Metacognitive Instruction for Second Language Listening Development

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in and concern for the teaching of listening in the last 40 years. Looking back over the years, we can see how the emphases on teaching listening and the focus of listening instruction have changed. Although instructional practices were initially heavily influenced by models of the written language and a behaviourist approach, the focus has since moved to developing listening as a skill needed for constructing and communicating meaning. More recently, discussions about listening instruction have emphasized the role of strategy training and learner metacognition in facilitating comprehension. In this paper I discuss a metacognitive approach, drawing on understandings from educational research as well as second language listening studies. I explain its theoretical rationale and identify principles for carrying out metacognitive instruction, as well as outline general instructional objectives and learning activities for this purpose. Finally, I suggest possible research directions for examining the role of metacognition in second language listening and the relevance of metacognitive instruction to listening development.

Cultivating Listening Skills for Academic English Based on Strategy Object Mashups Approach

“…It has been found the effective language learners know how to use appropriate strategies in their learning while ineffective ones are less skilled in their strategy choice and application [15]. Moreover, since what learners know about their learning can directly influence the process and even the outcome of it, it has been proved many times the importance of improving learners' metacognitive awareness of their strategy choice and application through various experiments of related research [15], [17], [18]. Goh (2008) stressed in her findings that the learners need to be aware of how their listening comprehension is affected by their choice of listening strategies to develop flexibility in the use of listening strategies as well as find suitable ways for systematic practice, ultimately be able to obtain listening skills [17].…”

“…Goh (2008) stressed in her findings that the learners need to be aware of how their listening comprehension is affected by their choice of listening strategies to develop flexibility in the use of listening strategies as well as find suitable ways for systematic practice, ultimately be able to obtain listening skills [17]. The concept of comprehension tactics (which is referred as tactics in this paper) was brought up by Goh [15], [17]. She defined tactics as individual mental techniques through which a general strategy is operationalized.…”

“…She defined tactics as individual mental techniques through which a general strategy is operationalized. Goh also identified that the tactics used for the same strategies vary from learner to learner, and skilled learners demonstrated better on strategy choices and the combination of appropriate tactics [15], [17]. For example, a learner successfully inferred the meaning of an unfamiliar word out of the content he/she perceived earlier; on the other hand, another learner inferred the meaning of the same word by using his own world knowledge.…”

“…Ordinarily, this problem is usually solved through teaching the learners effective listening strategies and then introducing the ways for operation. Hypothesis can be made from [15], [17] that, without proper guidance, the learners tend to resort to their inefficient accustomed way of practicing without being aware of what strategies they are using and how these strategies affect their learning. Secondly, it is difficult to flexibly adopt effective listening strategies.…”

L’immersion au niveau universitaire: nouveaux modèles, nouveaux défis, pratiques et stratégies

“…• Stratégies de compréhension : écoute (Goh, 2008 ;Vandergrift 1998Vandergrift , 2004Vandergrift , 2008 : Les stratégies les plus répan-dues pour découvrir la signification de termes nouveaux consistent à initier les étudiants à la déduction du sens d'après le contexte, au recours au glossaire, à l'utilisation du dictionnaire et des indices morphologiques et structurels. Mais on enseigne beaucoup moins à organiser de manière signifiante dans notre dictionnaire mental le vocabulaire spéci-fique à la discipline ainsi que le vocabulaire général inconnu en français.…”