Assessing the impact of the metacognitive pedagogical cycle on adult EFL learners’ proficiency and awareness: Evidence from Chilean classrooms

This study was an attempt to examine the contribution of metacognitive strategies to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' listening comprehension performance and their metacognitive awareness. Fifty seven out of sixty eight EFL students were selected to participate in this study after their performance on Oxford Placement Test. The participants were then randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. After signing a consent form, both groups sat for the Preliminary English Test as their pretest. After filling in the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ), the students in the experimental group received five sessions of listening practice and strategy training using The Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) Model (1999). The students in the control group, however, did not receive any instruction about strategies. After the strategy training the learners in both groups took another version of the PET as their posttest, and the experimental group filled in the MALQ again. Two types of tasks, namely, selection and completion were used to measure the participants’ listening comprehension after the treatment. Several paired samples t-tests and an ANCOVA were conducted. The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the listening tasks. The experimental group's metacognitive awareness improved dramatically after the strategy training. Meanwhile, the students performed significantly better in the selection tasks than in the completion tasks. Teachers are advised to allocate part of their teaching time to strategy training. Material developers should also take into consideration using task types because the performance of students may vary in different task types.

This study explored the effect of metacognitive strategy instruction on the listening performance and metacognitive awareness of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Iran. It also strove to investigate how various aspects of learners’ metacognitive awareness, as measured by each of the five Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) factors, were affected by metacognitive strategy instruction. The participants were 60 intermediate EFL listeners in two groups, ranging in age from 20 to 26. The experimental group (N = 30) went through a guided lesson plan in metacognition for 10 weeks, which focused on planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The control group (N = 30) was taught by the same teacher and listened to the same texts without any guided attention to process. The MALQ and a listening test were also used before and after the intervention to track the changes in metacognitive awareness and listening performance. The results showed that metacognitive strategy instruction led to a considerable variance in overall listening performance and metacognitive awareness of learners. Furthermore, the analysis of the five MALQ factors revealed a significant impact of metacognitive strategy instruction on the metacognitive awareness of listeners.

BackgroundIntroducing new technologies in education sparks debates, disrupting traditional practices, and requiring teacher adaptation. ChatGPT is an example. Research explores its benefits and concerns in education, with recommendations for classroom use. Nevertheless, limited evidence supports ChatGPT as a tool for supporting English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' research competency. Moreover, while the literature primarily focuses on the perspectives of scholars and teachers, it is essential to incorporate students' viewpoints in order to maximize the potential of this technology.ObjectivesThe present study investigated EFL undergraduates' perceptions and practices of ChatGPT as a tool for promoting their research competency. Additionally, the study examined the potential influence of metacognitive awareness (MA) levels in this context.MethodsThe study utilized a mixed‐method research design, collecting quantitative and qualitative data from 27 EFL undergraduates (12 with low MA and 15 with high MA) over one semester. Data sources included a self‐report questionnaire, self‐study log, and semi‐structured interviews.Results and conclusionsQuantitative analysis showed significant differences between low and high MA groups in their perceptions of ChatGPT (U = 37.500, Z = 2.570). Regression analysis revealed a positive correlation between MA scores and students' perceptions and practices of ChatGPT. Qualitative analysis revealed diverse perceptions and practices of ChatGPT between the high MA and low MA groups, showcasing behaviours ranging from replication to using ChatGPT as a thought‐stimulating and supportive tool, accessing supplementary information, and seeking guidance. Key factors for effective ChatGPT use included prompt formulation, systematic thinking, self‐regulation strategies, and trust in AI.

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.

