Metacognitive Strategies

^{Anderson (2002)} defines metacognition as the process of ‘thinking about thinking’ (p. 1), involving actions like: (1) setting learning goals and defining ways to accomplish them; (2) making conscious decisions about which learning strategies to use and how to use them; (3) knowing how to use various strategies concomitantly; and (4) evaluating strategy use and learning. Metacognitive strategies relate to how learners control their learning processes and manage tasks by ‘planning, monitoring, and evaluating both language use and language learning’ (^{Harris, 2003}, p. 4) and are therefore critical in vocabulary learning.

The planning strategy helps learners set clear and achievable goals and select appropriate strategies to accomplish them (^{Anderson, 2002}). During the pre-intervention stage of the present study, participants were trained to select sets of meaningful words autonomously and to use appropriate cognitive and metacognitive consolidation strategies to learn them.

The monitoring strategy refers to ongoing awareness of whether ‘there is no understanding of an activity and to stop and do something about it’ (^{Griffiths, 2008}, p. 101). Monitoring learning includes checking task information to validate comprehension and to focus attention on important vocabulary related to main ideas (^{Swartz, 2003}). In the present study, this strategy helped students identify problems and solve them through conscious use of vocabulary learning strategies.

Similarly, evaluation concerns the ability to examine and correct one’s own cognitive processes and implies making revisions while evaluating one’s reasoning, goals, and conclusions (^{Schraw, 1989}). In the present study, participants made entries in learning logs, evaluated goal achievement, and self-assessed their use of metacognitive strategies by means of a checklist. Additionally, we examined affective factors like beliefs, attitudes, and engagement because the way students perceive themselves as learners can influence their learning (^{Ushioda, 2008}) and use of metacognitive and vocabulary learning strategies.

In an investigation of how metacognitive strategy training influenced a group of EFL/ESL readers’ declarative and procedural knowledge and their use of strategies while reading research articles, ^{Diehb-Henia (2003)} found that metacognitive-strategy training improved the subjects’ familiarity with and proficiency in reading research articles and thus argues that metacognitive training can help students enhance their language skills. ^{Likewise, Trujillo, Alvarez, Morales, and Zamudio (2015)} found the development of metacognitive strategies positively influences vocabulary learning and students’ awareness of their learning processes but also self-directed behaviours that may have themselves further enhanced the participants’ vocabulary learning. These researchers thus suggest the incorporation of metacognitive strategy training within the EFL classroom to guide students to more effective control of their learning and to help them transfer those strategies to other learning situations.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies

Previous research has examined the relationship between strategy use and vocabulary proficiency (e.g., ^{Fan, 2003}; ^{Griffiths, 2003}). ^{Barcroft (2009)} reported a positive correlation between the number of strategies used and vocabulary recall, observing more specifically that students obtained better scores when using a mnemonic technique and L2 picture association than when simply relying on L2-L1 translation and repetition. Barcroft argued that ‘raising learners’ awareness about strategy use by informing them about findings of this nature may help them to reconsider the strategies that they employ and try new strategies that may be more effective’ (p. 86). ^{Moir and Nation (2008)} investigated adult ESOL students’ personal approaches to learning tasks, beliefs about learning, and effectiveness at learning vocabulary, finding that although these students devoted considerable time to learning and were aware of the importance of preparing for tests, they were less enthusiastic about personalizing their own learning. These studies support the vocabulary strategy development executed in the present study because they suggest that to help students become more effective users of vocabulary learning strategies, teachers should include direct strategy-based instruction that leads students to assume a more reflective stance on the way they learn.

Vocabulary learning strategies themselves have a variety of taxonomies. ^{Schmitt (1997)} identifies four groups: social, memory, cognitive, and metacognitive. In contrast, ^{Cook and Mayer (1983)} classify all vocabulary learning strategies as either determination or consolidation strategies. Learners use determination strategies to discover a word’s meaning based on background knowledge, contextual clues, or reference materials by figuring it out and/or asking someone else; they use consolidation strategies to remember the meanings of a word through social, memory, and metacognitive processes. Alternatively, ^{Nation (2013)} proposes three types of vocabulary strategies: planning, finding information, and establishing knowledge. This categorization includes, in his view, ‘a wide range of strategies of different complexity’ (p. 222).

