Unleashing Potential: Metacognitive Strategies for Learning English

Introduction

This article delves into the crucial role of metacognition in the realm of second language learning, specifically focusing on English. It will explore the significance of metacognitive strategies in the language-learning process, drawing upon research that highlights the prominence of metacognitive knowledge among successful language learners. Furthermore, the article will present specific strategies that teachers and educators in both MFL (Modern Foreign Languages) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) contexts can implement to foster metacognitive awareness in their students.

Metacognitive strategies are techniques to help students develop an awareness of their thinking processes as they learn. These techniques help students focus with greater intention, reflect on their existing knowledge versus information they still need to learn, recognize errors in their thinking, and develop practices for effective learning.

Understanding Metacognition in Language Learning

Anderson (2003) categorizes language learning strategies into seven major areas: cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, mnemonic strategies, compensatory strategies, affective strategies, social strategies, and self-motivating strategies. Metacognitive strategies, in particular, are those that oversee, direct, and regulate the learning process. These strategies involve thinking about learning processes, encompassing planning, monitoring, evaluating, and regulating learning activities.

Oxford (2003) champions the idea of fostering increased learning autonomy in language learning classrooms. This involves equipping students with knowledge of various learning strategies and the ability to utilize them for optimal learning. Oxford emphasizes that language learning styles and strategies are key determinants of how effectively students learn a second or foreign language. When consciously chosen, language learning strategies can serve as a gateway to active, conscious, and purposeful self-regulation in learning. Therefore, enhancing language learning necessitates that learners reflect on how to learn more effectively and efficiently, making appropriate adjustments to their approach. The goal of metacognitive strategy training, therefore, is self-diagnosis, awareness of how to learn target language most efficiently, developing problem solving skills, experimenting familiar and unfamiliar learning strategies, decision making about how to approach a task, monitoring and self-evaluation, transferring successful learning strategies to new learning context, and enabling students to become more independent, autonomous, and lifelong learners.

The Significance of Metacognitive Knowledge

Evidence suggests that metacognitive strategies play a more significant role than other learning strategies. Once a learner understands how to regulate their own learning through the use of strategies, language acquisition tends to proceed at a faster pace (Anderson, 2003). Metacognitive knowledge, such as understanding how one learns best, is particularly important. Strategic learners possess metacognitive knowledge about their own thinking and learning approaches, a clear understanding of task requirements, and the ability to implement strategies that align with both task demands and their own learning strengths. Fostering metacognition cultivates learners' awareness of the learning process and strategies that lead to success. Equipped with this knowledge, learners are more likely to oversee the selection and application of learning strategies, plan their approach to a learning task, monitor their performance continuously, identify solutions to encountered problems, and evaluate themselves upon task completion (Zhang & Goh, 2006). Metacognitive knowledge is essential for learners selecting and activating strategies (Rubin, 1987) and it is vital that teachers strive to nurture students’ own metacognition and teach them how to use strategies that they find effective for the kinds of tasks they need to accomplish in the process of language learning (Goh, 2008).

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According to research by Rahimi & Katal (2011), there is extensive evidence that learners’ metacognition can directly affect the process and the outcome of their learning. Metacognitive awareness raising can improve the level of students’ performance, and implementing metacognitive teaching in the educational process can lead to desirable educational goals. In language-learning education, one string of studies has focused on finding the role metacognitive knowledge plays in determining the effectiveness of individuals’ attempts to learn another language. According to Flavell (1979), the effective role of metacognitive knowledge in many cognitive activities related to language use is conspicuous, e.g., oral communication of information, oral persuasion, oral comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing, to language acquisition, and to various types of self-instruction. Research on metacognitive knowledge and language learning has acknowledged a mutual influence in terms of second language learning (Zhang & Goh, 2006) and highlights the fact that metacognitive knowledge should be incorporated in learner training programs to make their learning more efficient (Wenden, 1998).

