The role of metacognition in enhancing oral proficiency skills among english majored students

--- Page 1 --- MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VAN HIEN UN IVERSITY -------

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVAN HIEN UNIVERSITY

Lecturer: PhD(c) MA Nguyễn Trường Giang

HCMC, July 2024

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VAN HIEN UNIVERSITY

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FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FINAL TEST SUBJECT: APPLIED LINGUISTICS -*** - THE ROLE OF METACOGNITION IN ENHANCING ORAL PROFICIENCY

SKILLS AMONG ENGLISH - MAJORED STUDENTS

Class: 233ENG49101 & 233ENG49102

Group 6:

1 Trần Tuấn Kiệt (221A140107) 2 Trần Hoàng Hiệp (221A140243) 3 Trần Chí Nghiệp (221A140384) 4 Trần Thị Trúc Đào (221A140160) 5 Lê Thị Thanh Nhàn (221A140541)

Lecturer: PhD(c) MA Nguyễn Trường Giang

First of all, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to our research supervisor,Mr Nguyen Truong Giang His tireless support and dedicated participation at everystage of the process were indispensable in making this article a success Mr NguyenTruong Giang's exceptional teaching style and passion for the subject "AppliedLinguistics" left a lasting impression on us and we have fond memories of his lessons.We had the privilege of discussing early versions of "THE ROLE OFMETACOGNITION IN ENHANCING ORAL PROFICIENCY SKILLS AMONGENGLISH - MAJORED STUDENTS" with

Mr Nguyen Truong Giang, who provided us with invaluable insights that we attempt tocover in this article Finally, we would like to thank all our classmates for their co-operation and sincerity

Author

Trần Tuấn Kiệt, Trần Hoàng Hiệp, Trần Chí Nghiệp, Trần Thị Trúc Đào, Lê Thị ThanhNhàn

2.3 The Role of Metacognition in Enhancing Oral Skills 6

2.3.1 Enhancing Oral Proficiency Through Metacognitive Strategies 6

2.3.2 Barriers to implementing metacognition 7

2.4 How to Develop Metacognitive Skills 7

2.4.1 About the Teacher 7

2.4.2 About the Learners 8

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9

3.3 Data collection procedures 10

3.4 Data Analysis Procedures 10

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS & DISCUSSION 10

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction

Recently, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has identified self-directed learning asone of the life and career skills necessary to prepare students for post-secondaryeducation and the workforce (Lai, 2011) Tobias et al (1999 & 2009) argue thatmetacognition is quite possibly the most actively and dynamically researched cognitiveprocess in the fields of developmental psychology, teaching, and education today.Simply put, metacognition refers to “thinking about thinking” or our ability to knowwhat we know and what we don't know (Costa & Kallick, 2009; Livingston, 1997) Torky (2006) distills his view of speaking into three challenges: speaking face-to-face,speaking as an interactive activity, and speaking that takes place in real-time Thischallenge requires immediate feedback, the use of turn-taking during practice,spontaneous reactions, and time pressure as it occurs in real-life situations On the otherhand, students who lack English, are likely to face their own problems which Ur (1999)asserts as inhibition, having nothing to speak, low and uneven participation, and mother- use of tongue Therefore, metacognitive strategies as discussed earlier will contributeto overcoming the problem (Karim, 2019)

There are justifiable reasons to support a plethora of research on this topic to givemetacognition unchallenged supremacy and boost it as one of the most importantfactors for successful learning (Mahdavi, 2014) This study was conducted toinvestigate how English learners integrate metacognition into their learning to improvetheir speaking skills Therefore, the study was conducted based on the following tworesearch questions::

• How do individual differences (e.g., personality traits, cognitive styles) affectmetacognitive abilities?

• How Metacognition can help students to foster oral skills?

