The Effects of Metacognitive Strategies on Malaysian Esl Learner's Listening Performance in an Ielts Preparatory Course
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of metacognitive strategies on the listening performance of Malaysian ESL learners in the IELTS listening preparation course. Specifically, the use of metacognitive strategies in the IELTS listening test were identified at the pre-experimental and post-experi...
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| Summary: | This study aimed to evaluate the effects of metacognitive strategies on the listening performance of Malaysian ESL learners in the IELTS listening preparation course. Specifically, the use of metacognitive strategies in the IELTS listening test were identified at the pre-experimental and post-experimental stages, and the differences in test scores for both experimental stages were compared among ESL learners. Besides that, this study also assessed the viewpoints of Malaysian ESL learners on the use of metacognitive strategies to improve their listening skills. An experimental design was used in this study, in which 150 undergraduate students from higher learning institutions were selected as participants using the convenience sampling method. The quantitative and the qualitative method were employed in order to address the research questions and the research objectives of the present study. These participants were divided equally into an experimental and a control group, and the study was carried out in three stages consisting of the pre-experimental, the intervention and the post-experimental stages. The data acquired from the pre- and post- experimental stages were derived from The Metacognitive Learners Awareness Questionnaire (MALQ), IELTS Listening Test papers and a semi-structured interview and, therefore, utilised as the main data for analysis in this study. On the other hand, the data obtained from the intervention stages such as the learners’ checklist, IELTS exercises and the learners’ group discussion were used as the supporting data. For data analysis, the frequency count method was used to analyse the MALQ and the learners’ checklist, while the T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed to analyse the IELTS Listening Test scores and the learners’ IELTS exercises, respectively. In addition, a thematic coding analysis was applied for the qualitative data obtained from the interview and the learners’ discussion. The results obtained from the MALQ data indicated that the participants in the experimental group demonstrated an increase in the level of awareness for directed attention, planning and evaluation factors, as opposed to lower levels of awareness for the person knowledge and problem-solving factors. As for the T-test analysis, results from the experimental group were found to be significantly different (p < .05) as compared to the control group. The thematic analysis based on the learners’ interview and discussion also indicated that the metacognitive strategies utilised by participants from the experimental group to acquire IELTS listening skills were greatly beneficial to them. In conclusion, it is evident that metacognitive strategies such as planning, monitoring, evaluation and problem-solving can be effectively applied by Malaysian ESL learners to acquire IELTS listening skills and should, therefore, be widely implemented in listening lessons in Malaysia. The present study’s contribution based the findings is that metacognitive strategies can be a guide for ESL students to acquire successful IELTS listening skills through the following principles: planning, monitoring, evaluating and problem solving. |
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