Metacognitive strategy Use of POLISAS Students and their perceptions toward the importance of these strategies in
BY: Pauziah Mat Hassan English Unit Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah (POLISAS)Kuantan,Pahang,Malaysia Abstract The study aims to find out metacognitive strategies used by POLISASlearners in their ESL learning. The study also attempts to find out their perceptions on metacognitive strategy use and to see if the learners could define their learning problems and how they would overcome these learning problems. The study was conducted in POLISAS, Kuantan with a total of 60 students who are currently undergoing a Diploma in Engineering course. ... For the purpose of this study, the students were categorised as Successful and Less Successful learners based on their Oral Presentation achievement. ... The findings suggest that 80% of successful learners ‘accasionally’ and ‘always’ employ ‘planning’ as a strategy in their learning tasks. ... Surprisingly, both group of learners do perceive the importance of metacognitive strategies and their use. ... In conclusion, less successful learners are not aware of the metacognitive strategies that can contribute to successful learning. Successful learners seem to be fully aware of the effective strategies used and employed them in their learning. ... They demonstrated that they frequently used metacognitive strategies of “planning, monitoring and evaluating” in their learning. ... The language instructors ought to help them to recognise some of the effective strategies for their learning in order to help them identify and reflect on some of their own weaknesses and enable them to think of the possible ways of overcoming their own learning problems in order to improve their English. ... The proof of the teaching is in the learning, that is, how much the students have learnt. ... The different ways in which students tackle learning also affect their success….What is happening in the class is not equally productive for all students because their minds work in different ways.’ Cook (1991:3) In Malaysia, most of the Malaysian learners especially those in rural areas learn English language in unfavourable contexts where they hardly have the opportunity nor the need to use English outside the classroom as communication takes place in Bahasa Melayu, Chinese or Tamil languages, or local dialects. ... However, there is no guarantee that the learners will be able to use these structures in real-life situation as there are hardly any opportunities to use them (ibid). ... ‘Most students in the rural areas can understand English. ... This kind of learning did not help develop the thinking of the students. ... Rubin and Thompson (1994) postulate that successful language learners are in control of the way they learn by paying attention to procedures and strategies that work best in different learning situations. Oxford (1990) states that metacognitive strategies are essential for successful language learning. Metacognitive skills such as arranging and planning the learning which include organizing, setting goals and objectives, planning for a language task, seeking practice opportunities, self-monitoring and self-evaluating are among the effective ways of managing their language learning. Successful or competent learners are said to be thinking learners, who are in charge of their behaviour and determine when it is necessary to use strategies for learning. They select effective strategies, monitor, control and judge their thinking. ... Studies show that increases in learning have followed direct instruction in metacognitive strategies (Ormrod, 1995). ... (1987) found that good readers employ metacognitive strategies to focus their attention, to derive meaning, and to make adjustments when something goes wrong. ... , the good readers do not think about or label these skills while performing them; but if we ask them what they were doing that was successful, they can usually describe their metacognitive processes accurately. Below are some of the metacognitive knowledge and skills as stated by Ormrod (1995:349):Being aware of one’s own learning and memory capabilities and of what learning task can realistically be accomplished: • Knowing which learning strategies are effective and which are not, • Planning an approach to a learning task is likely to be successful, • Using effective learning strategies, and • Monitoring one’s present knowledge state. ... Rubin (1987) states that learners use metacognitive learning strategies to oversee regulate or self-direct language learning. These strategies involve various processes such as planning, prioritising, setting goals, and self-management. Oxford (1990) lists a wider use of the strategies. According to Oxford, learners use metacognitive strategies for focusing their learning which include over viewing and linking, associating knowledge to already known materials, paying attention and also delaying speech production to focus on listening (Oxford, 1990: 20). Besides these activities, learners also use metacognitive strategies for arranging and planning their learning which include finding out about language learning, using the skills of organizing, setting goals and objectives for learning the language, identifying the purpose of a language task, planning for a language task and seeking practice opportunities ( Oxford,1990). The third category of metacognitive strategies would be evaluating own learning. ... The potential benefit of learner and learning strategies is in the development of the students’ ability to become autonomous or self-regulated learners (Wenden, 1991; Zimmerman, 1990). A key element in self-regulated learning is metacognitive knowledge about one’s own learning and strategic processes and about the demand of the task (Paris &Winograd, 1990; Zimmerman, 1990). ... (a)Which metacognitive strategies are most frequently used by successful and less successful POLISAS learners in their English language learning? (b) Which metacognitive strategies are least frequently used by successful and less successful POLISAS learners in their English language learning? (c)Are there similarities and differences in metacognitive learning strategies used by these two groups of POLISAS learners? ... (a) Do these groups of POLISAS learners perceive the importance of metacognitive learning strategies in their English language learning? (b) Are there similarities and differences in their perceptions towards the importance of metacognitive learning strategies? ... Can POLISAS learners define their own learning problems and can they verbalise ways they would overcome their problems?