Failure attributions and metacognitive awareness of EFL learners

Abstract

Foreign language learners’ failure in learning English despite many years of language instruction in state schools has been a widely discussed topic. However, relatively few studies have attempted to explore possible effects of failure attributions and metacognitive awareness on language learning. As metacognitive awareness is an acknowledged prerequisite for language performance and as attributions determine future expectancy for success in language learning, the relationship between both concepts deserves closer attention. This case study, conducted with 218 Turkish EFL learners in an upper secondary state school in Turkey, aims to reveal language learners’ failure attributions and their metacognitive awareness levels, and investigates the relationship between both variables. To this end, the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and the Multidimensional-Multiattributional Causality Scale were translated into and applied in Turkish. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation test were run for data analysis. The findings indicated that language learners have high metacognitive awareness levels and explain their failure in learning English with their lack of effort. A weak negative correlation among achievement attributions and metacognitive awareness levels was also revealed.

Keywords:

• Attribution theory
• English as a foreign language
• English language teaching
• language learning
• metacognitive awareness
• secondary education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Özlem Güneş

Özlem Güneş graduated from Middle East Technical University in 2015 and completed her MA in ELT at Gazi University in 2018. She has been teaching English at different state schools under the Ministry of National Education since 2015.