University Students' Metacognitive Awareness in Listening to English as a Foreign Language

Grabbing meanings in oral texts is not always easy. Therefore, listening is considered as a difficult task by many learners of English as a foreign language. The preliminary study of this research even revealed that students of English Department still face this problem. To ease the task, it is essential for students to know and apply suitable listening strategies as well as to have awareness related to their learning. Yet, whether or not students have the awareness and know the strategies are still questioned. Hence, a research was conducted and this article attempts to share the findings of an investigation on the metacognitive awareness of sophomore students regarding their listening comprehension in English and the strategies they use to understand listening texts. Sophomore students of English education department were chosen because they met the criteria to be the participants of this study i.e. they had joined some level of listening courses in the department. They are considered have adequate experiences in listening class. The data in this study was obtained through questionnaires (MALQ, Vandergrift et al, 2006). Results showed that the students were fairly aware of all aspects of metacognitive strategies and knowledge. Unlike those who were only tested, students who perceived of being trained in using listening strategies had higher metacognitive awareness.