English Majors’ Perceptions and Their Current Practices of Metacognitive Strategies in Language Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate English Majors’ Perceptions and Their Current Practices of Metacognitive Strategies in Language Learning. Metacognitive strategies, including planning, monitoring, and evaluating individuals’ learning process, are recognized as crucial for achieving language proficiency. However, insights into EFL senior and junior students’ perceptions of these strategies’ concepts, subordinate components and present practices of students are restricted, which underscore the necessity for focused research. To address this gap, this qualitative study was conducted to investigate EFL senior students’ perceptions regarding metacognitive strategies and their applications at the School of Foreign Languages in Can Tho University. The analysis of qualitative data obtained from narrative frames filled by 60 student participants in the questionnaire respectively elucidated a deep understanding of students’ conceptualizations of terms, identified sub–skills, and current practices. The results revealed that most students notably possess partial insights of the concepts and a few still perceive misunderstandings about the importance of metacognitive strategies. At the same time, while they demonstrated a good awareness of planning and evaluating, comprehension of monitoring strategies appeared to be limited. Conclusively, this study stressed the significance of addressing the importance of metacognitive strategies to enhance EFL students’ performance in the language learning process. It is expected that these insights derived from this research suggest practical interventions for curriculum development, and provide lecturers with pedagogical strategies to better prepare students for their academic outcomes. These findings remarkably contribute to the academic discourse on language proficiency, offering a foundation for future research on effective learning approaches and the need for integrating explicit metacognitive strategy training into English programs to foster learners' self–regulation and enhance language learning outcomes.