In the present study, we focused on guiding learners through ^{Cook and Mayer (1983)} and ^{Nation’s (2013)} taxonomies. Therefore, we determined that a combination of cognitive strategies, such as meaning-oriented note-taking strategies (writing down meanings and synonyms and illustrating meaning with a drawing) followed by learning words from context (^{Nation, 2013}) and metacognitive strategies (such as monitoring, planning, and evaluation) should further support learners’ vocabulary learning processes. The selection of these strategies was based on the understanding that ‘real vocabulary learning comes through use, both receptive use and productive use. Teachers can help the process along by drawing attention to particular words, by teaching strategies for learning vocabulary, and by providing simplified material’ (^{Nation, 2013}, p. 6). In this study, participants possessed vocabularies restricted to loan words and words related to basic information about themselves. Therefore, to involve students in explicit vocabulary strategy training for the first time, we chose a topic that was of common interest to their school community and neighbourhood and that had been studied in the students’ mother tongue in other subject areas. To this end, we provided access to simplified reading material and training on how to use vocabulary strategies to learn a particular set of words needed to write and talk about the content read at a later stage. As ^{Nation (2011)} argues, ‘the goal of strategy training is that students can use it without the help of a teacher’ (p. 531), and we designed a strategy training experience intended to encourage participants to also use their newly gained strategy knowledge in other learning situations.

Learner Autonomy in Language Learning

As metacognitive strategies help learners manage their own learning processes independently (^{Nunan, 1990}), the development of learner autonomy was also a central focus for this study, which sought to raise students’ awareness of learning processes and strategies to help them become more effective learners. Learner autonomy is ‘essentially a matter of the learner’s psychological relation to the process and content of learning-a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action’ (^{Little, 1991}, p. 4). This definition emphasizes the fact that learner autonomy can be developed not only in specific contexts-such as a language classroom or WebQuest (^{Dodge, 1995a}, ^1995b)-but in any learning situation. The development of learner autonomy then depends on a learner’s perspectives on learning and is not limited to specific situations. Thus, individual learners exposed to similar strategy training under similar learning circumstances may reach different levels of autonomy (^{Nunan, 1997}) and, therefore, possibly different learning outcomes.

A number of studies have been conducted to investigate learning autonomy and ways to promote it for language learning purposes (e.g., ^{Mizuki, 2003}; ^{Nguyen, 2012}; ^{Shao & Wu, 2007}; ^{Gu, 2009}; ^{Hyland, 2004}). For example, ^{Nguyen and Gu (2013)} found that strategy-based instruction helped participants improve the skills of monitoring, evaluating, and planning a writing task. With regular instruction, they argued, learners should become able to better engage with and self-regulate such tasks, making more consistent use of appropriate strategies to produce better learning outcomes. Similarly, ^{Cotterall (2008)} suggests that, in addition to acquiring good learning behaviours (which can be achieved through effective strategy training), autonomous learners require a structure that allows them to ‘shape and define their learning and to display their personal autonomy’ (p. 118). In other words, the degree of a student’s autonomy seems to be strongly linked to their own conceptualization of success. In this respect, ^{Zhou (2016)} found that students with higher levels of autonomy were more likely to involve themselves in collaborative learning and, ultimately, be more successful at learning English, suggesting that ‘autonomy has both direct and indirect effect on language learning performance’ (p.95) and that the development of autonomy may itself be enhanced by collaborative learning. The results of these studies have demonstrated the impact of strategy training on students’ learning autonomy, but none of them used Web-based technology to enhance students’ strategy development nor their views on the use of such strategies when working independently on a WebQuest.

Web-Based Technology

Incorporating Web-based technology into English-language learning ‘gives teachers and students the opportunity to exchange knowledge’ (^{Rátiva, Pedreros, & Núñez, 2012}, p. 12), helping students familiarize themselves with new vocabulary through meaningful content learning as they interact with each other and new sources of information through chat rooms, online conferences, and Web pages. To guide learners in the use of metacognitive and vocabulary learning strategies and to support the learning of specific vocabulary about land pollution, the present study used a WebQuest entitled The World in Our Hands (^{Barón & Martínez, 2012}). This was structured in accordance with ^{Dodge’s (1995a)} definition of a WebQuest as ‘a set of inquiry-oriented activities’ (p. 10) consisting of (1) an introduction, (2) a task, (3) a process, (4) an evaluation, and (5) a conclusion. Dodge argues that this design helps learners interact with multiple Web-based technologies-such as online videos, e-books, or blogs-and acquire expertise in their use through both individual and collaborative work.

