the effect of metacognitive strategy instruction through strategy cluster on listening comprehension and listening metacognitive strategy awareness of iranian efl learners

As second language (l2) teachers and language scholars acknowledge the uniquecharacteristics of the listening skill and the vital role it plays in language learningand communication, they underscore more and more the significance of teachinglistening comprehension in l2 classes. moreover, it is generally agreed that listeningskills can be enhanced through the explicit instruction of general learning strategies.given this, the present study was an attempt to empirically investigate the effect ofmetacognitive strategy instruction through strategy cluster on listeningcomprehension and metacognitive strategy awareness of iranian efl learners. tothis end, 60 female efl learners were selected via double sampling, and after takinglistening pre-test and the metacognitive awareness listening questionnaire(malq), they were assigned to an experimental group (metacognitive strategyinstruction) and a control group. the experimental group was exposed to clusters ofmetacognitive strategies, while the control group was exposed to conventionalinstructions. after the treatment, a listening post-test and malq were given to allgroups. then thorough analysis of data using paired-samples t-test and independentsamples t-test indicated that experimental group outperformed control group in thelistening post-test. furthermore, it was revealed that the experimental groupimproved in terms of listening metacognitive awareness. therefore, metacognitivestrategy instruction should be incorporated into efl classes since it makes studentsself-regulated and responsible for their own learning and it improves learning as aresult.