Student Perceptions of Metacognitive Strategy Use in Lecture Listening Comprehension

Abstract

Listening to lectures is difficult, especially for students who have just entered university. It is even more daunting for ESL students attending lectures delivered in English. Various literatures have highlighted the importance of explicit training to improve students’ academic listening skills (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1996; Swan, 2011). This paper explores ESL students’ perceptions towards a Metacognitive Strategy Instruction (MetSI) programme to improve their lecture listening comprehension abilities. The study involved 34 first-year students from the Faculty of Education in a public university in Malaysia. Instrumentation for the study involved the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Data revealed that the students perceived the MetSI training as helpful in improving their lecture listening skills and in enabling them to be more effective in extracting information from lectures. Findings from the study suggest the need for students to play a more active role in overcoming their listening difficulties.