Enhancing Students’ Metacognition in Legal English Classes

Abstract

In the last two decades, researchers have shown the importance of metacognition in language learning and teaching. This paper focuses on students’ metacognition in the course ‘English for Lawyers’ at Masaryk University and reports on the action research which was performed over the period of three years, 2019–2021. The objectives of the research were twofold: to identify how students perceive their learning in legal English lessons in which both the legal content and academic skills were practised, and then to find out whether implementing steps that raise their metacognition would help students become more efficient learners. By collecting data from reflective questionnaires given to students, the teacher analysed the teaching and learning situations and proposed changes, such as explaining the learning opportunities of the lessons and supporting the planning, monitoring, and evaluating of students’ learning, so that students could exploit the full potential of lessons and their learning abilities.