Enhancing Listening Comprehension: The Role of Metacognitive Strategy Instruction (MetSI)

This paper reports the findings of a study taken from an ongoing doctoral research study which investigates the effects of metacognitive strategy training on lecture listening comprehension abilities of undergraduate students in Malaysia. Listening to lectures is difficult especially for students who have just entered the university and even more daunting for Malaysian students as English is a second or foreign language to them. The study involved 34 first-year students from the Faculty of Education in a public university in Malaysia. Instrumentation for the study involved the use of a questionnaire, a listening test and semi-structured interviews. Results indicated that students who frequently use metacognitive strategies when listening to lectures in English scored higher in the listening test. In addition, students could benefit from instructions in listening strategies as these assisted them in their academic success.