The nature of metacognitive awareness in foreign language learners and its interaction with creativity

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that second/foreign language learning and cognitive functions mutually affect each other. In pursuit of an earlier study which asserted the superiority of advanced foreign language learners over beginners in divergent thinking abilities, the present study examined another important cognitive function, i.e., metacognitive awareness in the same participants, that is, two groups of advanced English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and beginners through Schraw and Dennison’s Metacognitive Awareness Inventory. The results revealed that there was no significant difference between the two groups on this measure. However, the correlation analysis showed that the two cognitive functions, i.e., creativity and metacognitive awareness, significantly correlated with each other either in advanced English as a foreign language learners or beginners. The significance of this correlation in language learning programs is further discussed.