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HKBU Papers in Applied Language Studies Vol. 14, 2010
Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge
in English Writing
1
Zhang Yanyan
Wuhan University
Abstract
Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about learning. Recent
research suggests that metacognitive knowledge plays an
important function in cognitive activities concerning language
use and acquisition. This paper aims to investigate the role of
metacognitive knowledge in the English writing of Chinese
EFL learners. The present study involves 120 non-English
major freshmen in China as participants to complete an
English writing task and a self-designed questionnaire on
metacognitive knowledge. It is found that the learners’
metacognitive knowledge base is not strong, metacognitive
knowledge and its three components, i.e., person knowledge,
task knowledge and strategic knowledge, are all positively
correlated with English writing performance, and successful
employment of metacognitive knowledge helps facilitate EFL
learners’ writing proficiency. The results demonstrate that a
good command of metacognitive knowledge can empower EFL
learners in their English writing and cultivate their learning
autonomy in English learning.
1. Introduction
Recent decades has witnessed an increasing recognition of the
importance of metacognitive knowledge in cognitive activities related
to language use and acquisition (e.g., Baker & Brown, 1984; Devine,
1993; Flavell, 1979; Kasper, 1997; Vandergrift, 2002; Wenden, 1998;
Xu & Tang, 2007). Many studies have been carried out to examine the
function of metacognitive knowledge in ESL/EFL learner’s
performance of receptive English skills, such as reading and listening
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
26
(e.g., Baker & Brown, 1984; Vandergrift, 2002; Xu & Tang, 2007;
Yang & Zhang, 2002). It has been found that the learners’ beliefs and
knowledge about learning play a critical role in those activities.
However, relatively little research has been conducted to investigate
the role of metacognitive knowledge in EFL learner’s performance of
productive English skills, particularly writing, and relevant empirical
studies are especially scarce in the Chinese context (Xu & Tang,
2005). To address the lack, this paper aims to investigate the role of
metacognitive knowledge in the English writing of Chinese EFL
learners, in the hope of shedding some light on the teaching and
learning of EFL writing skill in China.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Metacognitive Knowledge
John Flavell first proposed metacognition theory in the 1970s. He
defined metacognition as knowledge that focuses on or regulates any
part of cognitive activity and identified two general dimensions of
metacognition: knowledge and experience (Flavell, 1979). In his work
Cognitive Development, Flavell (1985) further elaborated that our
metacognitive knowledge base consists of what we have learned
through experience about cognitive activities. From a theoretical
perspective, Wenden (1998, p.517) summarizes the defining
characteristics of metacognitive knowledge as follows:
(1) a part of a learner’s store of acquired knowledge
(2) relatively stable and statable
(3) early developing
(4) a system of related ideas
(5) an abstract representation of a learner’s experience
According to Flavell (1979, 1985), metacognitive knowledge involves
three distinct and highly interactive knowledge variables: person
knowledge, task knowledge, and strategic knowledge.
Person knowledge refers to general knowledge that learners have
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
27
acquired about themselves as learners, which may facilitate or inhibit
learning. Wenden (1998) suggests that person knowledge may include
cognitive and affective variables such as age, language aptitude, and
motivation, specific knowledge learners have acquired about how
these factors may function in their experience, knowledge about their
proficiency in a certain area, self-efficacy beliefs about their general
ability as learners, and beliefs about their ability to achieve specific
learning goals. With regard to writing in English as a foreign language,
person knowledge may refer to the knowledge EFL learners have
acquired about themselves as writers, such as their attitude towards
and motivation in English writing, their beliefs about their writing
proficiency and their perceived ability to achieve certain writing
objectives.
Task knowledge generally involves three aspects: learners’ knowledge
about the task purpose and how it will meet their learning needs and
goals (Breen, 1987); knowledge about the nature of a particular task
identified through a classification process; information about a task’s
demands, such as the approach to the task and the knowledge and
skills needed to complete the task (Wenden, 1998). In relation to EFL
writing, task knowledge may include learners’ knowledge about the
purpose of a certain writing task, such as to improve their writing
ability, and their information about the required skills to fulfill the
task, such as a good command of English vocabulary and grammar,
and a skillful mastery of developing ideas clearly and logically.
Strategic knowledge refers to general knowledge about the types and
usefulness of strategies, and specific knowledge about their utility for
learning. In second language acquisition, learners’ retrospection upon
their language learning strategies is often taken as evidence of their
stored strategic knowledge (Wenden, 1998). Of particular importance
are metacognitive strategies, which are “general skills through which
learners manage, direct, regulate, guide their learning, i.e. planning,
monitoring and evaluating” (Wenden, 1998, p.519). In the case of
writing in English as a foreign language, strategic knowledge often
refers to EFL learners’ knowledge about pre-writing planning,
on-writing monitoring of errors, post-writing checking and reflection
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
28
of their writing processes and products.
