning, peer discussions, and post-listening reflections. both beginner-level elementary school students (vandergrift, 2002) and beginner-level university students of french (vandergrift, 2003b) exposed to such an approach found it motivating to learn to understand rapid, authentic-type texts and responded overwhelmingly in favor of this approach. students commented on the power of predictions for successful listening, the importance of collaboration with a partner for monitoring, and the confidence-building role of this approach for enhancing their ability to comprehend oral texts. vandergrift's sequence for guided listening was adopted for teaching tertiary-level chinese esl students; they too reported increased motivation, confidence, and strategy knowledge (liu & goh, 2006).
from a sociocultural perspective, cross (2010) administered a small-scale study exploring metacognitive awareness of l2 listening in japan. twelve japanese female adult efl learners were put in 6 pairs and enrolled in five 90-minute lessons. in each lesson, the participants followed the pedagogical cycle based on vandergrift (2007), i. e., the five stages consisted of prediction: first listening, second listening, verification, and reflection (p.199). the pedagogical cycle was modified to include explicit sharing, selecting, and reflecting on listening strategies by learners as a mechanism for stimulating their metacognitive awareness. unlike the studies by vandergrift (2002 & 2003b), the participants in this study did not receive any input from the researcher throughout the research, but autonomously completed the task sequence at their own pace guided by a prompt sheet. the listening texts used in the study were bbc news videotexts. each of the five lessons was audio and video recorded for subsequent transcription and analysis. at the end of each session, learners spent 15 minutes individually writing in a diary their reflections on the pedagogical cycle, news videotext, successes and difficulties, working with their partner, and what they felt they learned from their partner in the lesson.
the study results of cross (2010) showed that peer-to-peer dialogue was the central mechanism mediating the construction and co-construction of metacognitive awareness, and it also acted as the primary unit of analysis. the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the six pairs' dialogues and corresponding diary entries showed that through the dialogues they took part in as part of the structured pedagogical cycle, they were able to exploit opportunities to enhance their l2 metacognitive listening awareness.
2.3.2.3 metacognitive listening strategy training studies
research on the effects of metacognitive instruction has provided preliminary evidence that performance, confidence, and motivation can be enhanced through classroom instruction (e. g., goh & yusnita, 2006; vandergrift & tafaghodtari, 2010).
one common approach to metacognitive instruction in listening is a sequence of activities that encourage planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies usedwhen listening to a selected text. chamot (1995) suggested a procedure where teachers model how they themselves use strategies when listening to a tape or watching a video with new information. before listening, the teacher would read aloud about what he or she already knows about the topic and what words one might expect to hear. after listening to a short segment of the text, the teacher would read aloud again, describing the mental processes involved during listening, commenting also on whether the predictions have been confirmed or rejected. finally, the teacher evaluates his or her use of strategies for the particular text. listening tasks that guide students through the process of listening, i. e., by engaging them in the use of prediction, monitoring, evaluating, and problem solving, can help learners develop the metacognitive knowledge critical to the development of self-regulated listening.
to explore the benefits of metacognitive listening training, goh & yusnita (2006) conducted a small-scale study with 10 primary school pupils in singapore. eight listening lessons were conducted. each lesson followed a three-stage sequence: listen, answer—reflect—report, and discuss. in an additional lesson conducted the week after the last listening lesson, each pupil wrote a short reflection on their listening ability at the end of the eight sessions so as to consolidate their metacognitive knowledge about the listening process. to assess the value of metacognitive instruction, the researchers also compared the pupils' listening test scores before and after the intervention. the results led the researchers to a conclusion that the process-based lessons had two benefits for young l2 learners. firstly, the pupils reported an increase in their confidence and metacognitive knowledge. more specifically, their strategy knowledge had increased. secondly, there was strong indication that metacognitive instruction had contributed to the pupils' improvement in listening test scores.
