THE IMPACT OF INCORPORATED TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION WITH METACOGNITIVE ACTIVITIES ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION ABILITY

In L2 listening instruction, a comprehensive metacognitive approach via presenting several tasks leads students to listening improvement in the classroom. The present quasi-experimental study examined the impact of incorporated task-based instruction with metacognitive activities on Iranian intermediate young EFL learners’ listening comprehension ability. To this end, 30 Iranian female EFL learners studying in an English language institute in Tehran were selected based on convenience sampling. The Preliminary English Test (PET) and a listening protest were administered to examine the participants’ homogeneity before the treatment. The groups were assigned to Metacognitive Listening Tasks Group (MLTG, n=15) and Cognitive Listening Tasks Group (CLTG, n=15). During 12 sessions, MLTG experienced one-way (non-participatory) and two-way (participatory) listening tasks and metacognitive activities. However, CLTG experienced only the one-way and two-way listening tasks. Metacognitive activities included a self-directed listening/viewing guide, listening diaries, process-based discussions, and a self-report checklist. The listening post-test results revealed that the MLTG outperformed the CLTG in listening comprehension. The study has implications for the EFL/ESL students in listening comprehension pedagogy and can offer some hints for investigators to develop a comprehensive model for the L2 listening process. Teachers could employ collaborative techniques and metacognitive activities in their classes, considering the practical implications.