Investigation of 7th grade elementary school students' metacognitive awareness levels and vocabulary learning strategies they use in English lessons

The aim of this study is to investigate the metacognitive awareness levels and the vocabulary learning strategies they use in English lessons of 7th grade students. For this purpose, mixed method including quantitative and qualitative research methods was used. The survey model was used in the quantitative dimension of the research, and the case study model was used in the qualitative dimension. The universe of the research consists of 6234 7th grade students studying in the Etimesgut district of Ankara in the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample of the quantitative dimension of the research consists of 653 7th grade students studying at schools in Etimesgut district. The sample of the qualitative part of the research consists of 12 students selected on a voluntary basis from the 7th grade students studying at Bağlıca Secondary School. To collect data, "Metacognitive Awareness Inventory for Children (Jr. MAI) - B Form" and "Scale for Vocabulary Learning Strategies in Foreign Languages" were used for the quantitative part of the research. In the qualitative dimension of the research, a semi-structured interview form was developed by the researcher. The analysis of the quantitative data has been done with the help of statistical package program. The metacognitive awareness levels and the distribution of the vocabulary learning strategies were analyzed using frequency, percentage and arithmetic mean. Besides, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test were used for the metacognitive awareness levels of the students according to their gender and parental education level. One-way ANOVA (F) test and independent sample t test were used for vocabulary learning strategies used by students according to their gender and parental education level. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of qualitative data. In the quantitative findings, it was found that the metacognitive awareness levels of the students are good; the metacognitive awareness levels of the female students are higher than the male students; there is no significant difference between the metacognitive awareness levels of the students according to their mother's educational level while there is a significant difference between the students' metacognitive awareness levels according to their father's educational level. In addition, it was found that students use vocabulary learning strategies at a moderate level; they mostly use metacognitive strategies while they prefer social strategies the least; there is a significant difference in favor of female students in the vocabulary learning strategies according to their gender; there is a significant difference between the vocabulary learning strategies according to the educational level of their parents. According to qualitative findings, the students first try to learn English vocabulary in order to communicate with foreigners, travel abroad and get a good job; they use memory strategies, cognitive strategies, compensatory strategies and metacognitive strategies intensively; they experience some difficulties while learning the word and try different ways to overcome these difficulties; they get help from various people and sources. Keywords: elementary education, metacognitive awareness, vocabulary learning strategies, 7th grade, English lesson