o'bryan & hegelheimer (2009) investigated the metacognitive listening strategy use and awareness of four intermediate students over a one-semester-long esl listening course at a university in the united states. a series of different types of classroom-based listening strategies were designed by the instructors and taught to the students in the form of podcasts which focused on either demonstrating or encouraging students to review and practice listening strategies. at the beginning and the end of the listening course, the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (vandergriftetal., 2006) was administered as a pretest-posttest instrument to explore the impact of listening strategy instruction and to assess the students'growing metacognitive awareness of strategies. verbal protocols, semi-structured interviews and student notes were also used as instruments to collect data for the investigation of the students' listening. the study identified students'use of such metacognitive strategies as double-check monitoring, comprehension monitoring, problem identification and advanced organization. the investigation of development of metacognitive awareness throughout the semester identified increased awareness in problem solving strategies and person knowledge but no change in the awareness of planning-evaluation strategies used by the students. contrary to the researchers' hypothesis, the study found that the lowest-proficiency student demonstrated an increase in the use of mental translation strategies after a one semester's listening course, a result matching vandergrift's (1997b) finding.
this study set a fine example of using mixed method approaches for both qualitative and quantitative data so as to achieve insight into students' listening comprehension strategies and the development of students' metacognitive awareness in listening. while the malq provided a quantitative measure, additional qualitative data such as interviews and notes helped to give a fuller understanding of students' responses on the malq. however, the findings of the study cannot be generalized as the sample consisted of only four students (due to class absence, only three participants completed the malq).
vandergrift & tafaghodtari (2010) carried out an empirical study to investigate the effects of a metacognitive, process-based approach to teaching 106 fsl (french as a second language) university-level students l2 listening over a semester. the experimental group listened to texts using a methodology that led learners through the metacognitive processes, whereas the same texts were taught to the control group without any guided attention to listening processes. a listening test was administered at the beginning and the end of the study, and the development in the students' metacognitive knowledge about listening was measured using the malq (vandergrift et al., 2006) at the beginning, middle, and end points of the study, immediately after a listening activity. results demonstrated that the group receiving the metacognitive instruction significantly outperformed the control group on thefinaltest of listening comprehension, and the less skilled listeners in the experimental group made greater gains than their more skilled peers in the group. the study also provided evidence of a growing awareness of the metacognitive processes underlying successful l2 listening.
a recent study by coskun (2010) investigated the effect of metacognitive strategy training on the listening performance of forty beginning-level students at a preparatory school of a turkish university. the students were divided into an experimental group and a control group (twenty students in each group). each listening task in the experimental group followed the “calla strategy training model” (chamot & o'malley, 1994), i. e., preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation and expansion. the metacognitive strategies embedded in the listening instruction included planning, monitoring, evaluation and problem identification strategies. as a strategy training instrument, the malq designed by vandergrift et al. (2006) was utilized to keep the students' metacognitive strategy awareness fresh throughout the training and to help them to use, identify and develop learning strategies in a systematic way. two listening comprehension tests were administered at the beginning and end of the training as the pre-test and posttest. both tests were designed to be similar to the listening activities in which the strategy training was embedded. the first part of the tests was guessing about the main topic of the text after listening to only the beginning of the recording. the second part of the tests required the students to listen to the entire text and answer some related multiple choice questions. results showed a significant difference in the posttest sores in favor of the experimental group. coskun thus concluded that the metacognitive strategy training facilitated l2 listening comprehension.
though the last two studies reviewed above involved listening comprehension tests and the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire (malq), no attempt was made to investigate the relationship between students' listening proficiency and their metacognitive listening awareness. to the author's knowledge, there has been no study carried out to date investigating the relationship between learners' listening proficiency and their metacognitive listening awareness, in spite the malq could be utilized in this way.
findings from above the studies have indicated that metacognitive instruction in listening can be beneficial. goh (2008) summarized the benefits of metacognitive instruction in the following ways:
1. it improves affect in listening, helping learners to be more confident, more motivated and less anxious;
2. it has a positive effect on listening performance; and
3. weak listeners potentially benefit the greatest from it. (p.196)
the qualitative studies reviewed above point to the promise of a strategy-based approach to teaching l2 listening. although the results from these studies have been encouraging, most of the studies involved very small samples. except for vandergrift & tafaghodtari's study in 2010, the samples in most of the studies were under 20. thus their results are not generalizable.
another issue is how to best utilize the malq. besides using it as a tool to describe or assess changes in learner metacognition resulting from instruction (as in o'bryan & hegelheimer, 2009; vandergrift & tafaghodtari, 2010; and coskun, 2010), quantitative data collected from the malq can be correlated with the participants' listening test scores. by presenting correlations between listening proficiency and metacognitive awareness, studies in this area can examine the relationship between different listening strategies and listening comprehension, which is a purpose of the present research.