Context and Participants

This study was conducted simultaneously in two Colombian public schools, with School 1 located in Bogotá, D. C. and School 2 located in Ibague, capital of the Department of Tolima. The participant groups from both schools had similar language levels and shared similar linguistic needs. During the planning and implementation of the study, the researchers had four face-to-face meetings (scheduled throughout the project timeline) and maintained regular online communication with each other. Although a total of 40 students from both schools received the strategy training, only 30 (14 boys and 16 girls) agreed through the consent of their legal guardians and the schools’ principals to participate in the study. The participants were all eighth-graders, aged 12 to 15, with an average English proficiency at the A1 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference (^{Council of Europe, 2001}). Informal interviews with students, classroom observations, and teachers’ reflections carried out in advance of the implementation suggested that students’ low motivation towards and low interest in learning English was related to their living conditions, as they did not consider communication through English a real or useful possibility in their future lives.

In this study, the researchers acted as participant-observers (^{Burns, 2010}), which involved their performance of various functions, specifically the following: instructing participants in using learning strategies during the initial stages of implementation, developing instructional materials, and implementing activities. The researchers also immersed themselves in the participants’ culture and activities to report on their insights in relation to the subject of the study and to collect the necessary data.

Data Collection Instruments

Data validity was supported through the collection of information from various participants by means of different instruments so as to examine the phenomena studied from multiple perspectives (^{Burns, 2003}). Data were collected through pre- and post-questionnaires, student learning logs, a semi-structured interview, self-assessment checklists, and mind maps. Students were permitted to use Spanish to answer questions involving reflection on the use of strategies to facilitate the expression of their views. Questionnaires (^{Dornyei, 2003}) were this study’s primary source of quantitative data and were used to look for initial and final indications about participant’s use of the studied strategies. Both questionnaires comprised 29 items, expressed as statements and arranged into groups: personal details (4 items), use of vocabulary learning strategies (15 items), and use of metacognitive strategies (10 items). Learning logs (^{Friesner & Hart, 2005}) were used to help students reflect on problems encountered when using vocabulary learning and metacognitive strategies, as well as possible solutions at the beginning, middle, and end of the interventions (Appendix B), data which helped us analyse the learners’ strategy use more deeply and to corroborate the information gathered through the questionnaires. Interviews were used ‘to go deeper into the motivations of respondents and the reasons for responding as they do’ (^{Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007}, p. 351) regarding the effectiveness of the strategy training and other affective issues in the development of autonomy. The students also used self-assessment checklists to help them evaluate (^{Ross, 1998}) their use of metacognitive strategies, and created mind maps (^{Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009}) using the vocabulary they knew (and were later able to recall) on the topic of land pollution.

The data collection instruments were designed and then piloted with students from the same groups who participated in the strategy training process, but who did not take part in the study. We paid attention to instances when students were hesitant, asked for clarification, or responded without necessarily reading the question. Then, we revisited the instruments and checked the different question items for relevance, meaning, and clarity.

Strategy Development

The strategy development stage required students to activate prior knowledge and reflect on the topic of land pollution as it related to their own context. We guided students in the use of determination and consolidation vocabulary learning strategies (^{Cook & Mayer, 1983}) and in reflecting on the most common problems they experienced when learning new vocabulary. Through modelling and think-aloud protocols (^{Deschambault, 2012}), we helped students to become more familiar with specific metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, and evaluating; ^{Harris, 2003}) and reflect on their efficacy. We structured each of the strategy development sessions on vocabulary and metacognitive strategies with an adaptation of the cognitive academic language learning approach (CALLA; ^{Chamot & O’Malley, 1996}), which suggests five basic stages: preparation, presentation, practice, evaluation, and expansion. Table 1 illustrates the activities executed in a vocabulary learning strategies session.

Table 1: Structure of a Strategy Development Session 

WebQuest Exploration

In the WebQuest exploration stage, using the WebQuest entitled The World in Our Hands (^{Barón & Martínez, 2012}), we trained students to perform individual and group-based tasks, giving them access to synchronous and asynchronous communication channels to address any accessibility and navigability issues encountered during independent work. Once they were familiar with the WebQuest’s pedagogical sequence: introduction, task, process, evaluation, and conclusion (^{Dodge, 1995a}), students were instructed to work on it outside the classroom, continuously using metacognitive and vocabulary learning strategies to recycle words and recall information in context and identifying the specific strategies they considered most effective.