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2 Literature review

2.1 Importance of Oral Skills in Language Learning

Learning a foreign language is tantamount to learning to speak that language, ashumans first learn to speak before they learn to use written forms Therefore, atleast in the early stages of learning, speaking is the most important skill of all fourlanguage skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), since people who learn alanguage are called speakers of that language (Ur, 1999) We live in a world ofcommunication and language; this part is so connected to us as humans that wehardly realize how magical it actually is Yet learning to speak - be it a first orsecond language - is far from easy; knowing how and why we speak when we do,as well as developing skills that are often not much more automatic than bumpinginto things (e.g asking questions or taking turns), takes time We use our language,and we usually do so in a way that is appropriate for specific intentions given by thecontext Snow, Burns & Griffin (1998: p.108) affirm that: "Comprehension ofconnected text is highly dependent on the reader's oral language skills, particularlywith regard to understanding the meanings of the words identified and the syntacticand semantic relationships between them."

2.2 Understanding Metacognition

John Flavell, a developmental psychologist who is now considered the father of thefield, was the first to introduce the term metacognition in the 1970s (1971, 1976,1979) It is defined simply as "thinking about thinking" or "cognition aboutcognition" (Wellman, 1985; Anderson, 2008; Livingston, 1997) Metacognition canfocus on any facet of cognition, even metacognition itself (Dunlosky, et al, 2005;Nelson & Narens, 1994) Veenman et al (2006) view metacognition as " a higher-order agent that overlooks and controls the cognitive system while being part of it"(p 5) In short, metacognition can simply be seen as "thinking about thinking", itconsists of knowledge and regulation (Lai, 2011)

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2.2.1 Metacognitive Knowledge

Metacognitive knowledge is thought to be composed of three distinct but closelyrelated domains of knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge(McCormick, 2003; Paris et al., 1983; Harris et al., 2010) The successfulcoordination and application of these three types of metacognitive knowledge willcertainly leave its mark on academic development and performance, which is highlydependent on metacognition (Alexander, 1997; Pressley & Harris, 2009)

Declarative knowledge encompasses knowledge, skills, and strategies required to

successfully accomplish a task under various conditions (Hacker, 1998; Pressley &Harris, 2009; Zimmerman & Risemberg, 1997) In other words, it refers to knowing"about things" or "knowing what" "Schraw and Moshman (1995) define it as"knowledge about oneself as a learner and about what factors influence one'sperformance" (p 352)"

Procedural knowledge refers to the knowledge of how to apply procedures such as

learning strategies or actions to utilize declarative knowledge and achieve goals(Harris et al, 2009; Harris et al, 2010; Schraw & Moshman, 1995; Schraw, 1998;McCormick, 2003) It refers to the knowledge of "how to do things" and"procedures" such as learning strategies

Finally, Conditional knowledge is the knowledge of when and why to use differentprocedures, skills, and cognitive actions or strategies (McCormick, 2003; Schraw &Moshman, 1995; Schraw, 1998; Garner, 1990) Similarly, Garner (1990) arguedthat conditional knowledge is related to knowing when and why to use declarativeand procedural knowledge "It is appropriate to add that "the conditional knowledgeof successful learners makes them very easy and flexible in applying theirstrategies" (McCormick, 2003, p 80)

2.2.2 Metacognitive Regulation

Regulation of cognition or metacognitive control is the second main element ofmetacognition, sometimes referred to as executive control, which is a sequence ofactions performed by students to control their own thinking or learning It involves

at least three basic components or essential skills: Planning, Monitoring, andEvaluating (Jacobs & Paris, 1987; Schraw & Moshman, 1995; Schraw, 1998)

Planning includes the selection of appropriate strategies and the provision of

resources that are effective for achieving goals, e.g making predictions beforereading It includes setting goals, activating prior knowledge, and planning time.(Mahdavi, 2014)

Monitoring involves the self-monitoring skills that are essential for regulating

learning It refers to critically analyzing the effectiveness of implemented strategiesor plans Schraw (1998) has referred to it as "online awareness of understanding andtask performance" Conducting regular self-tests during the course of learningwould be a particular case of monitoring (Mahdavi, 2014)

Evaluating refers to the review of progress in achieving objectives, which can lead

to further planning, monitoring, and evaluation A typical example would be thereassessment of one's goals and conclusions (Mahdavi, 2014)

