Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies ›› 2016, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (03): 16-19.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2016.03.003

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Metacognition and Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: An Interview with Professor Lawrence Jun Zhang

SUN Qiang, Lawrence Jun Zhang   

  • Online:2016-05-28 Published:2020-07-25

Abstract: Professor Lawrence Jun Zhang of The University of Auckland, New Zealand, is an internationally well renowned scholar for his research in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. His research program spans bilingual/biliteracy acquisition and bilingual/biliteracy education, learning and teaching English as a second/foreign language at university settings, and teacher identity and cognition in language teacher education. Most of his research is particularly concerned with metacognitive, cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and developmental factors in reading/biliteracy development. He was interviewed particularly with regard to his most intensively engaged research area, metacognition in L2 learning and teaching. In this interview, Professor Zhang started with a brief appraisal of the concept, the scope and historical development of metacognition, highlighting its origin in cognitive and developmental psychology. Then, he reviewed research on metacognition, especially its role in L2 learning and teaching at home and abroad. The interview concluded with him recommending that future research on metacognition in L2 education be inclusive, embracing not only a cognitive perspective, but also a sociocultural view, to the extent that metacognition can be better theorized in a dynamic systems framework.

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