A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS AT SMPN 1 PROBOLINGGO

Abstract

One of the most important missions of educators is to teach students how to learn on their own throughout their lifetime. How the learners learn how to learn, how the learners know what they have learned and how to direct their own future learning are all questions addressed by the concept of metacognition. Metacognition is a notion that has been used to denote a variety of epistemological processes. Metacognition means cognition about cognition; it refers to second order cognitions: thoughts about thoughts, knowledge about knowledge or reflections about actions. Metacognition involves the awareness and regulation of thinking processes. Metacognitive strategies are those strategies that require students to think about their own thinking as they engage in academic tasks. Metacognitive Strategies involve planning, monitoring, and evaluating. The activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task are metacognitive in nature. Within this study, the teacher applies Metacognitive Strategies in teaching process and encourages them to apply their Metacognitive in learning activities. This research aims at presenting a study of the English teacher who teaches the students by applying Metacognitive Strategies in her teaching process and the learners who apply metacognitive strategies in their language learning activities. This research was conducted to describe both teacher’s metacognitive strategies and the learner’s metacognitive strategies in the English language teaching and learning process at SMPN 1 Probolinggo. This research was conducted at 7 th grade of Junior High School. The research respondents were chosen purposively. The total number of respondents was 28 students, consisted of 15 males and 13 females’ students of class 7-3. The primary data of this research were collected from the teacher’s and students’ result of questionnaire, observation, and interview. Observation and interview were conducted to both students and teacher, and questionnaire was conducted to the students. The questionnaire was related MS that involves planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies. The questionnaire was divided into each language skill, consist of: Speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Observation was conducted to observe both students strategies and teacher’s strategies and interview was conducted to get the information about how they aware whether their strategies were appropriate and work well for them or not. Interview was conducted to support the data from the questionnaire and in order to get a deeper understanding about their metacognition. The result of data was analyzed by qualitative analysis. Based on the result of questionnaire, actually the students used metacognitive strategy. They were aware of their learning strategies that appropriate with them. They used kinds of strategies that could draw their learning style and they used metacognitive strategies that include planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies to the four language skills but they were prefer and frequently used planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies in reading skill rather than the other skills. It means the learners of 7-3 were more often applied MS in their reading activities rather than speaking, listening, and writing. From the observation, the teacher used a variety of teaching strategies in the teaching process. She used a visual aid to make the students easier comprehend and draw the background knowledge. She used a game to make the situation be relaxed, and so on. She tried to keep students’ interest and motivation in order to reach the target language. Meanwhile, students looked enthusiastic accepted the lesson given. They were also stated in interview session that they were happy and enjoy learning English with their teacher. Based on those explanations, it can be concluded that both teacher and students were aware of their metacognition and could interpret what strategies and how they applied MS well in language learning and teaching process.