Embedded and Direct Metacognitive Strategy Instruction and its Effects on the Metacognitive Awareness of Tertiary Level Malaysian ESL Listeners

This small-scale quasi-experimental study compared the effects of metacognitive strategy instruction using two pedagogical approaches on the metacognitive awareness of Malaysian ESL listeners. Embedded and direct strategy instruction was delivered using the Metacognitive Pedagogical Sequence and Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach instructional models respectively. 45 tertiary level students were randomly selected and assigned to two treatment groups to receive metacognitive instruction over a training period of five weeks. Paired-samples t- test results on participants‟ metacognitive awareness, as measured using the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) were inclusive despite significant improvements in their IELTS listening scores. No significant development was recorded in the overall MALQ scores but there were significant changes in three out of the five metacognitive awareness factors. Results further layered according to participants‟ listening proficiency levels (low, intermediate and high) to examine if differences existed among the listening levels similarly showed no significant difference. These results suggest that ESL listeners‟ metacognitive awareness may not be easily developed with strategy instruction, regardless of the instructional approaches.