2.2 Metacognitive Knowledge and English Learning
Research in the past few decades has demonstrated that possession of
a strong metacognitive knowledge base is critical to successful
learning (e.g., Baker & Brown, 1984; Devine, 1993; Flavell, 1979;
Kasper, 1997; Vandergrift, 2002; Xu & Tang, 2007) and that a good
learner is “one who has ample metacognitive knowledge about the
self as learner, about the nature of the cognitive task at hand, and
about appropriate strategies for achieving cognitive goals” (Devine,
1993, p.109).
The recognition of the importance of metacognitive knowledge in
learning has led to an increasing number of relevant studies in the
field of second language acquisition. While extensive research has
been carried out on the role of metacognition in listening and reading
performance of ESL/EFL learners (see Baker & Brown, 1984; Devine,
1993; Yang & Zhang, 2002), corresponding research in writing has
been relatively rare (Devine, 1993), especially in the Chinese context
(Xu & Tang, 2005). A pioneer study on ESL writing in this vein is
Devine, Railey & Boshoff (1993), which attempted to examine the
influence of metacognition on second language writing by
investigating cognitive models in 10 second language and 10 first
language beginning writers and assessing the effects of these models
on their writing performance. The results suggest a potential link
between ESL learners’ metacognitive models and their writing
performance.
Another study on metacognition and writing is Zimmerman &
Bandura (1994), which examined the influence of beliefs that learners
hold about their ability to mobilize and direct resources for learning
and to sustain this effort (i.e. self-efficacy beliefs) on their writing
performance. They proposed a causal model of student self-regulation
of writing achievement, which indicates a close relationship between
metacognitive person knowledge and learners’ writing outcome.
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
29
Kasper (1997) further explored the metacognitive growth of 67
intermediate level ESL students and 53 advanced level ESL students
from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. She found
that ESL students’ metacognitive growth correlates significantly and
positively with their actual writing performance, along and across the
three components of metacognitive knowledge base.
The above three studies suggest a positive role of metacognitive
knowledge in English writing and have presented an important
contribution to the field. However, all these studies involve
participants of ESL students only. As English has been given a high
priority in the curriculum in China, where there is a large population
of EFL learners, English writing is of great importance for Chinese
students and research on English writing development and instruction
is therefore in urgent need. So far, the studies on metacognition and
writing in the Chinese context have been rather rare, and empirical
studies are especially scarce (Xu & Tang, 2005). Lu (2006) is an
earliest study that explored the relationship between metacognitive
strategies and English writing, but the participants of this study were
senior English major students and thus cannot represent non-English
majors who far outnumber English majors in China. Another more
recent study of relevance is Xu & Tang (2007), which compared 5
successful and 5 unsuccessful Chinese EFL writers’ metacognitive
knowledge by using think-aloud protocols and interviews. They found
that good writers are superior to poor ones in metacognitive
knowledge and attribute the good writers’ success to their possession
of a better metacognitive knowledge base. Although insightful, Xu &
Tang’s study is a qualitative analysis of only a few non-English major
students’ metacognitive knowledge and its generalizability therefore
awaits further confirmation.
From the review of previous studies, we notice a few research gaps in
this field. First, the research on the relationship between
metacognition and writing is still relatively rare, and the existing
studies tend to focus on ESL contexts. Second, empirical studies of
large scales are limited, especially in the Chinese context. Third, the
previous studies have seldom controlled the influence of English
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
30
proficiency on English writing. Fourth, both Devine et. al.’s (1993)
proposed link between metacognitive knowledge and writing
performance and Zimmerman & Bandura’s (1994) causal model on
writing achievement need proofs from other studies. To address the
lack, the present study undertakes an investigation of the role of
metacognitive knowledge in the English writing of 120 non-English
major EFL learners in Mainland China. The specific research
questions are as follows:
(1) What is the current situation of Chinese EFL writers’
metacognitive knowledge base and its three components?
(2) What’s the relationship between metacognitive knowledge
and English writing?
(3) Can the development of metacognitive knowledge help facilitate
English writing?
In addition, this research also intends to explore the relationship
between metacognitive knowledge and English writing by controlling
English proficiency so as to formulate an influence route model of
metacognitive knowledge on English writing.