From the EditorsHuseyin Uzunboylu, Cigdem HursenIt is an honor for us to welcome you as Editors of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has accepted publications indexed in qualified databases since 2006. We are ready to publish the new studies of Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences which has 5 full length articles written by authors from, Cyprus, Iran and Turkey.The aim of this issue is to give the researchers an opportunity to share their academic studies. First of all, I would like to thank all who have contributed to this issue. There are different focuses. For example, Cihat Demir, Burhan Sincar and Rıdvan Çelik explored to specify the matters encountered by science teachers during the teaching of physics and to provide them with solutions. The study group consisted of 50 science teachers who worked in Diyarbakır and Batman over the period of 2014 - 2015. This research is a descriptive study carried out by content analysis. According to the research findings, the top problems that the physics teachers encountered in physics lesson while processing the topics were laboratory problems. Some solutions have been introduced for science teachers in order to help them provide a better physics education.On the other hand, Parisa Abdolrezapour and Elahe Fallah explored the effect of reflective teaching on learner autonomy and the intrinsic motivation of Iranian upper-intermediate female learners. The subjects included 60 adult upper-intermediate EFL learners chosen out of ninety, based on the scores obtained through administration of the TOEFL exam. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a) the experimental group - taught by a reflective teacher - and b) the control group instructed by an unreflective teacher. The experimental group was then taught by the reflective teacher and the control group was taught by the unreflective teacher who adopted no tangible reflective actions. Finally, both groups sat for motivation and autonomy questionnaires. The results indicate that reflective teaching leads to the enhancement of both learners’ autonomy and the intrinsic motivation level.In addition to these, Nazım Kaşot and Serap Özbaş aimed in their study to assess the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric awareness of the consequence of high school students regarding the loss of bio-diversity, then comparing the results on the basis of some independent variables (gender, class and family income). According to the outcome of the research, students believed in biospheric, egoistic and altruistic results at the similar levels. While the impact of gender and family income on biospheric, altruistic and egoistic awareness of consequence is not so significant, the impact of class is significant on biospheric and altruistic awareness of consequence.Also Nazım Kaşot and Mete Özsezer studied historical environment subjects in elementary school social sciences textbooks. They focused on the 4th and 5th Grades in the context of both content and visuals. The method of the study analysed has been organised in accordance with the qualitative research. The population was not indicated pursuant to qualitative research and so purposive sampling was implemented. The textbooks used were mainly selected from the afore-mentioned grades and classes. All the data collected were based on the textbooks used during the assessment process. The data was gathered in accordance with the document analysis technique and everything was analysed in detail. The categories used were generated after the authors performed analysis by utilising textbooks. To ensure the validity of the categories, literature scanning was undertaken and expert opinion was taken. The category definitions were written for public access. Finally, Hakan Sarıcam and Üzeyir Ogurlu carried out a study on gifted students. Authors examined the relationships between metacognitive awareness and maths anxiety in gifted students. The second aim was to compare with gifted and non-gifted students’ metacognitive awareness and maths anxiety levels. According to the findings; firstly, gifted students’ metacognitive awareness scores were higher than those of non-gifted students. On the other hand, non-gifted students’ maths anxiety levels were higher than those of gifted students. Secondly, there was negative correlation between metacognitive awareness and math anxiety.I would like to express my thanks to all authors preferring Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences to make their articles published, all reviewers working seriously in the process of publishing, and also quest editors supporting us in this process.Best regards,Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu, Editor-in-ChiefAssist. Prof. Dr. Cigdem Hursen, Executive Editor

Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the use of metacognitive instruction to promote learners' second language (L2) listening comprehension. Rooted in Sociocultural Theory (SCT), this study aimed at investigating the effect of process-based instruction on improving metacognitive awareness and listening comprehension of young English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners at an English language institute in Khorramabad, Iran. In so doing, 60 young EFL learners, ranging from 11 to 13 years old, were randomly assigned into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group (n = 30) received the strategy training following the model proposed by Vandergrift (2004). The same teacher taught listening to the participants in the control group (n = 30) without any strategy instruction. Furthermore, metacognitive awareness of participants was assessed by the administration of the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) both at the beginning and end of the study. The results of listening comprehension tests of both groups unveiled that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the listening comprehension posttest. In addition, the results of the MALQ revealed a significant promotion of the experimental group’s metacognitive awareness. The findings are explained in the light of sociocultural theory and collaborative interactions; finally, some pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are offered.

Listening is regarded as an essential skill for language learning, and metacognitive intervention has been utilized widely to facilitate this skill for learners in recent years. Besides metacognitive factors, the impact of personality traits such as introversion/extroversion has been emphasized in the field of language teaching. This study investigated the effect of the metacognitive intervention on upper-intermediate introvert English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. Upper-intermediate introvert EFL learners ( N = 59) were randomly assigned to an experimental ( N = 29) and a control group ( N = 30). The experimental group received metacognitive intervention through a pedagogical cycle for eight sessions, while the control group followed their conventional approach without a pedagogical cycle. Participants in both groups took International English Language Testing System (IELTS) listening tests and completed a Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) before and after the intervention. Subsequently, 20 learners from the experimental group were randomly chosen and interviewed to decode their attitudes toward the intervention. Results suggested that metacognitive intervention led to a significant improvement in introvert EFL learners’ listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. The results of the qualitative data analysis also revealed that the learners benefited from the metacognitive intervention in various areas, such as improvement in listening comprehension, becoming able to identify their strengths and weaknesses, decreasing anxiety, and increasing concentration, self-confidence, and motivation.

