Metacognitive strategies are higher-order executive processes that learners use to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning. They do not operate directly on language material (that is the role of cognitive strategies) but rather manage and regulate the learning process itself. The term draws on Flavell's (1979) concept of metacognition, "thinking about thinking," applied to second language acquisition by O'Malley and Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990).
| Function | What the learner does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Planning | Deciding what to do before a task; setting goals; selecting strategies | "Before I listen, I'll focus on the main idea first, then details on the second listen" |
| Monitoring | Checking comprehension or production during a task; tracking progress | "I don't understand this paragraph, so I'll re-read it more slowly" |
| Evaluating | Assessing performance after a task; judging strategy effectiveness | "My essay lacked examples, so next time I'll brainstorm evidence before writing" |
These three functions form a cycle: planning leads to task execution (using cognitive strategies), monitoring provides real-time feedback, and evaluation informs future planning.
| Strategy | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Advance organising | Planning | Previewing the task, activating prior knowledge, generating expectations |
| Directed attention | Planning/Monitoring | Deciding to focus on specific aspects and ignore distractors |
| Selective attention | Planning/Monitoring | Attending to specific input features (key words, discourse markers) |
| Self-monitoring | Monitoring | Checking accuracy of comprehension or production during the task |
| Self-management | Planning | Arranging conditions for learning (study environment, materials, time) |
| Self-evaluation | Evaluating | Checking outcomes against goals after task completion |
Wenden (1998) distinguished between:
Both are necessary. A learner may know that previewing before reading helps (knowledge) but fail to actually do it (strategy). Learner Training develops both.
O'Malley & Chamot (1990): In studies of ESL learners in US schools, found that the most effective learners combined cognitive and metacognitive strategies, while less successful learners relied predominantly on cognitive strategies alone (e.g., repetition, translation) without the executive layer.
Vandergrift (2003): Studied metacognitive strategy use in L2 listening among French learners. Skilled listeners used significantly more planning (predicting), monitoring (checking predictions), and problem-solving strategies. Less skilled listeners fixated on individual word recognition (a purely cognitive approach).
Goh (2008): Proposed a metacognitive approach to listening instruction with three components: experience (listening tasks), reflection (post-task discussion of strategies), and awareness-raising (understanding cognitive processes). Studies showed improved listening performance.
Zhang & Seepho (2013): Meta-analysis of metacognitive strategy instruction in reading found consistent positive effects on comprehension, with explicit instruction in planning and monitoring yielding the strongest gains.
Graham & Macaro (2008): Studied strategy instruction for L2 listening among English secondary school students learning French. Learners who received explicit metacognitive strategy instruction (prediction, monitoring, evaluation) significantly outperformed a comparison group on listening comprehension.
Anderson (2002): Argued that metacognition is the single most significant factor distinguishing skilled from less skilled readers across both L1 and L2 contexts, more important than vocabulary size or syntactic knowledge for comprehension tasks.