Language Teaching Research

This article presents the findings of an intervention study designed to examine the effects of metacognitive strategy instruction (MCSI) on learners' performance and on strategy use. Two classes in the secondary English oral classroom in Hong Kong participated in the study; one class received eight sessions of MCSI and the other served as a comparison group. In weeks 1, 10 and 20, data were collected from the learners' performance in group-work discussions, from the self-report questionnaires, from the observations of learners' strategy use, and from the stimulated recall interviews. The findings indicated that the treatment class generally outperformed the comparison class in the group discussion task. In addition, there was corroborating evidence from the multi-method approach to support the view that the learners tended to deploy `problem identification' as a global planning strategy to cope with an upcoming prioritization group discussion task. The findings are discussed with respect to awareness-raising value of the MCSI, the interaction effect between strategy instruction and research method, explicit and implicit learning, and a match of task type and strategy choice. Finally, the distinct advantages of using a multi-method approach to gauging the effects of MCSI are appraised.

Developments in broadcast and multimedia technology have generated a readily available and vast supply of videotexts for use in second and foreign language learning contexts. However, without pedagogical direction learners are unlikely to be able to deal with the complexities of this authentic listening resource, and strategy instruction may be one route to augmenting comprehension. This quasi-experimental, classroom-based study investigated the impact of listening strategy instruction on advanced-level, adult, Japanese, EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' comprehension of BBC news videotexts. An experimental group received 12 hours of listening strategy instruction consisting of the presentation, practice, and review of listening strategies, while a comparison group did not receive any explicit strategy instruction. Results indicated a significant improvement for the experimental group, although a significant effect in favour of the experimental group with respect to the comparison group was not evident as the comparison group also made significant gains. Possible reasons for findings are outlined and recommendations for future research presented.

This article reports the results of student preferences with respect to intervention studies integrated into college level Japanese language courses in two consecutive years. The initial study was entitled `Goal List Project'; the subsequent amended study was entitled `Self-Assessment Project'. The former project required the students to set individual goals and to commit to the goals in a written document. On the basis of the analysis of the students' responses, the second study excluded the written goal list requirement. Both projects contained common elements of student reflection, self-assessment, documentation of problems/comments and written instructor feedback. Questionnaires (n = 225) were used to investigate the projects from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. More students recognized the intervention processes used in the Self-Assessment Project as being helpful compared to those used in the Goal List Project. This is indicative of a learner preference for intervention activity dealing with performance self-assessment as opposed to activities that included goal-setting procedures.

This study investigates the effects of three types of production activities on uptake (operationalized as correct suppliance of the target structure during the treatment) and acquisition of negative adverbs in English. It also investigates the relationship between uptake and acquisition. The three production activities included a dictation, an individual reconstruction and a collaborative reconstruction activity. Each of these asked participants to produce the target structure but differed in (1) whether the activity was completed individually or collaboratively; (2) the amount of text participants had to produce; and (3) their degree of complexity and cognitive demand. It was found that all three activities resulted in uptake with the collaborative reconstruction, the dictation activities resulting in greater uptake than the individual reconstruction activity. There was also an effect for the activities on acquisition (of grammatical items only), but no differential effect for any of the three types of activities. It was concluded that a production activity can lead to increased uptake, but not to increased acquisition, and vice versa. The results may help language teachers look beyond immediate performance on an activity as a measure of success, and make better-informed decisions about when to use what type of activities.