Metacognitive awareness and skills of ELT students regarding the “Structure of English” course
Metacognitive awareness and skills of ELT students
Abstract
Flavell, who led the emergence of the concept of metacognition in his studies in 1975, describes metacognition as knowledge and cognition about cognitive phenomena in his study of children's memory abilities. At the same time Flavell explains the metacognition as person's knowledge of his cognitive processes in 1985 and information to control their own cognitive processes. Metacognition is a process within the theory of information processing that serves to gain knowledge about cognition and control over cognitive processes. It directs and controls processes that move information from one information repository to another. In this sense, metacognition is a form of self-regulation of the individual. In this study, the metacognitive awareness and skills of English Language Teaching Department students regarding their course achievement of the structure of English is aimed to be investigated specifically. For this purpose, the 1st grade ELT students studying at a state university taking the course of structure of English in the spring semester of 2018-2019 academic year in Turkey consist the sample of the study. Hence, both the metacognitive awareness and skills of 1st grade ELT department students and to what extent they convey their metacognitive awareness and skills to the structure of English course are taken into consideration among the research questions of this study. In data collection procedure, 52-item Metacognitive Awareness Inventory consisting of two facets named as knowledge about cognition with three sub-sections and regulation of cognition with 5 sub-sections, and 30-item Metacognitive Skills Scale were used. With the collected data, the relation of cognitive awareness and skills with the achievement of the structure of English course were investigated. In data analysis part of the method, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied to the data. Depending on the findings, it is obtained that the metacognitive awareness and skills of ELT department student studying at one of the state university in Turkey differ from each other and have effects on the achievement of the structure of English course which is one of the courses they need to take during their faculty education. Thus, metacognitive awareness and skills should be taken into consideration in English Language Teaching departments since they provide as pre-conditions for course achievement of teacher candidates and equip them better for their future teaching career, which requires intellectual development as well.References
Altındağ, M., & Senemoğlu, N. (2013). Metacognitive skills scale. H. U. Journal of Education, 28(1), 15-26.
Anderson, D., & Walker, R. (1991). The effects of metacognitive training on the approaches to learning and academic achievement of beginning teacher education students. Paper presented at the Australian Teacher Education Association, Melbourne.
Balkıs, M. (2006). The relationships between student teachers' procrastination behaviors and thinking styles and decision making styles (Doctoral dissertation). Dokuz Eylül University, The Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Educational Sciences, İzmir, Turkey.
Braten, I. (1991). Vygotsky as precursor to metacognitive theory: I. The concept of metacognition and its roots. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 35(3), 179-192.
Brown, A. L. (1987). Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation, and other more mysterious mechanisms. In F. E., Weinert, & R. H., Kluwe (Ed.), Metacognition, motivation and understanding (pp. 65-116). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bruning, R., Schraw, G., & Ronning, R. (1995). Cognitive psychology andinstruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Carrell, P. L., Gajdusek, L., & Wise, T. (1998). Metacognition and EFL/ESL reading. Instructional Science, 26, 97-112.
Danuwong, C. (2006). The Role of Metacognitive strategies in promoting learning English as a foreign languge independently (Doctoral Dissertation). Edith Cowan University Perth, Western Australia. Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/59
Everson, H. T., & Tobias, S. (1998). The ability to estimate knowledge and performance in college: A metacognitive analysis. Instructional Science, 26, 65- 79.
Flavell, J. H. (1987). Speculations about the nature and development of metacognition. In F. E. Weinert, & R. H. Kluwe (Ed.), Metacognition, motivation, and understanding (pp. 21-29). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2000). How to design and evaluate research in education. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Forrest-Pressley, D. L., & Waller, T. G. (1984). Cognition, metacognition, and reading. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Gagne, R. M., Briggs, L. J., & Wager, W.W. (1992). Principles of instructional design. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Gagne, R.M. (1975). Essentials of learning for instruction. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Jacobs, J. E., & Paris, S. G. (1987). Children’s metacognition about reading: Issues in definition, measurement, and instruction. Educational Psychologist, 22, 255–278.
