1.3.3　Metacognitive Listening Awareness

1.3.3MetacognitiveListeningAwareness

TheconceptofmetacognitionwasintroducedincognitivepsychologybyFlavell(1979),whodefinedmetacognitionas“knowledgethattakesasitsobjectorregulatesanyaspectofanycognitivebehavior”(Flavell,1979,p.8).Hethendescribedmetacognitionasawarenessofhowonelearns,awarenessofwhenonedoesanddoesnotunderstand,knowledgeofhowtouseavailableinformationtoachieveagoal,abilitytojudgethecognitivedemandsofaparticulartask,knowledgeofwhatstrategiestouseforwhatpurposes,andassessmentofone'sprogressbothduringandafterperformance.Metacognitiveawarenessinvolvesbothexperienceandknowledge(Flavell,1979).Metacognitiveexperienceisafeelingwehaveaboutourcognition,whilemetacognitiveknowledgeconsistsofourbeliefsandknowledgeaboutlearning.

SinceWenden(1987)firstdrewpublicattentiontotheenormouspotentialthatmetacognitionhasforunderstandingL2learning,L2researchers(e.g.,Goh,2008;Vandergrift,2004)haveproposedspecificmetacognitiveapproachestohelplearnersraisetheirmetacognitiveawarenessaboutlisteningandintegratetheuseofstrategieswhilelistening.Researchontheeffectsofmetacognitiveinstructionhasalsoprovidedsomeevidencethatperformance,confidence,andmotivationcanbeenhancedthroughclassroominstruction(e.g.,Goh,2002b;Vandergrift&Tafaghodtari,2010).

BasedonFlavell's(1979)theoreticalmodelofmetacognition,Vandergrift,Goh,Mareschal,andTafaghodtari(2006)classifiedmetacognitivelisteningawarenessintofivecategories:problemsolving,planning-evaluation,mentaltranslation,personknowledgeanddirectedattention.Tohelplearnersintegratetheuseofmetacognitivestrategieswhilelistening,Vandergrift(2004)proposedacyclewhichincludessuchmetacognitiveprocessesaspromptinglearnerstousestrategiestoregulatetheircomprehension,verifyingthestrategiesbeingused,andevaluatingthestrategiesusedinthelisteningprocess.Suchmetacognitiveprocessesnotonlyraisethelearners'metacognitiveawarenessabouttheirstrategyusebutalsooffermuchneededscaffoldingwhilelearnersareworkingwithlisteningtexts.“Learnerswhosuccessfullyusethesestrategiestoimprovetheircomprehensionwillalsoexperienceanincreaseinmotivation”(Goh,2008,p.192).