Autonomy at All Costs: An Ethnography of Metacognitive Self‐Assessment and Self‐Management among Experienced Language Learners

Abstract

Research in cognition has shown that expert learners in diverse fields, including chess, mathematics, physics, and language learning, approach new learning tasks differently than novice learners. More recent research in neuropsychology makes a strong claim that metacognition is separate from cognition and consists of two types of behavior: self‐assessment and self‐management. This article analyzes self‐directed language learning behaviors of adult third‐language learners based on qualitative data. The data were gathered in 1993 and 1994 from 11 learners of Georgian and Kazakh at the University of Maryland at College Park. All learners had 2/2/2 (L/R/S) proficiency in Russian according to the Federal Interagency Language Roundtable (FILR) scale. Data were analyzed using the Grounded Method for analyzing qualitative data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). All learners were found to assess their progress, learning styles, strategy preferences, and conflicts with teaching styles and with the behaviors of other learners regularly. Based on these assessments, the majority of learners made attempts at specific self‐directed learning behaviors, focused primarily on changes to course materials and classroom activities, and targeted specific learning tasks and strategies.