Mazzoni, G. F., & Nelson, T. O. (1998). Metacognition and cognitive neuropsychology. Monitoring and control processes. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kaya, B. (2008). Assessing social studies pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy towards teaching thinking skills (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Gazi University, Institute of Educational Sciences, Ankara, Turkey.
Kyllonen, P. C., & Woltz, D. J. (1989). Role of cognitive factors in the acquisition of cognitive skill. In R. Kanfer, P. C. Ackerman, & R. Cudeck (Ed.), Abilities, motivation, and methodology: The Minnesota Symposium on Learning and Individual Differences (pp. 239-280). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kumar, A. E. (1998). The influence of metacognition on managerial hiring decision making: Implications for management development (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.
Lucangeli, D., & Cornoldi, C. (1997). Mathematics and metacognition: What is the nature of the relationship? Mathematical Cognition, 3(2), 121-139.
Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (Eds.). (1994). Metacognition: Knowing about knowing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mokhtari, K., & Reichard, C. A.(2002). Assessing students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(2), 249–259.
Mokhtari, K., & Sheorey, R. (2002). Measuring ESL students’ awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Developmental Education, 25(3), 2-10.
Negretti, R., & Kuteeva, M. (2011). Fostering metacognitive genre awareness in L2 academic reading and writing: A case study of pre-service English teachers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 20, 95-110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2011.02.002
Nelson, T. O., & Narens, L. (1990). Metacognition: A theoretical framework and new findings. In G. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 26) (pp. 125-141). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Palladino, P., Poli, P., Masi, G., & Marcheschi, M. (1997). Impulsive-reflective cognitive style, metacognition, and emotion in adolescence. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 84, 47-57.
Schraw, G., & Dennison, R. S. (1994). Assessing metacognitive awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 19, 460-475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1994.1033
Schraw, G. (1998). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26(1- 2), 113-125.
Schraw, G., & Moshman, D. (1995). Metacognitive theories. Educational Psychology Review, 7, 351–371.
Schraw, G. (2001). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. In H. J. Hartman (Ed.), Metacognition in learning & instruction. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Shikano, M. (2013). A quantitative survey on metacognitive awareness of reading strategy use in English by Japanese university students. The Bulletin of the Center for International Education, Nanzan University, 14, 11―24.
Sperling, R. A., Howard B. C., Staley, R., & DuBois, N. (2004). Metacognition and self-regulated learning constructs. Educational Research and Evaluation, 10(2), 117-139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/edre.10.2.117.27905
Sternberg, R. J. & Grigorenko, E. (2000). Teaching thinking for successful intelligence. U.S.A.: SkyLight Professional Development, Arlington Heights.
Temur, T. & Bahar, Ö. (2011). Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies of Turkish learners who learn English as a foreign language. European Journal of Educational Studies 3(2), 421-427.
Tok, H., Özgan, H., & Döş, B. (2010). Assessing metacognitive awareness and learning strategies as positive predictors for success in a distance learning class. Mustafa Kamal University Journal of Social Sciences Institute, 7(14), 123-134.
Vandergrift, L. (2005). Relationships among motivation, orientations, metacognitive awareness, and proficiency in L2 listening. Applied Linguistics, 26(1), 70-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2008.10.005
Yüce, E. (2019). Self-regulated learning perceptions of foreign language learners: A cross-sectional study. Novitas-ROYAL (Research on Language), 13(1), 36-46.
Yüksel, İ.& Yüksel, İ. (2012). Metacognitive Awareness of Academic Reading Strategies. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 31, 894–898.
Zhang, L. J., & Wu, A. (2009). Chinese senior high school EFL students metacognitive awreness and reading-strategy use. Reading in a Foreign Language, 21(1), 37-59.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher. The Editors reserve the right to edit or otherwise alter all contributions, but authors will receive proofs for approval before publication.
Copyrights for articles published in International Journal of Curriculum and Instruction are retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the journal. The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.
