Abstract
This article introduces the use of the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) in Chinese learning to improve Singapore secondary students’ Chinese listening ability. The practice aims to promote students’ metacognitive awareness using a metacognitive approach through a series of activities centred on the MALQ. The results suggest that the metacognitive approach improved students’ listening comprehension ability as well as their metacognitive awareness, indicating the importance of incorporating MALQ-based strategy instruction into regular listening courses on a long-term basis.
Keywords
Reasons for the Innovation
Listening comprehension is a very important part of second language (L2) or foreign language learning. The ability to listen well is a prerequisite for language learners to interact and communicate with target language speakers and to undertake academic studies for some learners. However, of the four language skills, listening was reported by learners as the most difficult skill to develop (Graham, 2006; Oxford, 1993). It is important therefore that language teachers find new and effective ways to help learners improve their listening abilities. One innovative way is to take a metacognitive approach to teach listening (Goh and Vandergrift, 2022). Metacognitive instruction uses pedagogical procedures to increase learners’ knowledge about themselves as listeners, the tasks and demands of listening and the strategies they can use to facilitate comprehension (Vandergrift et al., 2006).
Learners’ metacognition, which is their ability to think about their thinking and learning, plays an important part in listening comprehension (e.g., Aryadoust, 2015; Goh and Hu, 2014; Vandergrift et al., 2006; Xu and Huang, 2018). Metacognitive awareness plays a very important role in students’ listening performance (Goh and Hu, 2014; Vandergrift et al., 2006; Zeng, 2012). Learners also become more motivated and confident about developing their listening when they understand more about their own listening processes and exercise control over them ( Cross, 2010; Goh and Hu, 2014).
To measure students’ metacognitive awareness for L2 listening accurately and reliably, Vandergrift et al (2006) developed and validated the 21-item Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) to evaluate language learners’ knowledge of strategy use amongst other aspects of listening comprehension. The MALQ has been used in many studies to investigate the relationships between metacognitive awareness and English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ listening performance (e.g., Aryadoust, 2015; Chon and Shin, 2019; Goh and Hu, 2014; Rahimi and Katal, 2012; Xu and Huang, 2018), and determine the learner variables that are important to listening comprehension (Vandergrift and Baker, 2015, 2018).
Other than research, the MALQ can also be used by teachers as a tool to guide and assess students’ metacognitive awareness and “positively influence students’ approach to listening tasks, and to increase self-regulated use of comprehension strategies” (Vandergrift et al., 2006: 453). The innovation in practice reported in this article was designed to use the MALQ as a tool to guide Chinese language learners’ listening processes in a listening lesson using a metacognitive approach.
Metacognition, as advocated by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore, is one of the key principles of learning (MOE, 2022). In other words, students are required to take control of their own learning, that is, “defining their learning goals, monitoring their learning process in achieving them and thinking about their own thinking and action” (Ministry of Education, 2022: 14). On the other hand, Singapore secondary students are faced with problems in Chinese listening. For example, they often find it difficult to grasp the meaning of spoken texts under time stress due to their less and less use of Chinese in family and school environments (Singapore Census of Population, 2020).
Secondary students in Singapore are faced with the challenge of passing the Chinese O’ Level examination by the end of their fourth school year. In Singapore school context, Chinese listening and speaking abilities are given more importance compared to reading and writing abilities. Therefore, it is imperative for teachers to find innovative methods to improve students’ Chinese listening ability. The current study thus aims to improve Singapore secondary students’ ability in Chinese listening comprehension by enquiring into the effectiveness of metacognitive instruction in Chinese listening lessons. To cater to local secondary students’ needs in Chinese learning, eleven out of the 21 items of the MALQ were used in classroom instruction, as shown in Table 1.
Checklist of the metacognitive awareness adapted from the MALQ
The Teaching Context (Participants and Setting)
There has been a growing interest in promoting Chinese learning worldwide (Wong et al., 2011). In Singapore's long-established bilingual education context, English is the medium of instruction and a school subject (Rose and Galloway, 2017). Students of different ethnicities also learn their respective ethnic languages (i.e., Chinese, Malay, Tamil, etc.) as a school subject, which is termed locally as the mother tongue language, but may not be a student's first language (L1) (Dixon, 2005). In Singapore's bilingual education environment, the proportion of students using Chinese as a dominant language at home has seen a rapid decline. As shown in the Mother Tongue Languages Review Committee Report (Ministry of Education, 2010), 28% of Primary 1 students of Chinese ethnicity spoke English at home in 1991, but the figure rose to 59% in 2010 and this trend was expected to continue (Zhao and Liu, 2010). Anecdotally, this appeared to be the case. In an input-poor environment at home it is becoming increasingly difficult for many students to improve their Chinese listening ability. As a result, it is imperative that teachers in schools adopt innovative and effective teaching methods to improve students’ listening performance.
