A Study Of Metacognition Development In A Self-Access Listening Course

Metacognition refers to one's knowledge and regulation of cognition. It basically covers two dimensions: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies. The important role of metacognitive knowledge in L2 listening and the potential for greater use of metacognitive strategies to foster success in L2 listening has been much discussed in literature. However, few studies have been conducted on L2 learners'development process of metacognition in listening. And when it comes to the self-access listening course, a new learning environment for listening instruction, these studies become even fewer. The lack of such research makes it hard to explain whether or how learners'metacognition in listening actually develops in such courses.The researcher conducted a case study on a group of English major freshmen in a self-access listening course at Suzhou University. The purpose of this study is to explore the participants'listening experiences in this course in order to describe and understand their development process of metacognitive knowledge (regarding person knowledge, task knowledge and strategy knowledge) as well as metacognitive strategies (regarding planning, monitoring and evaluation). This study also intends to discover factors that influence the development. The data in this study are mainly obtained from a background survey, field-observation, think-aloud transcripts, and an end-of-course written interview. The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:Firstly, students'metacognitive knowledge in listening demonstrates obvious development in this course. Of its three aspects, person knowledge development is the most obvious, particularly in students'perceived lower anxiety and improved attitudes. For the task aspect, advancement mainly shows in students'understanding of task demands. The strategy knowledge fails to develop as obviously, though the knowledge of note-taking in listening is found improved in some students. One possible explanation for this might be the lack of strategy instruction in this course.Secondly, students'metacognitive strategies don't develop as obviously as their metacognitive knowledge. Among its three aspects, evaluation skills develop most obviously, particularly in students'strategy evaluation. As for the planning skills, development mainly lies in students'directed attention aspect. The monitoring skills fail to show much improvement, which might be due to too much autonomy granted to the students by the learner control feature and low requirements of the achievement test in this course.Thirdly, some factors are found related to these students'metacognition development, of which the exercise materials and the leaner control feature of this course are most influencing. Other course-related factors such as the assessment methods and the assistance tools also demonstrate their effects. Though some aspects of these factors (e.g., too much autonomy granted to the students by the learner control feature, the low requirements of the achievement test) sometimes impede the development, their positive influence is overwhelming. Besides, the data also reveal some other factors that influence the development, of which students'self-commitment and the campus learning environment are facilitators and students'slow typing speed is an impediment.Based on the findings of the study, the researcher makes some suggestions including finding ways to delimit students'misuse of autonomy while granting learner control; improving exercise materials design, assessment methods and assistance tools; and providing some strategy instruction.