Metacognitive Strategy Training for Vocabulary Learning.docx

Metacognitive Strategy Training for Vocabulary Learning.docx

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MetacognitiveStrategyTrainingforVocabularyLearning

MetacognitiveStrategyTrainingforVocabularyLearning

Abstract

ResearchshowsthatnotallL2strategy-trainingstudieshavebeensuccessfulorconclusive.Sometraininghasbeeneffectiveinvariousskillareasbutnotinothers,evenwithinthesamestudy（Oxford,1989）.Thepurposeofthepresentstudywastoshedlightontheissueostrategytraining.WehaveinvestigatedtheeffectofmetacognitivestrategytrainingthroughtheuseofexplicitstrategyinstructiononthedevelopmentoflexicalknowledgeofEFLstudents.

ToreachthegoalofthestudytwogroupsofEFLlanguagelearnersatintermediatelanguageproficiencylevelwererandomlyassignedtoacontrolandanexperimentalgroup.Bothgroupsreceivedinstructiononvocabularylearningstrategiesthrougha10-weekperiodofinstruction.However,onlytheexperimentalgroupreceivedmetacognitivestrategytrainingduringthecourseofthesemester.ThetrainingmodelusedwasbasedontheframeworkfordirectlanguagelearningstrategiesinstructionproposedbyChamotandO'Malley（1994）.TheresultofthestudyshowedthatexplicitmetacognitivestrategytraininghasasignificantpositiveeffectonthevocabularylearningofEFLstudents.[-1-]

Introduction

Ithasbeenclaimedthatsuccessfullanguagelearnershavetheirown"specialwaysofdoingit".Stern（1975）andRubin（1975）wereprobablyamongthefirstresearcherswhobroughtuptheideaofsuccessfullanguagelearners.Theideacanprobablyhelpuswithbothunderstandingmoreaboutthenatureoflanguagelearningandalsotofacilitatethelanguagelearningprocessforothers.Sincethispremise,mostoftheresearchintheareaoflanguagelearningstrategieshasfocusedontheidentification,description,andclassificationofusefullearningstrategies.Theresearchhasbeendescriptivewiththeaimtoelicittheusefulstrategiesappliedbysuccessfullanguagelearnersassumingthatitcouldhelpotherlearnerstobecomemoresuccessful.Rubin（1975）,suggestedthatgoodL2learnersarewillingandaccurateguessers;haveastrongdrivetocommunicate;areoftenuninhibited;arewillingtomakemistakes;focusonformbylookingforpatternsandanalyzing;takeadvantageofallpracticeopportunities;monitortheirspeechaswellasthatofothers;andpayattentiontomeaning.Naiman,Frohlich,andTodesco（1975）madealistofstrategiesusedbysuccessfulL2learners,addingthattheylearntothinkinthelanguageandaddresstheaffectiveaspectsoflanguageacquisitionaswell.

LearningstrategiesaredefinedbyO'MalleyandChamot（1990）as"specialthoughtsorbehaviorsthatindividualsusetocomprehend,learn,orretainnewinformation"（p.1）.Oxford（1994）definesthemas"actions,behaviors,steps,ortechniquesstudentsuse,oftenunconsciously,toimprovetheirprogressinapprehending,internalizing,andusingtheL2"（p.1）.

Inthe1980sandearly90s,researchmainlyfocusedoncategorizingthestrategiesfoundinthestudiesofthepreviousdecade.Asaresult,severaltaxonomieswereproposedtoclassifythem,includingclassificationsoflanguagelearningstrategiesingeneralandlanguagesub-skillsstrategiesinparticular.O'MalleyandChamot（1990）,forinstance,havedividedthestrategiesintothreemainbranches:

cognitive,metacognitive,andsocio-affective,eachofwhichincludeslotsofsub-strategiessuchasrehearsal,organization,summarizing,deducing,andimagery.Ontheotherhand,Oxford（1990a）hasproposedamorecomprehensivemodelinwhichsixcategories,classifiedintotwogroupsofdirectandindirectexist.Thedirectstrategiesincludememory,cognitive,andcompensationwhileindirectstrategiesincludemetacognitive,affective,andsocial.

AsOxford（1990b）mentions,thesocialandaffectivestrategiesarefoundlessofteninL2research.Thisis,perhaps,becausethesebehaviorsarenotstudiedfrequentlybyL2researchers,andbecauselearnersarenotfamiliarwithpayingattentiontotheirownfeelingsandsocialrelationshipsaspartoftheL2learningprocess.

AccordingtoO'MalleyandChamot（1990）,cognitive（e.g.,translating,analyzing）andmetacognitive（e.g.,planning,organizing）strategiesareoftenusedtogether,supportingeachother.Theassumptionisthatusingacombinationofstrategiesoftenhasmoreimpactthansinglestrategies.AsGraham（1997,pp.42-43）states,thedistinctionsbetweencognitiveandmetacognitivestrategiesareimportant,partlybecausetheyhelpustoindicatewhichstrategiesarethemostimportantindeterminingtheeffectivenessoflearning.Grahambelievesthatmetacognitivestrategies,thatallowstudentstoplan,control,andevaluatetheirlearning,havethemostcentralroletoplayinimprovementoflearning.Anderson（2002b）believesthat"Developingmetacognitiveawarenessmayalsoleadtothedevelopmentofstrongercognitiveskills"（p.1）.Sincemetacognitivestrategiesarethefocusofthisstudy,amoredetaileddiscussiononthistopicfollows.[-2-]