This study focused on investigating the effects of collaborative strategic reading (CSR) on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ reading comprehension, second language (L2) reading motivation, and metacognitive awareness. Following a quasi-experimental design, 48 Iranian EFL learners were selected from four intact language institute classes. Two of these classes were considered experimental groups (EGs), and two were regarded as control groups (CGs). Then, all four classes received the three pretests of the study (Reading Comprehension pretest, L2 Reading Motivation questionnaire, and metacognitive awareness questionnaire). Next, the treatment phase of the study began and all the groups received reading comprehension instruction. In the EGs, the teacher conducted the essential elements of cooperative learning through CSR strategies (preview, click & clunk, get the gist, and wrap up). On the other hand, CG learners received traditional reading comprehension classes with no group work. After the treatment, all four groups received the three posttests. The results of three one-way ANCOVAs revealed that CSR was significantly more effective than traditional instruction in improving EFL learners’ reading comprehension. In addition, it was found that CSR was significantly effective in improving EFL learners’ reading motivation and metacognitive awareness. The findings of the study can be utilized by language practitioners, materials, and curriculum developers to consider EFL students’ needs and goals in L2 reading.

Listening has recently attracted the attention of both researchers and practitioners worldwide (Renandya & Hu, 2018), and research into L2 listening strategy use has recently tended to focus on metacognitive strategies (Lynch & Mendelsohn, 2020), This study investigated the comparative effect of L1/L2-mediated metacognitive intervention (MI) on the IELTS listening comprehension performance and metacognitive awareness of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Iran. The participants were 540 upper-intermediate EFL listeners in three groups, ranging from 17 to 28 years of age. The experimental groups (Ex1=180 / Ex2=180) went through a guided lesson plan in metacognition in English and Persian for twelve weeks, which focused on planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The control group (CG = 180), also instructed by the same teacher, listened to the same texts without any guided attention to the process. The MALQ and an actual IELTS test were used before and after the intervention to track the changes in metacognitive awareness and listening performance. The overall results showed that MI caused a considerable variance in the listening performance and the metacognitive awareness of learners in both experimental groups. The Post Hoc multiple comparison results of the three groups also illustrated that the medium for the delivery of the metacognitive intervention (L1) assisted the listeners in experimental group one, who went through L1-mediated metacognitive intervention, to outperform their peers in experimental group two, who were taught in L2, and the control group, who were taught conventionally.

This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of metacognitive instruction through dialogic interaction in a joint activity on advanced Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ multimedia listening and their metacognitive awareness in listening comprehension. The data were collected through (N=180) male and female Iranian advanced learners ranging from 16 to 24 years of age in three groups. The first two groups were experimental (n=60), trained through a structured intervention program focusing on metacognitive instruction through dialogic interaction (MIDI) and metacognitive instruction (MI) for 10 sessions. The learners in the experimental group were involved in 60 minutes of practice twice a week. The third group was a control group (n=60), trained through regular classroom listening activities without receiving the structured intervention program. Multimedia listening tests and the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) were used to track the advanced learners’ multimedia listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. The results showed that metacognitive instruction through dialogic interaction did improve both the advanced learners’ multimedia listening comprehension and their metacognitive awareness in listening.

Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) typically struggle with listening skills. This study investigates the effectiveness of metacognitive instruction through the pedagogical cycle approach in terms of listening achievement, metacognitive awareness, and listening self-efficacy of Saudi female EFL learners. It also identifies the listening challenges they face. The study employed a mixed-methods approach. The sample comprises 100 Saudi female EFL students: 51 in the experimental group and 49 in the control group. The experimental group received metacognitive instruction for 10 weeks over a semester through a pedagogical cycle. The quantitative data were collected from a listening test used as a pre- and posttest. Questionnaires about metacognitive awareness of strategy use and listening self-efficacy were also used to detect changes in metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy among learners before and after the intervention. The qualitative data were collected from interviews with eight participants. The results showed that the EFL learners improved their listening achievement and increased metacognitive awareness, such as directed attention, planning, and evaluation. Mental translation and person knowledge remained relatively unaffected. Furthermore, an insignificant effect was found on learners’ listening self-efficacy. The qualitative data revealed six challenges faced by EFL learners: the speaker’s speed and accent, unfamiliar vocabulary, long or boring listening materials, lack of concentration, and poor-quality recordings. The study suggests that EFL instructors should prioritize the implementation of metacognitive approaches to improve learners’ listening performance and engagement. It also emphasizes the importance of vocabulary knowledge and recommends improving the EFL listening materials.