This innovation was conducted among 136 Secondary Two students of two classes from two cohorts taught by one teacher in a Singapore secondary school. In each class there were 34 students. These students, aged between 12 and 14 years old, had been learning Chinese in school for seven years. Among these students, there were 77 male (56.6%) and 59 female (43.4%) students.
Description of the Innovation (Method)
Metacognitive awareness can enhance the listening comprehension of learners of various age groups, proficiency levels and backgrounds (Goh and Zhang, 2013). The MALQ has been used as a tool to provide metacognitive instruction and improve listeners’ metacognitive awareness in listening (Movahed, 2014; Tanewong, 2019; Vandergrift and Tafaghodtari, 2010; Zeng, 2012). This innovation draws on previous practice of metacognitive instruction and applies it in an original context where Chinese is taught and learnt.
The lesson adopted a task-based listening lesson structure that incorporated metacognitive processes (Goh and Vandergrift, 2022). The teacher used the MALQ as a checklist to promote students’ metacognitive awareness. Selected items from the MALQ were used to guide pre-listening preparation of listening strategies. Figure 1 shows the stages of listening instruction and the underlying metacognitive processes for the listening activities. Table 1 displays the English-Chinese checklist of eleven metacognitive items from the MALQ. The innovation practice was carried out for around one term, that is, around three months.
Stages of listening instruction and underlying metacognitive processes (adapted from Goh and Vandergrift, 2022)
In Figure 1, the listening instruction and metacognitive processes involved in each phase are summarised. For example, in the pre-listening stage, students went through the checklist and prepared for the listening activities. While they listened to the materials, they made use of the strategies indicated in the checklist, such as planning, monitoring and evaluation.
Specifically, before students listened to the materials, the teacher asked them to read the checklist of the metacognitive awareness (see Table 1) carefully and bring up any questions they had about the checklist or the process of listening, which might be discussed among the teacher and the students. If they were clear about the item, they were required to tick it in the self-check column in Table 1. While the students completed the first part of the listening exercises, the teacher discussed with them the answers and clarified their uncertainties about the strategies they used, during which the students might also be engaged in a discussion. After all the exercises were completed, the teacher explained all the answers to the students and provided guidance on further use of the strategy. The students were engaged in discussion where necessary.
Reflection and Future Direction
This innovation in practice enquires into the effect of metacognitive instruction on Singapore secondary students’ Chinese listening performance and metacognitive awareness. The teacher reported that the instruction produced positive effects in that the students improved their listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness. Moreover, it was found that students’ metacognitive awareness at the end of the instruction (M = 10.71; SD = .85), as measured by their self-check score, is higher in comparison with that at the very beginning of the instruction (M = 9.71; SD = 1.31). The effect sizes (i.e., Cohen's d; small = .20; medium = .50; large = .80) of the increase of metacognitive awareness is .83, indicating a large effect size, which shows a very positive effect of the metacognitive instruction.
More importantly, it was observed that students’ confidence in learning Chinese was greatly boosted after this practice, as they realised that with efforts their listening ability in Chinese and even comprehension ability in Chinese could be improved. This can be supported by the participating students’ comments:
The difference of the method from the previous ones is that we use strategies in listening Chinese. I like it. My listening score is improved. (1A)
The strategies helped me understand it better. I am more confident in Chinese listening. (5C)
I found it easier for me to find the keys words in the passage. (6C)
In line with the MOE's advocacy of promoting metacognition as learning tools for secondary students (Ministry of Education, 2022), the practice of the metacognitive approach in Chinese listening is very useful to improve students’ metacognitive awareness, which is hopefully transferred to other areas of Chinese learning or even learning of other subjects. More importantly, this practice also accumulated invaluable experience for Chinese language teachers who aim to improve students’ listening ability efficiently using innovative methods. The checklist of the metacognitive awareness adapted from the MALQ (see Table 1) can be used as an important tool to link the metacognitive strategies with the specific listening tasks. During this process, the discussion and dialogues between teachers and students as well as those among peers play a pivotal role (Li et al., 2022).
Due to time and resources constraints, the metacognitive instruction on the basis of the MALQ was only practised for one school term, which is around three months. Future direction can be focused on more systematic and enduring instruction to improve students’ listening performance and metacognitive awareness more efficiently. For example, teachers can provide targeted metacognitive instruction according to different listening exercises. During each exercise, sufficient attention should be attached to students’ use of different strategies. After the exercise, teachers should give timely feedback for students to rectify their inappropriateness in strategy use and therefore improve their listening performance and metacognitive awareness more effectively. Once students realise that their Chinese listening is changing for the better and gains improvement, their motivation in Chinese learning will be enhanced and they are more likely to enjoy the learning of Chinese.
