He has no time for consulting to someone when he learning the TOEIC preparation, as a result, he only doing simulation test then learning the material in
the test. As he is kind of person who never give up on something, he tried hard for about 1,5 years to prepare for the TOEIC test by himself.
Based on the questionnaire and interview, he combines meta-cognitive type of learning and cognitive type of learning strategy. As he ever consulting to
someone about his work, he has no socio-affective behavior. Whether the second respondent has applied some meta-cognitive behavior and cognitive behavior, it
seems that socio cognitive behavior also important to improve the TOEIC score. Cooperating and asking for advice to the professional mentor or higher level
learners is also important to help us to get better goals and to find out our problem solution to the mistake. Meanwhile, he has a high motivation to learning the
preparation by himself. It may his confidence to do the test and to achieve high score.
Therefore, there are some limitations such as higher scores may not necessary be equated with better enhancement in language competence as the test
does not include speaking and writing. However, as questions on listening material are directly related to what is actually conversed in a real situation, high –
score subject can be regarded as proficient in activity that requires substantial personal effort to learn over time.
a. Meta-cognitive strategy
It can be stated that meta-cognitive is a term to express executive function, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring of one’s
production or comprehension, and evaluating learning after activity is completed. Among the meta-cognitive strategies, it is possible to include advance organizer,
directed attention, selective attention, self management, functional planning, self monitoring, delayed production, self evaluation.
In the analysis, the writer found out that the first respondent has done some meta-cognitive strategies which were divides into those categories.
•
Meta-cognitive: Advance Organizer
This is sample survey and question for the higher achiever
Question : Can you explain the strategy or your steps to success in TOEIC
test?
Answer : My first step is looking for information in advance about TOEIC
test through books and browsing in the internet and looking for references any book that is easy to understand to learn TOEIC.
Then I also studied the format of the test, how the test work properly, then focuses on the questions and answer, and then
follow the test requirements.
The form of the utterance above indicates learning strategies to plan the learning activity in advance. It is marked by the use of organizational planning of
language function or different events, for example: at home, bathroom, and at class. Organization planning means planning the parts, sequence, main idea, or
language function to be express orally or in writing. Here, the first respondent has sequence of planning for preparing the TOEIC study. He make some sequence
steps to plan to study TOEIC in order he can be success to achieve high score of TOEIC.
•
Meta-cognitive: Directed Attention
Directed attention means deciding to concentrate on general aspects of a leaning test. Below is the sample survey for further evidence.
Question: Do you have any special tips for mastering TOEIC?
Answer: Yes, mastering the concept of the TOEIC for me is the main and
fastest strategy by learning the important parts such as grammar, vocabulary, tenses that are often use in the TOEC test.
The utterance above indicates that the first respondent has applied meta- cognitive strategy of directed attention. The respondent focused on vocabulary,
tenses which are often appears on the TOEIC test. •
Meta-cognitive: Selective Attention
Based on the interview, it is indicated that the first respondent has used meta-cognitive strategy of selective attention. It is category of the strategy in
which the learner deciding to pay attention to specific parts of the language input or the situation that will help learning. It can be seen in the following utterance:
Question: Can you please tell me how do you master the listening section of
the TOEIC test?
Answer: I often listen to English conversation through CD, watching
English movie and listening to English song to train my ear sensitivity of the language. I also learn some vocabularies and
English expressions trough movie.
The utterance above proves that the first respondent has used meta- cognitive strategy of selective attention. He learned the listening section of the test
through several ways. •
Meta-cognitive: Self Management
Self management means trying to arrange the appropriate condition of learning. According to the interview and questionnaire given to the first
respondent, he is indicated to use this category of strategy. This can be seen in the following utterance.
Questions : What do you do to overcome the difficulties that constrain you
to master TOEIC?
Answer : I was spending time to learn TOEIC, making schedule of
particular day at least twice a week during my busy activity.
The above utterance proved that the first respondent has manage himself to learn TOEIC by making schedule which he has done regular minimum twice a
week.
Meta-cognitive: Advance Preparation
Here, the first respondent has also used meta-cognitive strategy of advance preparation. It means he has planned the linguistic components for a forthcoming
language task. The following utterance proved that this category of strategy has been
done by the first respondent.
Questions : how are your strategies to master the structure and grammar to
work on the ‘structure and grammar section’ in the TOEIC test?
Answer : before starting the exercise, I divided the structure I the category
of the most frequent and rarely emerged from analysis of the subject and verb, punctuation, commas, conjunction or recurring
conjunction, preposition, adjective verb, ling king verb, comparison and conditional sentence.
Based on the above utterance, it is indicated that the first respondent has planned or some linguistic elements of the TOEIC test such as learning the
grammar construction; subject and verb, conjunction, preposition, adjective verb, comparison, and conditional sentence.
•
Meta-cognition: Self Monitoring
The first respondent monitor his learning as a self – monitoring which he checked his performance to find out his progress of learning. It can be seen in the
following utterance:
Question : How do you check or evaluate your progress?
Answer : I usually do online test in the internet to check my progress and
also check my grammar mistake when doing grammar exercise.
The above utterance shows that the first respondent has monitored himself when he was learning TOEIC. He checked his grammar mistake and do some pre-
test online to fine monitor his progress of learning. Based on the questionnaire, he also always finds out the error or mistake when learning the TOEIC.
•
Meta-cognitive : Delayed – production
Delayed – production means the action of deliberately postponing speaking o that one may learn by listening. Since TOEIC test has listening
section, o the respondent must study the listening. It means he has done delayed – production meta-cognitive strategy. Below is the utterance that shows this
category:
Questions : Can you describe your strategy to master the listening section of
TOEIC?
Answer : I usually study the new vocabulary and expression through music
and movie. I identified the similar sounds and meaning.
Based on the above utterance, it can be seen that the first respondent make some learning in the listening section of TOEIC test to increased vocabulary, and
indentified some similar sounds and meaning. So, it can be said that he has done meta-cognitive of delayed – production strategy in which he studied the listening
for postponing speaking. •
Meta-cognitive: Self – Evaluation
Self – evaluation means checking how well one is doing against one’s own standard. To check the standard score achievement, the respondent has done some
evaluation by doing he pre-test and exercises. It was done check the score after the
learning section. The utterance below shows the first respondent action of self – evaluation:
Questions : How do you check your learning progress?
Answer : I usually check my learning progress by doing the pre-test, full
test, and several exercise.
The respondent has done some pre-test to evaluate his learning progress. This action called as meta-cognitive self-evaluation strategy. He checked his
progress through several exercise.
Table 2.1. Metacognitive Strategy Primary Strategy Classification
Strategy Toward the Classification
1 Metacognitive
i Advance Organizer
Making of sequence order to study based on the test model
j Directed Attention
Directly reading the answer Focuses on the main idea or
topic He focus on the choice of
answer before answering them k
Selective Attention Focus to listen the whole
conversation He pays the attention to the
introduction and first part of dialogue
He learns the type of the test and catches the point of the
question Study the grammatical and
context of situation Focuses on the conjuction and
preposition l
Self – Management Study the functional expression
necessary for the test
m Functional Planning
Pay attention on the meaning, pronunciation and sound
He uses the target language reference materials
n Self – Monitoring
He studies the first language as a base for understanding and
or producing
the second
language o
Delayed Production He
is reordering
or
reclassifying, and
perhaps labeling, the material to be
learned based on common attributes
He is writing down the main idea, important points, the
outline, or
summary of
information presented orally or in writing
p Self – Evaluation
He is consciously applying rules to produce or understand
the second language
b. Cognitive Strategy
