REVIEW JOURNAL

Metacognitive awareness listening strategies in learning English as a foreign

language: a comparison between university and high-school students
Identity
Which are reviewed journal is a learning strategy journal (Journal of learning strategy)
written by Mehrak Rahimi and Maral Katal of Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training
University. Journal entitled "listening metacognitive awareness strategies in learning
English as a foreign language: a comparison between university and high-school
students" are published online in 2012 with volume 31, pages 82-89 range. @ 2011
Elsevier Ltd. Selection An / or peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Husein
Uzunboylu DOI: 10.1016 / j.sbspro.2011.12.020
Abstract
This journal is written with the purpose of researching consciousness listening
metacognitive strategies among Iranian university students and high school students in
learning English as a foreign language. The method used is quantitative method with a
sample of 122 college students and 116 high school students who fill out questionnaires
Metacognitive Awareness Listening (MALQ) with five subsections including problem
solving, planning and evaluation, translation, knowledge of people, and directing
attention. The result showed that different students and high school students with regard
to their metacognitive awareness listening strategies in general, and individual knowledge
and mental translation components. Keywords used: metacognitive, listening, strategy,
EFL.
preliminary
In this section the researchers write metacognition understanding of expert
opinion. Nelson (1996) says that metacognition has been defined as a construct that refers
to the thinking of a person's thinking or the ability of humans to one's unconscious mental

processes. Wenden (1998) defines metacognition as knowledge of learning which is part

of the supplies students of the knowledge gained and consists of a system of ideas related,
relative stability, the initial development and abstraction of the experience of learners.
Meanwhile, according to Flavell (1976) metacognitive knowledge "a person's knowledge
about the cognitive processes that are owned, and the products or anything related to
them, for example, the nature of learning relevant information or data" (p. 232). It is said
that metacognition is a form of cognition and thought processes that involve a high
degree of active control over the cognitive processes (Wenden, 1998). Therefore,
metacognitive knowledge is considered as a 'seventh sense' and one of the mental traits
that learners successfully use (Birjandi, 2006). In fact, students who successfully realize
their learning process and the use of different strategies that meet the requirements of the
task of learning and different situations.
The researcher cites the opinion of Brown (1981) that there are two types of
metacognitive knowledge-static and strategies. Static knowledge which people verbally
expressed about cognition, whereas strategic knowledge, by comparison, is the individual
steps required to set up and modify the progress of cognitive activity as it happens.
Additionally, Flavell (1976) classifies metacognitive knowledge is based on whether it
focuses on the learner, the task of learning, or the learning process. This tripartite
competencies include knowledge of people, namely, the knowledge that a person has
about himself and others as cognitive processors; knowledge of tasks, namely, the
knowledge someone has about the information and resources needed to do the task; and
knowledge strategies. Namely, knowledge of the strategies that may be effective in
achieving its objectives and tasks of business (Flavell, 1976).
As noted in Brown et al. (1983), metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive
strategies are two different components of the term metacognition. Metacognitive
knowledge refers to the learners gain information about their learning, while
metacognitive strategies are general skills where learners manage, govern, manage, and
guide their learning. Basic metacognitive strategies include connecting new information
with the old, chose a strategy of deliberate thought, planning, monitoring, and evaluation
process of thinking (Oxford, 2002)

Problem
Researchers have tried to determine the characteristics of good language
learners and what kind of strategies they use in certain language tasks (Birjandi et al,
2006). The reason lies in the fact that metacognitive strategies enable learners to play an
active role in the learning process, to manage and direct their own learning, and finally
found the best way to practice and reinforce what they have learned (Chari et al., 2010).
In this case means the researchers are trying to solve the problem and provide a
solution that is more effective learning, using metacognitive strategies which previously
have been many studies on this subject. In recent years, cognitive assessment of students
and metacognitive knowledge has become a major field of study listening strategies
(Vandergrift et al, 2006).
Several studies in the context of EFL has also been researching the relationship
between consciousness metacognitive strategy listening and language skills (Shirani
Bidabadi and Yamat, 2011), motivation (Sutudenama and Taghipur, 2010), learning styles
(ShiraniBidabadi and
Yamat, 2010), and gender (Rahimi and Katal, 2011). However, there is a dearth of
research on the relationship between listening metacognitive strategy awareness and
education level. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the metacognitive
strategy listening awareness of high school students and the university.
Method
In this study involved 122 students with different majors and 116 high school
students randomly selected from three universities and three high schools in Tehran. The
questionnaire is used to collect data Metacognitive Awareness Listening (MALQ). The
questionnaire contains 21 items that assess awareness of language learners and feel using
listening strategies. Each item is rated at six points on a Likert scale from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) without the neutral point so that the respondent can not
hedge. Researchers make MALQ consisting of five factors, including problem solving (6
pieces), planning and evaluation (5 pieces), mental translation (3 pieces), knowledge (3
items), and directs attention (4 pieces)
Result
In this paper examined on the level of consciousness listening metacognitive