Characteristics of Successful Language Learners

Explicit metacognitive knowledge about task characteristics (e.g. what the task requires) and applying appropriate strategies for task solution (e.g. what the best strategy for solving the task) is a major determiner of language learning effectiveness (Mahmoudi et al., 2010). This is because metacognitive strategies enable learners to play active role in the process of learning, to manage and direct their own learning and eventually to find the best ways to practice and reinforce what they have learned (Chari et al., 2010). This gives them an advantage because they are in a position to process and store new information and leads to better test performance, learning outcome, and better achievement (Zimmerman et al., 2001).

Metacognitive knowledge is the hallmark of the approaches to learning used by of expert learners: it enhances learning outcomes, facilitates information processing, comprehension of written texts and the completion of new types of learning tasks and improves the rate of progress in learning and the quality and speed of learners’ cognitive engagement (Rahimi & Katal, 2011)

Some studies have focused on what proficient and successful language learners do while reading, writing, speaking, and listening with regard to the type of strategies they use, and how and under what conditions they use those strategies. The findings of these studies support the fact that proficient language learners take conscious steps to understand what they are doing by using a wider range of strategies than less proficient learners do (Anderson, 2003). Further, there are also theories and research findings in the literature on the relationship between metacognitive knowledge and autonomy and their mutual influence on successful learning that are worthy of note. According to Wenden (1998) metacognitive knowledge influences the self-regulation of learning in planning, monitoring and evaluating skills and these skills can constitute self-directed language learning. Metacognitive knowledge informs planning decisions taken at the outset of learning and the monitoring processes that regulate the completion of a learning task, e.g., self-observation, assessment of problems and progress, and decisions to remediate; it also provides the criteria for evaluation made once a learning task is completed. Metacognitive knowledge is considered as prerequisite to self-regulation (Butler & Winne 1995), it provides knowledge base for planning, monitoring and evaluation and it helps learners to play active role in the process of learning rather than being passive (Paris & Winograd, 1990).

It is also suggested that language learning strategies are the key factors in accomplishing autonomy (Wenden, 1991; Brown, 1994; Oxford, 1996; Skehan, 1998; Yang, 1998) and that metacognitive strategies increase learner autonomy and its direction toward more individualized instruction (Fewell, 2010).

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Practical Metacognitive Teaching Strategies

Instructors can implement metacognitive strategies through a model that follows this scheme: Plan, monitor, evaluate. This particular strategy is effective because it naturally adapts to and accommodates various subjects and learning styles. Following is the strategy in detail:

Plan: Instructors have their students plan out what they are going to read and how much they are going to read. Instructors can teach this to their students by first modeling the concept in front of the class and subsequently having the students build a plan themselves. Instructors should encourage students to think about what they are reading, the topic they’re reading about, look at the visual aspects of the text, skim for headings and subheadings in the text, and so on. This encourages students to be aware of what they’re choosing to read and to question what the material they are reading means. This is also the time for students to set reading goals.
Monitor: Instructors should further encourage and educate their students to consistently monitor their own understanding of the texts they are reading. They can encourage their students to pause whenever they find their mind wandering, ask themselves if they remember what they read, and ask themselves why they may not be able to remember what they just read. Doing so promotes awareness and makes the process more efficient. This process helps students recognize when they are confused by a text and teaches them to navigate those challenges in the future by pausing and reflecting. This is a time for students to refer back to their reading plan to check progress.
Evaluate: After students implement planning and monitoring in their reading, instructors can move to evaluation. In the evaluation stage, students are taught to reflect on their own plans and goals for reading and consider if it was successful or not. If the plan is not successful, instructors can encourage students to create another plan until they find one that works for them.

Metacognitive Teaching Strategies & Activity Ideas

Lesson wrappers: These are student reflection activities that occur at the start and end of lessons. They are a popular approach to metacognition in general and can be utilized in second language teaching and learning.