RQ1: How does training A1-level eighth-graders on metacognitive and vocabulary learning strategies affect performance in an L2 vocabulary learning task?

Questionnaire analysis

RQ1 was addressed with data from the two questionnaires and the interview. The post- questionnaire revealed a post-implementation increase (compared with the initial results from the pre-questionnaire) in the percentage of students exploring vocabulary-learning strategies involving both visuals and the use of words in context (Table 2). Some of the new strategies used were remembering synonyms or the context where the word was seen, creating an image of the word, writing sentences containing the word, and representing the word with a drawing.

Table 2: Strategies Used by Students After Intervention 

Table 2 shows that the most-used strategies were repetition (a strategy students were already using before the intervention), with an average use of 61%, followed by remembering the context where the word was seen first and writing sentences, both with an average use of 36%. The least-used strategy was grouping, with an average use of 10%. In general, the highest percentage of strategy usage was observed in students from School 1.

The number of words students recalled increased steadily as they completed their mind maps. Figure 1 depicts the results by school and the number of words recalled. At the end of the intervention, students from School 1 could recall approximately twice as many words as those from School 2, a difference that seems directly related to the higher percentage of students using strategies prior to this experience in School 1. Although Figure 1 does not indicate the knowledge students had about the words they could recall, a direct relationship between the use of strategies (Table 1) and the number of words recalled seems evident. This result aligns with ^{Griffiths’ (2003)} finding that ‘those students who made the most progress were the ones who most increased their language strategy use’ (p. iii).

Figure 1: Number of Words Recalled after Pre- and Post-Intervention. 

RQ2: How does strategy training affect learner autonomy when learning vocabulary?

RQ2 was answered with data from the interviews (Appendix D), which included 11 items, the first five of which examined respondents’ views on their independent use of strategies, while the remaining items considered affective factors involved in the use of the strategies. The results indicate that encouraging students to plan, monitor, and evaluate their processes for learning new words outside the classroom independently through the WebQuest activities seems to have encouraged their conscious use of metacognitive strategies, choosing which vocabulary learning strategy best fit their own learning styles, learning purposes, and linguistic needs.

I frequently self-evaluated and then I asked myself why I had not learned this word. . . . As time passed by, I could evaluate what I learnt and how I did it through the WebQuest. (Excerpt 7, S6, interview)

Excerpt 7 shows how strategy training encouraged in students the habit of frequent reflection on learning processes and self-evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses as learners. These findings align with ^{Anderson’s (2008)} observation that ‘when learners reflect upon their learning, they become better prepared to make conscious decisions about what they can do to improve learning’ (p. 99).

Incorporating metacognitive strategies within WebQuests can enhance students’ abilities to acquire new vocabulary autonomously (^{Harris, 2003}). Similarly, analysis of our interview results shows that (1) 30% of students planned which words to learn independently and 43% self-selected the vocabulary learning strategies to use, (2) 52% took effective action with the selected strategies, (3) 52% found the vocabulary learning strategies effective, (4) 54% remembered more words, and (5) 57% solved problems by collaborating with peers or the teacher. Additionally, we found that the collaborative work required by the WebQuest activities, in which students learned from each other as they planned, monitored, and evaluated vocabulary learning, helped develop student autonomy. Equally, however, we determined that the teacher retains an important role as a facilitator, particularly for dependent learners, as students who received continuous feedback, repeatedly monitored and assessed by the teacher in their use of metacognitive and vocabulary learning strategies, seemed to gain self-confidence that encouraged a more frequent use of the strategies. ^{Nunan (1997}, p. 195) argues that autonomy emerges at different levels; in the context of this study, it required the internalization of vocabulary learning strategies. Table 3 shows how participants reached different degrees of autonomy in their uses of metacognitive strategies.

Table 3: Learners’ Levels of Autonomy in the Use of Metacognitive and Vocabulary Learning Strategies 

Table 3 shows that affective factors are closely related to learning (^{McLeod, 1992}; ^{Valdivia, McLoughlin, & Mynard, 2011}). How students perceived and reacted to strategies for learning new words had a significant effect on their autonomy and ability to achieve goals. Some of these affective factors (^{Sims & Sims, 1995}; ^{Fandiño, 2008}) involved in the development of autonomy were beliefs, attitudes, engagement, and expectations.

