Exploring the effect of the model of metacognitive instruction on the listening performance of EFL learners

Abstract

This study sought to explore the effect of two different models of metacognitive instruction on the listening performance of EFL learners in Iran. The participants were 90 intermediate EFL listeners in three groups, ranging from 20 to 26 years of age. The participants in experimental group one (n = 30) went through a ten-week intervention program that involved the linear instruction of ten metacognitive strategies, with its focus on planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The participants in experimental group two (n = 30), who were trained through Metacognitive Pedagogical Sequence for ten weeks, went through an intervention program that engaged them in a sequence of tasks to help them develop metacognitive awareness of the processes underlying L2 listening through dialogic interactions. The participants in the control group (n=30), who went through a conventional listening instruction program, were taught by the same teacher and listened to the same materials without any guided attention to process. An actual test of language proficiency and a listening comprehension test were also used to collect data and to track changes in listening performance of learners after the intervention. The results of the study showed that metacognitive instruction led to a considerable variance in the overall listening performance of learners. The results also revealed that the model of metacognitive instruction and the manner through which metacognitive strategies were orchestrated led to a difference in the listening performance of EFL learners in this study.