Using Metacognition to Improve Learners' Listening Skills Dr. Shannon Becker

Outline  What is listening and why study it?  What is metacognitive instruction and why does it help?  A brief look at my research study and results  Implementing metacognitive instruction in the L2 classroom 2

What is listening and why study it? Perceptual and cognitive processes Perceiving the auditory input Recognizing words in the speech stream Parsing Bottom-up and top-down processes Motivation for my study: Listening is HARD. Is this true for your students as well? 3

What is listening and why study it? So how do we help make listening easier? Do you have strategies that you already use? My answer (in part): metacognition Helps students explicitly understand the cognitive processes they’re using Gives them strategies to apply to listening situations Gives them plenty of exposure to target language input 4

What is metacognitive instruction and why does it help? Metacognition (Flavell, 1976, 1979) “one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes and products or anything related to them” (p. 232) “[Metacognition] refers, among other things, to active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes in relation to the cognitive objects or data on which they bear…” (p. 232) Metacognitive instruction Brainstorming Focused attention Comparison Reflection Planning 5

What is metacognitive instruction and why does it help? Justification for metacognitive instruction: Learners are aware of the strategies and consider them important, but don’t know how or when to use them (Vogely, 1995; Zhang & Goh, 2006). Higher-level learners use more metacognitive strategies than lower-level learners. Potential issue: differential memory and attentional capacity Metacognition can prime learners to pay attention to the input, which allows them to notice certain features and potentially mitigates the effect of these differences. Explicit metacognitive listening instruction : noticing of grammatical and phonological features as well as cognitive processes = learning how to listen effectively. 6

My study: hypotheses Metacognitive instruction, by virtue of focusing learner attention on the perceptual and cognitive processes of listening and repeatedly exposing them to the phonological sequences of the L2, will help learners automatize the perceptual and cognitive processes of listening, leading to improved performance on listening tasks as well as reduced reaction times. H1: Metacognitive > Control in listening gains H2: Metacognitive > Control in reaction time drop-offs (automaticity) H3: Metacognitive > Control for listeners with low initial metacognitive awareness for both listening and reaction time 7

My study: methodology 82 participants from 7 intact class sections of French 102 (mean age = 19) 2 groups: Control and Experimental (metacognitive) Pretest – Treatment – Posttest Schedule of Assessments Day 1Day 2Day 3 Background questionnaireTreatmentListening PosttestDelayed Posttest Listening PretestPeriodMALQ MALQ 8

My study: methodology Listening Tests Audio-only Preview of questions Each text repeated First and last clicks recorded Multiple choice 4 pages/passages 9

My study: methodology 10 Give learners the topic of the excerpt. They brainstorm ideas of what they will hear based on the topic. During the first listen, they check off the things they heard and write down things they didn’t expect. Then they check comprehension with a partner. During the 2 nd listen, they listen for things they didn’t understand the first time. The instructor then leads a discussion of comprehension and listening strategies. Finally, they listen a 3 rd time for meaning, then take some notes on strategies for next time.

My study: summary of results Low initial listening proficiency --> Bigger listening gains, regardless of group Low initial metacognitive awareness --> Bigger listening gains in the experimental condition High initial metacognitive awareness --> Bigger listening gains in the control condition Metacognitive awareness influences reaction time, while initial listening proficiency does not. 11

Implications for the classroom Helping students improve their metacognitive awareness can lead to an improvement in listening comprehension. Metacognitive awareness is related to reaction time. It is important to account for learner differences in listening instruction. Varying activities in order to address differences in metacognitive awareness is particularly important since this can have an impact on both listening and reaction times. 12

Implementing metacognitive instruction in the L2 classroom Anything that brings learners’ attention to the cognitive and perceptual processes they’re using before, during, and after they listen. ≠ just comprehension questions Brainstorming Focused attention Comparison Reflection Planning Do you have other ideas??

Implementing metacognitive instruction in the L2 classroom Activity: Think of (or find) a song, movie, commercial, vlog, etc. in your language of instruction. Create a minute lesson plan that incorporates elements of metacognition in pre-, during, and post-listening activities. Share with the group and let’s discuss the benefits of the lessons.

15 Merci!