Scaffolding Metacognition to Improve Oral Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency

Scaffolding is conceptualized as the provision of assistance to learners and the gradual withdrawal of the aid as the scaffoldee signals progression in their knowledge/skill and the capability to take over more responsibility. The present study sought to scrutinize the impact of metacognitive scaffolds intended to endorse metacognitive activities (i.e. planning, monitoring, and evaluation) on various aspects of oral proficiency namely, complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Sixty participants selected through a proficiency test and ranging in age from 16 to 27 took part in the study. Complexity was assessed by calculating the ratio of clauses to AS units in the participants' production. Fluency was measured by dividing the number of syllables by the total number of seconds and multiplied by 60, and accuracy was gauged as the percentage of clauses devoid of syntactic, morphological, and lexical errors to the whole number of clauses. The results of a number of t-tests and ANOVAs on pre and post-intervention oral performance revealed that metacognitive scaffolds could significantly enhance oral proficiency in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Implications for classrooms are discussed.