Metacognition in foreign languages (English and French) teaching-learning process

Abstract

The way towards a practical way of propi- tiating innovation in the English and French as foreign language courses through the appli- cation of metacognitive strategies. However, metacognition represents for many teachers an unknown area. This article contains the results obtained from an investigation carried out with 37 English and French teachers as foreign languages belonging to a private university of El Salvador. Three aspects were specifically explored: (1) how acquainted English and French as foreign language teachers are with metacognitive strategies; (2) from the teacher perspective, how the metacognition could help students in the learning process of a foreign language; and (3) from language teachers point of view, which activities allow the effective integration of metacognition in the learning process of a foreign language like English and French so that students achieve autoregulation. The results reveal that although most of the teachers have listened the term metacognition before, they do not have a clear idea of what it is and what is involved in its application in the courses of foreign languages. Yet they consider that integrating metacognition techniques in the teaching-learning languages process is relevant and recognize that to be trained in this area could help the students in their learning of English and French languages.

ECA Estudios Centroamericanos, Vol. 77, No. 771, 2022: 105-122.