2.3 The Role of Metacognition in Enhancing Oral Skills

2.3.1 Enhancing Oral Proficiency Through Metacognitive Strategies

In terms of the centrality of metacognition to learning, Flavell (1979) claims, albeitwith little empirical evidence, that metacognition plays an important role in variousareas of learning, such as oral communication of information, oral persuasion, andoral comprehension "Increasing students' awareness and use of metacognitivelearning strategies appears to have a positive impact on their confidence andperception of their abilities when speaking" (Forbes, Fisher, 2015) Jafari, et al(2017) focused on the effects of the transcription task on EFL learners' grammaticalaccuracy They found that transcription of oral utterances, followed by self- andpeer-correction, significantly improved the accuracy of participants' production According to Vandergrift, learners with a high level of metacognitive awareness arebetter able to process and retain new information and find the best ways to practiceand consolidate what they have learned "This type of processing and practice gives

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learners the opportunity to pay attention to what is useful for improving theirspeaking" (Ghapanchi, Taheryan, 2012) The use of metacognitive strategies hasbeen found to contribute to speaking in unique ways According to O'Malley et al(1985), such strategies help learners to make meaningful statements It has alwaysbeen argued that learners who have more strategies at their disposal are more likelyto use them and that the use of strategies leads to more successful performance andsatisfactory results Therefore, by using metacognitive strategies, learners plan anddecide on different ways to express their thoughts and ideas, monitor their speakingto convey their meaning as clearly and appropriately as possible, and then evaluatetheir performance to identify their weaknesses and strengths (Ghapanchi, Taheryan,2012)

2.3.2 Barriers to implementing metacognition

Metacognition is a complex construct that encompasses cognitive knowledge andcognitive regulation Metacognition is not directly observable, it can be confused inpractice with both verbal ability and working memory capacity, and existingmeasures tend to be narrowly defined and disconnected from academic learning(Lai, 2011) Despite numerous projects aimed at promoting higher-order thinking,most classrooms around the world are still predominantly characterized by apedagogy of knowledge transfer that focuses on lower-order cognitive levels.Several researchers note that expanding the "thinking curriculum" is a majorchallenge that still awaits education systems around the world (Zohar, Lustov,2018) In analyzing these common barriers, the researchers discovered six maincauses: Time, curriculum and assessment, lack of training, persuasion, limitedresources, and student resistance (Del Mario, Tran, 2024)

2.4 How to Develop Metacognitive Skills

“Metacognition has the potential to empower students to take charge of their ownlearning and to increase the meaningfulness of students' learning" (Amado Gama,2005, p 21), and it also encourages learners to "learn what to do when they don'tknow what to do" (Wade, 1990; Claxton, 2002) In terms of teaching and the

development of metacognition, Papaleontiou-Louca (2003) asserts that"[m]etacognition, like everything else, undoubtedly develops with practice" (p 17)

2.4.1 About the teacher

Koutselini (1991, pp 52-53) suggests a number of such strategies to help studentsbecome aware of their thinking

Metacognitive skills:

- Encourage the student to "think out loud."

- Focus his/her attention on understanding his/her thinking and the problems he/shehas to solve;

- Ask not only about the results but also about the thinking and the strategy used; - Encourage the student to ask questions before, during, and after working on a

topic;

You can try to get them to pay attention to these ideas and feelings, help themunderstand their meaning and their impact on subsequent cognitive actions, andteach them how to have metacognitive experiences and respond to themappropriately (Papleontiou-Louca, 2003)

2.4.2 About the Learners Planning and Organizing Strategy

Learners need to take more responsibility for planning and regulating their ownlearning, instead of relying on others Improving their planning can help withmetacognitive development and the ability to monitor and regulate their ownthinking and learning Individuals who can consciously represent their actions andrelate them to past, present, and future actions are better able to acquiremetacognitive knowledge (Papleontiou-Louca, 2003)

