2016 Annual Conference

This session will discuss a case study’s findings that examines a technology-mediated metacognitive instruction implemented for adult ESL college students. The presenter will share the instructional design, student examples, and interview data. The participants will grapple with the theoretical understanding of metacognition and how to incorporate it in the classroom.

The study's findings will be valuable for teachers and curriculum developers for teaching English for speakers of other languages for both academic and community purposes. In addition, those who study second language acquisition and those interested in qualitative educational research may apply practical and theoretical knowledge from this study to their practices and research.

Metacognition (Flavell, 1979) is an essential psychological process for learning, which occurs through four phases: metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience, goals, and strategies. In Second Language Acquisition, this notion is echoed in Swain's (2005) Output Hypothesis that emphasized the importance of verbal metalinguistic reflection, e.g., verbalizing one's L2 grammar mistakes by using the target language, because "speaking" may simultaneously mediate one's internalization of target L2 features. The purpose of this session is to share findings from a case study about web 2.0 technology-mediated metacognitive instruction implemented for adult ESL learners who pursue higher education in the US. The instruction consists of four activities: speech recording by using a web 2.0 tool (VoiceThread), transcribing, peer evaluation, and reflection writing. Among 90 students who experienced the instruction, 6 students were recruited for the case study. The findings reveal that students' metacognitive experience (recognizing that I don't know a certain content yet) may lead students' goal setting and study strategy establishment to improve their speaking skills. Implications and drawback will be discussed. Thus, the participants of this session will be equipped not only with the understanding of metacognition, but also practical ideas about how to apply metacognition in practice.