MetacognitiveStrategyTrainingforVocabularyLearning

practice opportunities;monitor their speech as well as that of others;and pay attention to meaning.Naiman,Frohlich,and Todesco (1975)madea list of strategies used by successful L2 learners,adding that they learnto think in the language and address the affective aspects of languageacquisition as well.Learning strategies are defined by 0'Malley and Chamot (1990)as "specialthoughts or behaviors that individuals use to comprehend,learn,or retainnew information"(p.1).Oxford (1994)defines them as "actions,behaviors,steps,or techniques students use,often unconsciously,to improve theirprogress in apprehending,internalizing,and using the L2 (p.1).In the 1980s and early 90s,research mainly focused on categorizing thestrategies found in the studies of the previous decade.As a result,several taxonomies were proposed to classify them,includingclassifications of language learning strategies in general and languagesub-skills strategies in particular.0'Malley and Chamot (1990),forinstance,have divided the strategies into three main branches:cognitive,metacognitive,and socio-affective,each of which includes lots ofsub-strategies such as rehearsal,organization,summarizing,deducing,and imagery.On the other hand,Oxford (1990a)has proposed a morecomprehensive model in which six categories,classified into two groupsof direct and indirect exist.The direct strategies include memory,cognitive,and compensation while indirect strategies includemetacognitive,affective,and social.As Oxford (1990b)mentions,the social and affective strategies are foundless often in L2 research.This is,perhaps,because these behaviors arenot studied frequently by L2 researchers,and because learners are notfamiliar with paying attention to their own feelings and socialrelationships as part of the L2 learning process.According to 0'Malley and Chamot (1990),cognitive (e.g.,translating,analyzing)and metacognitive (e.g.,planning,organizing)strategies areoften used together,supporting each other.The assumption is that usinga combination of strategies often has more impact than single strategies.As Graham (1997,pp.42-43)states,the distinctions between cognitiveand metacognitive strategies are important,partly because they help usto indicate which strategies are the most important in determining theeffectiveness of learning.Graham believes that metacognitive strategies,that allow students to plan,control,and evaluate their learning,havethe most central role to play in improvement of learning.Anderson (2002b)believes that "Developing metacognitive awareness may also lead to thedevelopment of stronger cognitive skills"(p.1).Since metacognitive