Pedagogical Implications

The present study’s results show that when teachers guide students in the exploration of new strategies and in thinking about what works effectively for their own learning-rather than just telling them what to do and how to do it-the students are more likely to act and learn autonomously, which undoubtedly benefits their own learning processes. Therefore, we argue that metacognitive and vocabulary strategy training should be more widely integrated into language teaching curricula (^{Rubin et al., 2007}; ^{Nguyen and Gu, 2013}). Such integration could be supported by Web-based environments that enhance learning opportunities as students interact with classmates, their teachers, and parents to ‘actively use their planning, monitoring and evaluating skills to complete their vocabulary learning tasks’ (^{Nguyen & Gu, 2013}, p. 25). Projects such as that implemented in the present study would also encourage teachers to act as facilitators, making use of the levels of independence students have already reached to support the development of further learner autonomy. Teachers could set topics and tasks that motivate more dependent learners to learn, use, and reflect on the efficacy of new strategies. Curricula could be improved by designing and implementing context-related units and tasks, as well as specific strategies, that encourage learners to select the vocabulary learning strategies most suitable for achieving their learning goals.

Accordingly, we argue for an approach to teaching and learning that (1) encourages students to exploit similarities between Spanish and English more effectively, and (2) trains students in new strategies that help them (a) recognize when they have encountered a difference between the two languages, and (b) overcome that difference by using the L2. For example, in a case such as that of Student 6 (Appendix B), who claimed that one of their difficulties was learning English vocabulary words that were very different from Spanish, the learner would be encouraged to reflect on the strategy already being used (leveraging knowledge of Spanish to help with English) to help find other strategies better suited to handling points of difference between the languages.

Moreover, it should be noted that metacognitive strategies, once learned, can be transferred to other areas of knowledge, and this could help students become more aware and autonomous in contexts beyond the language classroom. If students are trained to set their own learning goals, monitor their task performance, and evaluate their results in terms of content and language learning, this should help them better learn and retrieve information in any content area.

Finally, we argue that using Web-based learning activities outside of class provides learners with additional opportunities to reinforce what they study at school, to practice the language outside the classroom at their own pace, and to strengthen their digital literacy skills (e.g., how to find, evaluate, and use information). Introducing students to the use of Web-based technologies for language learning may also help familiarize them with tools for lifelong learning and, as in the case of the present study, a pedagogical space in which to exercise autonomy with the strategies learned. However, we should emphasize that participants in the present study received advance preparation in the necessary ICT and digital literacy skills and that the particular WebQuest adapted for the study was specifically designed to ensure students could perform its activities in a safe environment in which constant support from teachers was available. In all cases, the use of Web-based tools for pedagogical purposes must be accompanied by careful preparation to support learners’ current and future success.

Limitations and Further Research

Although the current study yielded valuable results concerning the use of metacognitive strategies for vocabulary learning, the sample was relatively small, limited to 30 A1-level eighth-graders, which complicates generalization of the results. Further research should trial the approaches used in the present study with larger groups of learners and with the use of a control group. Additionally, although participants in this study were, in general, quite committed to achieving the objectives proposed, the intervention lasted a relatively short time. As ^{Moir and Nation (2008)} observe, only when learners ‘reach a satisfactory level of comfort [with one vocabulary learning strategy] it is unlikely that they will truly experience its effectiveness and find it easy to use as their default strategy’ (p. 170), and this level of comfort is only achieved with considerable effort and time. In the case of the present study, it was evident that participants would have benefited from a longer training period. Unfortunately, time restrictions dictated by the school calendar prevented the provision of further strategy training within the same academic year. Another limitation was that the processes studied did not reach an operationalized stage at which students could transfer the strategies learnt to different learning situations and thus provide evidence of systematic use of the strategies. Future longitudinal studies with larger populations could provide a more complete picture of the effects of strategy training for the enhancement of vocabulary in EFL contexts.

One fundamental area of research needed in the field of second language acquisition in Colombia concerns the social and cultural factors affecting teaching and learning processes, a better understanding of which could help explain why dependent students are often reluctant to adopt new practices that could help them become more independent learners. Such knowledge could help teachers design new methodologies to better support the development of learner autonomy. Additionally, further study on the effective use of Web-based technologies to support the development of metacognitive strategies could help teachers better guide students in navigating learning environments beyond the classroom. Such studies need not, of course, be focused on L2 vocabulary acquisition but more widely on the use of metacognitive strategies with any of the discrete skills or language systems, thereby contributing to a better understanding of how students can become more autonomous when learning English (or other languages) and, indeed, content subjects.