Teaching & Researching: Language Learning Strategies

Metacognition in Language Learning and Teaching

“…Firstly, it is important to note that O'Malley and Chamot (1990) established a positive relationship between learners' success and metacognitive strategy use, stating that "students without metacognitive approaches are essentially learners without direction and ability to review their progress, accomplishments, and future learning directions" (6), a link which has also been acknowledged by , Griffiths (2013) and Oxford (2017). Secondly, metacognitive strategies have been identified as a vital component of any form of strategy use; it is the metacognitive element which helps learners to use and combine strategies effectively, and to transfer them to new tasks (O'Malley and Chamot 1990;Grenfell and Macaro 2007).…”

“…Because of the absence of an agreed-upon definition of what a language learning strategy is (Cohen and Griffiths 2015;Manchón, De Larios and Murphy 2007;Oxford 2017), metacognition, as a crucial factor in relation to self-regulated learning when planning and executing learner development programmes, has emerged as an important area of academic and pedagogical inquiry in L2/EFL writing (Zhang 2016a;. This scientific inquiry has produced ample research evidence on the critical role of metacognition in L2/EFL writing Ruan 2014;Teng and Zhang 2016;.…”

“…cognitive, metacognitive or social) or skill area (e.g. listening, speaking, reading or writing) Oxford 2017). This study, however, focuses particularly on strategies with a metacognitive function related to the skill of writing (see , this volume, for another empirical study on metacognition and the development of writing skills in a FL, and Zhang and Qin 2018, this volume, for a study on EFL learners' metacognitive awareness of writing strategies in multimedia environments).…”

Investigating the use of speaking strategies in the performance of two communicative tasks: The importance of communicative goal

“…In effect, the available empirical evidence is scant, unfocused, fragmented, and therefore exceedingly difficult to synthesize, with major overviews of language learning strategies treating the terms speaking strategies and communication strategies as synonymous (e.g., Cohen, 2012Cohen, , 2014Oxford, 2011) or making references to studies in other areas, such as pragmatics. One relevant study, undertaken by Huang and van Naerssen (1987), examined the link between performance on an oral task and the use of language learning strategies by 40 English majors in an institution of tertiary education in China.…”

“…In light of this situation and the formidable challenges that learners are bound to encounter in accomplishing this goal, it is reasonable to assume that skillful use of strategies can on the one hand help learners improve their speaking skills and, on the other, aid them in successfully tackling the difficulties that may emerge in the process of communication. For example, taking as a point of reference the classifications of strategies proposed by Oxford (1990Oxford ( , 2011Oxford ( , 2017, the use of the metacognitive strategy of planning a speech and the cognitive strategy of practicing that speech several times may lead to better performance in the language classroom, but also outside of the school context, in real-life situations (e.g., a job interview in the TL). The performance can further be enhanced by controlling emotions with the help of metaaffective and affective strategies, ensuring the attention and assistance from the teacher, fellow learners or other interlocutors by means of metasocial or social strategies, or effectively resolving communication problems through reliance on compensatory strategies.…”