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Metacognitive bookmarks: When students are reading a book as a class, providing them with metacognitive bookmarks can be beneficial. These bookmarks serve as a regular prompt to trigger metacognitive reflection in relation to reading comprehension.
Task-specific metacognitive knowledge: Students can gain metacognitive knowledge with reference to specific tasks, learning processes, or how they, as individual learners, learn best!
The metacognitive cycle: This cycle involves planning, monitoring, evaluating, and regulating one’s approach to learning. It is applicable to virtually any learning activity that you may set your students. Mind-mapping activities can be a great way to explore each stage of the process; simple 4-step mini-worksheets can also be given to students in order to neatly organise their metacognitive reflection. Each worksheet strip contains a section for planning, monitoring, evaluating and regulating the students approach to learning.
Games and learning activities: There are a number of fun games and learning activities that you might want to try with your students. Giving students extra time so that they can try to answer in the language that is being taught is an obvious way you might want to adapt such resources for the language-learning classroom. Two you might be interested in are ‘The Metacognition Sticky Note Challenge’ and ‘The Learning Power Quiz’ - the second will be particularly useful for English language learning classes as it will introduce new vocabulary relevant to metacognition and the maximisation of learning power.

Integrating Metacognitive Strategies into Classroom Practices

To help multilingual learners effectively use visuals, sentence frames, and pair-share routines, teachers can implement the following strategies:

Visuals

Think aloud: Modeling internal thinking out loud serves as a reminder for students about the resources they have available to them and also allows them to approach visuals with more confidence. Teachers can verbally demonstrate what a student should be thinking when using a visual.
Guided practice: Build in practice time for students to interact with visuals. Ask questions like “If I need to find an adjective, where do I look?” When students point at the answer, or discuss the answer as a group, they’re lowering the cognitive demand typically required of accessing a visual.
Consistency: Frequently encourage students to use visuals as a resource. When students ask for help, first redirect them to a corresponding visual, which reinforces good habits.

Sentence Frames

Think aloud: A think-aloud model enables students to more easily consider which sentence frames they need based on what they’re trying to communicate.
Communication purpose: Students internalize sentence frames not just through practice, but through understanding purpose. Teachers can communicate the larger point of a sentence frame. When students feel confident about the purpose behind specific sentence frames, they’re more likely to turn to them.
Real-time feedback: Teachers can give students individual feedback in the moment, especially when they’re practicing a new sentence frame. The feedback should be short, simple, and focused on both accuracy and clarity of expression.

Pair-Share

Think aloud: It benefits students when teachers explain out loud the sort of thing they’d say to a partner during pair-share. This framing gets students to anchor their own cognitive practices to the teacher exemplar.
Active listening: There are two main components of active listening: the ability to listen to a peer and comprehend their answer, and the ability to listen with a communication goal.
- For the first component, teachers can ask students to participate in short listening opportunities with peers on nonacademic topics, and then reshare what their partner just said.
- As for the second component: Students need to learn how to listen with an individual purpose. Teachers can nurture short exchanges between students with a sentence frame support.

The Impact of Metacognitive Reading Strategies

Due to the nature of reflection embedded in metacognitive reading strategies, a series of “checkpoints” may naturally occur in each student’s mind as they read. This also has a direct positive impact by improving vocabulary and comprehension. The “checkpoints” of reflection and questioning that are a result of metacognitive strategies cause students to reflect on words and sentences they do not understand and seek to improve.

Real-World Applications

Students who are taught to implement metacognition into their learning process carry these principles with them beyond school, into college, and then into adulthood. Introducing metacognitive reading strategies at a young age cultivates continual patterns of reflection that benefit students beyond their school years. Metacognitive processes keep adult readers engaged in reading texts such as novels. As children become adults, the metacognitive principles discussed in school become unconscious thought processes that require little to no effort to implement and maintain. Furthermore, since metacognitive strategies are meant to break down activities, continually asking questions and managing information through reflection promotes deeper thinking and improves problem solving (critical thinking). Critical thinking encourages improved decision-making skills because asking questions and breaking down processes can open other doors for solutions.