This study sought to provide a nuanced understanding of the relationship between metacognitive awareness and listening performance by eliciting from 113 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) Chinese learners their metacognitive awareness with regard to knowledge of listening strategies used and perceptions of difficulty and anxiety following a listening lesson. Data were collected through the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) and an official sample IELTS listening test. Responses were examined for how different aspects of metacognitive awareness represented by the MALQ factors related to listening performance and for individual differences in metacognitive awareness across these factors. The results showed a significant positive relationship between learners’ metacognitive awareness scores and listening performance and that their metacognitive awareness accounted for 22% of the variance in listening performance. Analysis of individual factors showed a significant relationship between listening performance and the strategies of directed attention and problem solving as well as an overall moderate-to-low sense of confidence among the participants in the study. It also revealed considerable intrapersonal variation in different aspects of metacognitive awareness. The paper discusses the results as well as the use of the questionnaire as an instrument for eliciting and interpreting learners’ metacognitive awareness about listening.

This study aimed to identify associations and predictors of willingness to communicate (WTC) of adult foreign language (FL) learners and whether they are contingent upon the FL being learned. To this end, our research investigated learner variables associated with WTC in adult FL learners of English and of French in an under-researched field of WTC studies in Spain. More specifically, the following variables were studied: gender, age, level of multilingualism, perceived relative standing in the class, language proficiency, teacher’s use of the FL in class, out-of-class foreign language use (OCFLU) and the two emotions of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). Of the 9 independent variables examined, FLCA and language proficiency were found to be predictors of the WTC of both English and French language learners; additionally, enjoyment was found to be a predictor of WTC of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and OCFLU, of learners of French as a foreign language (FFL). Our findings indicate that the construct of WTC needs to be further studied as research may produce dissimilar results depending on the instructional setting, population and foreign language. Pedagogical implications for language teaching practices seeking to enhance adult FL learners’ WTC were also drawn from the study results.

This study investigated the relationship between metacognitive awareness and listening performance by eliciting metacognitive awareness from 89 English-as-a-foreignlanguage (EFL) Korean learners regarding knowledge of listening strategies used and challenges following a listening activity. Data were collected through the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ), an official sample TOEFL listening test and a listening log which is one of the process-based teaching instruments that is expected to develop learners’ metacognitive knowledge. Responses to MALQ were examined for how different aspects of metacognitive awareness represented by the MALQ subscales were related to listening performance. The results showed a significant positive relationship between learners’ metacognitive awareness scores and listening performance and that their metacognitive awareness accounted for 13% of the variance in listening performance. Analysis of individual factors showed a significant relationship between listening performance and the listening strategies of directed attention, problem solving and person knowledge. The study discusses the implication of the study as well as the use of the questionnaire and listening log as instruments for interpreting learners’ metacognitive awareness about listening.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between metacognitive awareness, mathematical literacy self-efficacy beliefs and problem solving skills, and the effects of metacognitive awareness and mathematical literacy self-efficacy beliefs on problem solving skills. This study used a correlational survey design, and was conducted in the Faculty of Education of Ondokuz Mayis University in the 2014/15 spring semester. The sample group, selected used convenience sampling, consisted of a total of 171 prospective teachers. Data were collected using Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (Akin, Abaci & Cetin, 2007), the Problem Solving Inventory (Şahin, Şahin & Heppner, 1993) and Math Literacy Self-Efficacy Measurement (Ozgen & Bindak, 2008). For the data analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis were used. Significant relationships were found to exist between the problem solving scores on the one hand and metacognitive awareness and math literacy self-efficacy scores on the other. In addition, the first stage of the regression analysis showed that metacognitive awareness scores are a significant predictor of problem solving skills, explaining 15% of the variation. In the second stage, it was found that metacognitive awareness and math literacy self-efficacy scores are both significant predictors of problem solving skills, together explaining 18% of the variation. This study shows that significant relationships and interactions exist between metacognitive awareness, mathematical literacy self-efficacy, and problem solving skills