Learning to Listen: The Impact of a Metacognitive Approach to Listening Instruction

Abstract

This article reports on a small-scale intervention study that examined the impact of a metacognitive approach to listening instruction, in the form of a metacognitive pedagogical cycle, on Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ listening proficiency and aspects of metacognitive knowledge over 10 weeks. During each week, participants in the experimental group were guided through the processes of prediction, problem identification, monitoring, selective attention, evaluation and reflection. Quantitative data from tests showed that the metacognitive pedagogical cycle might positively affect learners’ listening proficiency. Qualitative data from reflective journal entries showed that it could contribute to learners’ growth in three aspects of metacognitive knowledge, including person, task and strategy knowledge. These findings are important in understanding how the metacognitive pedagogical cycle works to cultivate self-regulated listeners. This study provides practitioners with an alternative to develop learners’ listening that focuses on the process of learning to listen, especially in test-oriented EFL educational settings.