Research-Backed Efficacy

A research study determined the implementation of metacognitive strategies in third grade classrooms enhanced reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement. Study participants were selected from two elementary schools. Six third grade classes were selected between the two schools and followed for five weeks. The students were tested prior to the implementation of metacognitive strategies and then retested at the end of the study. These students demonstrated significant improvement post-reading intervention with metacognitive strategies.

The Role of Interest and Motivation

Interest refers to a feeling of curiosity, attraction, or desire to engage with an object (such as a person, thing, or activity). Interest is usually pleasurable and rivets an individual’s attention onto the object of interest. In educational psychology, interest is a motivational variable that involves both our thoughts and our feelings. Evidence from neuroscience indicates that interest has an essentially biological basis, part of the “seeking system” intrinsic to all mammalian brains that modifies subjective experience and stimulates pleasurable seeking and exploration. Interest motivates human engagement in new experiences and thereby makes possible the acquisition of knowledge about those experiences. In other words, interest should lead to learning. In fact, engendering interest might be the most important thing a teacher can do.

A large body of research has confirmed that interest does indeed improve learning. Hidi and Renninger (2006) modelled interest as a four-part process that moves from situational interest (usually short-lived interests triggered by qualities of an object) to individual interest (long-lived interest marked by accumulating knowledge about and perceptions of value for the object).

Situational interest is triggered by qualities that are interesting to almost everyone. These include mystery, romance, unpredictability, conflict, humor, novelty, personal relevance, ease of understanding, and intensity. Qualities that render a situation or object difficult to understand tend to decrease situational interest, so students are also more interested in classroom activities and materials that are coherent. It is no coincidence that qualities that raise situational interest are also those that make some movies hits at the box office.

People can feel interested in a topic without good metacognitive skills to learn about it. People can also feel little interest in a topic while having very strong metacognitive skills. But usually, metacognition and interest complement each other. Students who are interested in math, for example, tend to also have better metacognitive skills for learning math. Research has shown that metacognition and interest synergize to increase student engagement (Wang, et al., 2021) and improve learning. It’s likely that interest sparks a desire to learn effectively in the area of interest, which in turn prompts efforts to improve metacognitive skills to do so. Conversely, enhanced metacognitive skills can increase interest. This is probably because with improved metacognition comes a greater feeling of competence or ease in learning, which in turn engenders more interest.

Metacognitive skills are improved when learners face challenges that reveal gaps in their knowledge and they make plans to close these gaps. These gaps in knowledge might be related explicitly to language use (“How do I ask for directions to the train station?” “What is the word for __?” “What is the polite way to ask someone’s name?”) or can be related to knowledge about learning strategies (“How can I prepare to do this speaking activity better?” “What are good ways to deal with my anxiety about making mistakes?” “What steps can I take to get a better vocabulary quiz score?”). These opportunities can take the form of frequent small-stakes quizzes or other evaluated language-learning tasks. Teachers should follow up with activities that encourage students to reflect on their knowledge and to make plans to fill in knowledge gaps. Such activities can also serve as encouragement for students who are disappointed by their performance, by highlighting the fact that concrete ways exist for them to improve. For students who find it difficult to make such plans, follow-up questions can be asked with a range of suggested actions.

Students with a good grasp of metacognitive strategies learn better. When students are also interested in what they are applying these strategies to, learning becomes better still. Situational interest can be aroused by the topics embedded in learning activities and materials or by removing unnecessary impediments to comprehension. Injecting qualities like unexpectedness and unpredictability in the classroom environment can be as easy as varying the members of discussion groups and changing the kinds of activities used from week to week. Basing activities on frameworks that include qualities like mystery, excitement, romance, danger, conflict, etc., instantly increases the interestingness of those activities. The classes of teachers who deliberately insert humor into activities are intrinsically more interesting (See Rucynski, 2016 for good ways to use humor in classrooms). Removing unneeded obstructions to comprehension by giving instructions in very simple language or in students’ native language, by assigning homework that provides students with necessary background knowledge for classroom tasks, and by making sure texts have coherent structures (such as a clear beginning, middle, and end), and, of course, by improving students’ metacognitive strategies, all will increase student interest.

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