Generation of questions

According to Papleontiou-Louca (2003), Questions posed by learners themselveshelp learners to reflect on their own thinking and learn to manage their

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understanding These questions fulfill two important tasks: They help learners keeptrack of what they understand, and they help them find information when they don'tknow something Knowing when you have all the information you need tounderstand something is a type of thinking called metacognition By askingquestions, students often stop and think about, "whether they understand theconcept, whether they can relate it to what they already know, and whether they canuse the main idea to explain other ideas" (Costa, 1987; Koutselini, 1995; Trilianos,1997)

Linking with interactive multimedia learning environments

The metacognitive support template in the interactive multimedia programme helpsstudents to reflect, process information and monitor their own learning It is basedon constructivist epistemology, which states that the way we construct knowledgedepends on what we already know, our previous experiences, how we organizethose experiences and how we interpret the world "Computers support reflectivethinking when they enable users to compose new knowledge by adding newrepresentations, modifying old ones, and comparing the two" (Gordon, 1996, p 4)

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3 Research methodology

3.1 Sample and sampling procedures

This study involved 60 second-year English students from the foreign languagedepartment community at Van Hien University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Themajority of these students have an intermediate or higher level of English; in allcourses at this institution, the use of metacognition in speaking is considered afundamental aspect of students' academic development As this is a workplacewhere the researcher offers courses, we would like to collect data from thepopulation of this organization This allowed the researcher to complete the articlemore easily and effectively

Their metacognitive skills in speaking are closely related to their courses Finally,the participants were surveyed using a prepared questionnaire to obtain quantitativedata and four of them were asked to participate in an interview to collect qualitativedata

3.2 Research Instruments

3.2.1 Questionnaire

The researcher used a questionnaire with Likert scale items and closed-endedquestions The five-point scale was used for this study as it is popular to avoidconfusion, increase response rate and improve the reliability of survey data (Jenkins& Taber, 1977) Closed-ended questions, as suggested by Oppenheim (2001), offerseveral advantages, including time and cost savings, ease of editing, and use inhypothesis testing

The questionnaire in this study contained 10 items, each focusing on individualdifferences that may influence metacognition and how metacognition enhances oralskills In addition, the questionnaire items in this study were reported on a Likertscale with five response options ranging from "strongly disagree" to "stronglyagree"

3.2.2 Interview

With the help of a semi-structured interview, the researcher was able to gainthorough insights into the views of the selected individuals The chosen instrumentoffers a number of advantages, including the ability to focus on a specific topic andobtain results quickly (Cohen et al., 2000) The interview in this study containedfour open-ended questions aimed at collecting qualitative data These questionswere designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the participants' viewsand effectiveness in relation to the study

3.3 Data collection procedures

Initially, the questions of the questionnaire were tested in a group of four studentsmajoring in English who were not to participate in the study This procedure was

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carried out to assess the clarity and logic of the questions asked The questionnairewas then distributed and the interview was conducted in an official capacity

At the beginning of the survey, students check their speaking skills and evaluate theeffectiveness of the strategies they use in class In addition, we provide studentswith a theoretical basis for each newly learned strategy and inform them about themost appropriate conditions for using the strategy A questionnaire was sent to theparticipants and the data was collected by the researcher for quantitative analysis.Finally, four students were randomly selected to participate in an interview thatserved as a source for the qualitative data

3.4 Data Analysis Procedures

The author analyzed the quantitative data from the questionnaire provided to thestudents using the SPSS statistics program The results of the survey were analyzedusing descriptive statistics As Mackey and Gass (2005) stated, descriptive statisticsis a simple tool for researchers to better understand databases Qualitative data wascollected using information from semi-structured interviews with participants Thedata collected in this study was thoroughly analyzed with a focus on investigatingproblems in the use of metacognition and how these metacognitive strategies helpstudents to improve their speaking skills

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS & DISCUSSION 4 Results & discussion

4.1 Results

To investigate how individual differences may affect metacognitive abilities andhow metacognition enhances the oral skills of English language learners,quantitative data was collected using surveys, and qualitative data was collectedusing interviews