Effects of Metacognitive Strategy Teaching on Intermediate L۲ Learners’ Listening Comprehension

Although listening is a crucial skill to enhance one’s position in academia, this skill is challenging for most L۲ learners. The first step to improve L۲ learners’ listening skill is to figure out their listening problems and to provide them with appropriate instruction. The aim of the current study was told-fold: (۱) It explored Iranian intermediate L۲ learners’ listening problems, and (۲) it examined the effect of metacognitive strategies’ instruction on Iranian intermediate L۲ learners’ listening comprehension. Participants were a random sample of ۳۱ intermediate L۲ learners in Iran. The Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered to the participants to check their homogeneity. Also, the participants’ listening comprehension was pretested. After ۱۰ treatment sessions, the participants were posttested to check the (possible) changes in their listening comprehension ability. In order to check the participants’ listening problems, they filled Liu’s (۲۰۱۰) Listening Comprehension Processing Problems Questionnaire. Data were analyzed through one samples t test and paired samples t test, whose results indicated that metacognitive strategies elevated the participants’ ability in terms of listening. Results revealed that the participants had problems in the steps of parsing and perception, although the problems were not significant. On the other hand, in the utilization phase, there seemed to be no problem. As a result, applying the findings of this research will help materials developers, curriculum planners, instructional decision-makers, and teachers.