strategies in learning English as a foreign language among Iranian university students and
high school students. The results showed that the general level of awareness of
metacognitive strategies satisfying listening. This finding is consistent with findings from
other studies that show that Iranian students have awareness of metacognitive high in
general (Pishghadam 2009; Lachini, 1997; Tajedin, 2001; Akbari, 2003) and the strategy
of listening (Rahimi and katal 2010; ShiraniBidabadi and Yamat, 2010, 2011) as well as
other skills such as reading (Mahmoudi and Khonamri 2010) and vocabulary (Chari,
Samavi and Kordestani, 2010) in particular.
In-depth analyst research shows that students are more aware of the problem
solving strategy than the other strategy types. These findings suggest that Iranian students
generally uses words that are known and a general idea of the text to infer the meaning of
words that are not known, use their experience and general knowledge in interpreting the
text, adjust their interpretation because it realized that it was not true, monitor accuracy
conclusions for congruence with evolving interpretations, and comparing interpretations
evolve with their knowledge of the topic (Vandergrift, et al., 2006).
However, the researchers also found that Iranian students are not aware of their
knowledge of the strategy. Knowledge of self-efficacy refers to students and the ability to
assess the perceived difficulties of learning tasks. This supports the fact that
metacognitive knowledge and self-efficacy are closely related (Vandergrift, 2005). The
findings of this study can be explained by considering the fact that it rarely happens that
Iranian students have the opportunity to evaluate their own strengths to a given task in
class language because most of the language course time in Iran focus on traditional
techniques and methods of teacher-centered ( Rahimi and Nabilou, 2009).
Researchers argue that the concept of self-assessment, self-awareness, and peerassessment has not really expanded among Iranian students, while the essence of the most
practice to improve metacognitive skills is to engage students in collaborative activities
such as peer assessment, reflecting the collective, and metacognitive process modeling
(Choi, Soil, and Turgeon, 2005). Such as students plan, monitor and reflect on their work
can be applied to encourage metacognitive thought and development, the needs of
formation in the EFL curriculum in Iran is highlighted by these findings.
Conclusion

Researchers found that middle school students are more aware of their
metacognitive listening strategy in general compared with students. This indicates that
unlike other studies (Vandergrift, 2005) metacognitive awareness levels across different
age groups. This difference can be attributed to students' motivation (Vandergrift, 2003),
self-efficacy (Vandergrift, 2005), and listen to the language proficiency (Vandergrift,
2003). However, further research is needed to explain the relationship between age and
metacognition.
According to the researchers, high school students showed a higher
consciousness in the mental translation and knowledge of the strategy. Researchers also
showed that the Iranian students who are older are less aware of the perceived difficulty
listening to them compared to the other three language skills, they lack confidence in L2
linguistic listen to, and the level of anxiety is higher in L2 listening (Sparks & Ganschow,
2001).
Researchers believe that this strategy is an inefficient approach to understanding
the most commonly used hearing listeners initial level (Eastman, 1991) by engaging in
direct translation. So perhaps as a result of more advanced instruction, students have
become more aware of the inefficiency of this strategy and therefore avoid them.
Critical Analysis
According to a statement disclosed earlier researchers can say that
metacognitive strategies are listening to high-level strategy commonly known senses to 7
by experts. This strategy is designed to make students understand the learning styles
meraka themselves so that they can use and adapt to what is being learned. Besides
designed to learn more effectively, students are also guided to actively engage in the
learning process. Research on metacognitive strategies have been many before but there
is a gap that researchers get to be further investigated the relationship between listening
metacognitive strategy awareness and education levels which have never been studied
before. Having held the collection of the questionnaires distributed it turns out there is a
result that high school students more aware of listening metacognitive strategies in
general when compared with students in Iran. But this study showed different results with
the results of Vandergrift that the level of awareness of listening metacognitive strategies
between the different age as the students' motivation, self-efficacy, and ability to listen to

the language. Researchers advise to do more research on the relationship of age and
metacognitive. In this penelititan also found that metacognitive listening strategy is too
difficult to be done by beginners.
Deficiency
1. Bibliography written researchers are complete but most of the reference publication
becomes too long so it is not up to date.
2. Another study different result is not clarified further.
3. The number of participants is not balanced between the two groups so it looks less fair.
4. Too many quotes, so the thought of the researchers themselves less visible.
5. Not shown kuisionernya, so that the reader does not know clearly what is questionable
therein.
6. There is no explanation on the steps listening metacognitive strategy itself that the
average reader is hard to understand.
Advantages
1. Researchers were able to see a gap that is interesting enough to be investigated further.
2. Results of the study period to further facilitate student self-correct will listen
metacognitive awareness to improve academic achievement.