International Journal of Language & Linguistics

“The Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in Enhancing Learners Autonomy”
Hala Ahmed Ismael Introduction Many scholars have identified different methodological approaches to metacognition development and learners’ autonomy in teaching and learning English as a foreign or second language. Garcia (2010) states that “learning cannot be autonomous if there is no metacognition to supervise, organize and plan the process. Learning is part of everyone’s life; whether they attend formal schooling, university, or not, people will learn”. As established by Flavell (1975), metacognition is simply defined as “thinking about thinking” which consists of components that are made up of knowledge and regulation. Metacognitive knowledge includes knowledge about oneself as a learner (personal knowledge) and the factors that might impact performance (task knowledge), knowledge about strategies, and knowledge about when and why to use strategies (strategy knowledge). Since the present paper sets out to discuss the role of metacognitive knowledge in enhancing learner autonomy, the paper reviews related metacognition literature on both learners’ autonomy and language learning strategies.

Full Text: PDF