Metacognitive Intervention: High WMC Learners’ Listening Performance and Metacognitive Awareness

This study investigated the effect of the metacognitive intervention on the listening performance and metacognitive awareness of upper-intermediate EFL learners with high working memory capacity (WMC). 152 Iranian male learners aged between 15 and 25 years were given Oxford Placement Tests (OPT), and 86 were identified as upper-intermediate learners. They were further given the Visual Digit Span Test (DST), and 60 high WMC learners were selected and randomly assigned to experimental (N=30), and control (N=30) groups. The experimental group received the metacognitive intervention through a pedagogical cycle for 10 sessions while the control group followed their traditional approach. The participants were asked to complete the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) and to take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) listening tests before and after the intervention. The results suggested that the experimental group had a higher gain with a large effect size in terms of listening performance than the control group. In addition, the experimental group reported the significantly higher use of directed attention, mental translation and person knowledge.