Metacognitive instruction in L2 French: An analysis of listening performance and automaticity

The goal of the present study was to investigate the instructional potential of metacognitive strategies to improve listening comprehension and the automaticity of listening processes. A pretest-treatment-posttest design was adopted and used in seven sections of second-semester French. Differences were found based on initial listening proficiency and metacognitive awareness: low proficiency learners in both conditions outperformed all high-proficiency learners in listening gains over time. Initial level of metacognitive awareness had a significant impact on gains in listening performance: learners in the experimental group who began the study with low metacognitive awareness achieved higher gains in listening. These results indicate that the initial level of metacognitive awareness has a differential impact on listening comprehension gains, supporting the idea that increasing metacognition can help learners to improve listening skills.