Metacognition

Metacognitioninvolves"activemonitoringandconsequentregulationandorchestrationofcognitiveprocesstoachievecognitivegoals"（Flavell,1976,p.252）.FlavellandWellman（1977）,andFlavell（1979）includedinterpretationofongoingexperience,orsimplymakingjudgmentsaboutwhatoneknowsordoesnotknowtoaccomplishatask,asotherfeaturesofmetacognition.Alongwiththenotionsofactiveandconsciousmonitoring,regulation,andorchestrationofthoughtprocess,Flavellbelievedthroughrepeateduseofmetacognition,itmightintimebecomeautomatized.

Anderson（2002a,p.1）definesmetacognitionas"thinkingaboutthinking."AsAndersonstates,theuseofmetacognitivestrategiesignitesone'sthinkingandcanleadtohigherlearningandbetterperformance.Furthermore,understandingandcontrollingcognitiveprocessmaybeoneofthemostessentialskillsthatteacherscanhelpsecondlanguagelearnersdevelop.

Mostoftheearlyinvestigationsofmetacognitionweredescriptiveinnatureinthattheysoughttodescribegeneraldevelopmentalpatternsofchildren'sknowledgeaboutmemoryprocesses.Theywereparticularlyinterestedinprocessesconcernedwithconsciousanddeliberatestorageandretrievalofinformation.However,asstudiesmovedfromdescriptivetoempirical,thekindsofmethodologyexpanded,thenumberofstudiesincreased,andtheneedforaschemetoclassifythisgrowingcorpusofliteratureonmetacognitionarose.Severalclassificationschemeshavebeenusedtogroup,analyze,andevaluatethesestrategies（e.g.,Flavel,1976;1979;Flavell&Wellman,1977;Kluwe,1982）andeventhoughthereareimportantdifferencesamongthem,overall,threegeneralcategoriesconsistentlyappear:

cognitivemonitoring,cognitiveregulation,andacombinationofboth.

Anderson（2002a）,basedonpreviousresearch,hasproposedfivemaincomponentsformetacognition.Theyinclude:

1）preparingandplanningforlearning,2）selectingandusinglearningstrategies,3）monitoringstrategyuse,4）orchestratingvariousstrategies,and5）evaluatingstrategyuseandlearning.

Bypreparationandplanninginrelationtotheirlearninggoal,studentsthinkaboutwhattheirgoalsareandhowtheywillgoaboutaccomplishingthem.Students,withthehelpoftheteacher,cansetarealisticgoalwithinasettimeforaccomplishingthatgoal.Settingclear,challenging,andrealisticgoalscanhelpstudentsseetheirownprogressandhopefully,bybecomingconsciouslyawareoftheirprogress,thestudents'motivationforlearningwouldbeincreased.

Themetacognitiveabilitytoselectanduseparticularstrategiesinagivencontextforaspecificpurposemeansthatthelearnercanthinkandmakeconsciousdecisionsaboutthelearningprocess.Learnersshouldbetaughtnotonlyaboutlearningstrategiesbutalsoaboutwhentousethemandhowtousethem.Studentsshouldbeinstructedonhowtochoosethebestandmostappropriatestrategyinagivensituation.

Thenextmaincomponentofmetacognitionismonitoringstrategyuse.Byexaminingandmonitoringtheiruseoflearningstrategies,studentshavemorechancesofsuccessinmeetingtheirlearninggoals（Anderson,2002a）.Studentsshouldbeexplicitlytaughtthatoncetheyhaveselectedandbeguntousethespecificstrategies,theyneedtocheckperiodicallywhetherornotthosestrategiesareeffectiveandbeingusedasintended.Forexample,whenreading,theycanusecontexttoguessthemeaningofsomeunknownvocabularyitems.Tomonitortheiruseofthisstrategy,theyshouldpauseandchecktoseeifthemeaningtheyguessedmakessenseinthetextandifnot,gobackandmodifyorchangetheirstrategy.[-3-]

Knowinghowtouseacombinationofstrategiesinanorchestratedfashionisanimportantmetacognitiveskill.Researchhasshownthatsuccessfullanguagelearnerstendtoselectstrategiesthatworkwelltogetherinahighlyorchestratedway,tailoredtotherequirementsofthelanguagetask（Chamot&Kupper,1989;Wenden,1998）.Theselearnerscaneasilyexplainthestrategiestheyuseandwhytheyemploythem（O'Malley&Chamot,1990）.

BasedonChamotandKupper（1989）,certainstrategiesorclustersofstrategiesarelinkedtoparticularlanguageskillsortasks.Forexample,L2writing,likeL1writing,benefitsfromthelearningstrategiesofplanning,self-monitoring,deduction,andsubstitution.L2speakingdemandsstrategiessuchasrisk-taking,paraphrasing,circumlocution,self-monitoring,andself-evaluation.L2listeningcomprehensiongainsfromstrategiesofelaboration,inferencing,selectiveattention,andself-monitoring.Readingcomprehensionusesstrategieslikereadingaloud,guessing,deduction,andsummarizing.Researchshowsth