Table 4 Individual metacognitive strategies used and usage patterns

1. Assessing the situation

Why it’s important to go to meetings? I paused. I get a little lost…do not think seriously about this topic and never encounter reasons… (Gwen)

Your [examiner] response is important to me – you smile or nod to me I think may be this answer is right. (Dolly)

- Applied when making judgements while or after listening to input question(s)

- Judgments about question difficulty, familiarity with topic, examiner’s purpose for asking a question

- Judgments about examiner’s reaction/response while speaking

2. Attending

Different pictures came to mind. I chose education and medicine…(Andy)

- Used when deciding from several word- or content-related choices;

- Occurs after analyzing input or assessing the question

3. Evaluating

I was thinking I did not say everything there was. (Alfred)

- Used when judging own: language production, response quality, thought processes and strategies used;

- Often followed by planning

4. Monitoring

I thought meetings and interviews are different. Should I or not talk about my interview? So I stopped talking about it. (Gina)

- Applied when a doubt or a problem is identified while speaking that leads to an immediate action

5. Planning

The next point in my mind is ok I have to give an example to prove my point. (Harry)

- Used after examining input question or identifying a content-related problem while speaking

6. Self-correcting

‘Occurred to me’…but I was saying ‘occurred to mind’, Oh it’s bad grammar. So I changed.(Faye)

- Used upon realizing a grammatical error

- Corrections made immediately in mid-sentence with no pauses or hesitations but not always correct