3. Research Design
3.1 Participants
The participants of this study involve 120 freshmen from 4 intact
English classes across various non-English majors, including
chemistry, physics, surveying, mathematics, management, accounting,
etc., in a key university in Mainland China. There are 68 males and 52
females. When the study was carried out, the students were at the
beginning of their second semester in university, so all the students
have been learning English for at least six years. According to the
teaching syllabus of college English in China, first-year university
students should be able to write an English essay of 150 to 200 words
within thirty minutes.
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
31
3.2 Instruments
(1) Metacognitive Knowledge Questionnaire
Questionnaires have often been used in previous research on learners’
metacognitive knowledge in English reading, listening and writing
performance, and have been proved to be an effective tool to study
metacognition. Borrowing insights from theoretical discussions on the
concept of metacognitive knowledge (e.g., Wenden, 1998) and
previously used questionnaires (see Pajares, Hartley & Valiante (2001)
for writing self-efficacy questionnaire; Lu (2006) for metacognitive
strategies questionnaire), the author of the present paper designed a
metacognitive knowledge questionnaire on English writing in the
Chinese context. The questionnaire consists of two sections, with the
first aiming to gather the participants’ basic information, such as the
scores of their College English course
2
in the first semester, and the
other intending to illicit the learners’ retrospection upon their stored
knowledge about English writing, including person knowledge, task
knowledge, and strategic knowledge. The section on metacognitive
knowledge has 34 items in total, all designed on a five-point Likert
scale. Each item is a statement concerning an aspect of metacognitive
knowledge, accompanied with five response options ranging from five
to one corresponding to from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”.
For instance, “I think my English writing is good compared with my
peers”. Learners were asked to judge every statement and select a
choice that suits them best. Among all the items, items 1 to 14 are
concerned with person knowledge, items 15 to 22 with task
knowledge, and item 23 to 34 with strategic knowledge
3
. The internal
reliability alpha reaches 0.89 for person knowledge, 0.81 for task
knowledge, and 0.87 for strategic knowledge. To ensure that the
participants fully understand the items so that their answers can best
represent their true ideas, two versions of the same questionnaire were
designed, with the Chinese one for the students and the English one
for writing this paper.
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
32
(2) English Writing
To gather data on their English writing, the participants were required
to write an English composition on the topic “Part-time Job” within
thirty minutes during regular class time. The composition should be
no less than 100 English words, following the writing practice of
CET4
4
in China. “Part-time job” is a popular topic in universities in
Mainland China and was thus chosen for writing so that the students
would not feel too difficult and could display their English writing
ability.
(3) English Proficiency Test
All the participants have just taken a College English test, along with
the other freshmen, at the end of their first semester, which is also
their first English test in university. The test consists of listening
comprehension, vocabulary and grammar, reading comprehension,
translation and writing, and has been graded by English teachers
according to the same criteria
5
. This test was therefore adopted as the
English proficiency test for our research, and the students’ scores were
collected as an indicator of their current English proficiency.
3.3 Data Collection and Analyses Procedures
The research was carried out at regular English teaching hours with
the help of the participants’ teachers. For fear that the questionnaire
might affect the students’ writing process, the English writing task
was assigned first, followed by the metacognitive questionnaire. It
took about 40 minutes for all the participants to complete the writing
task and fill up the questionnaire.
Each English composition was scored independently by two
experienced English teachers, following the same grading criteria as
in CET 4, with the full mark being 15 points. The inter-rater reliability
is over 0.9. The average of the two scores for each composition was
adopted as its final grade. Whenever the two scores of a composition
disagreed by three points or above, the two raters would examine it
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
33
again and reach a final agreement after consideration.
As all the metacognitive knowledge items are on a five-point Likert
scale, with the options ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly
disagree”, the options were given values from 5 to 1 accordingly. The
criteria for judging the average metacognitive knowledge level are
shown in the following Table 1.
Table 1: Grading criteria of metacognitive knowledge level
Metacognitive knowledge level Mean Options
4.5-5.0 Strongly agree
High
3.5-4.4 Agree
Medium 2.5-3.4 Uncertain
1.5-2.4 Disagree
Low
1.0-1.4 Strongly disagree
All the data, including those of the writing performance,
metacognitive knowledge and English proficiency, were typed into
computer. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) programme
was then run to undertake statistical analyses. To serve the purposes of
the present study, the following analyses were carried out step by step:
(1) descriptive analyses of each of the variables concerning
metacognitive knowledge;
(2) correlation analyses between the participants’ metacognitive
knowledge and their English writing performance;
(3) an independent-samples t-test of the English writing
performance between students with different metacognitive
knowledge statuses as well as an independent-samples t-test of
the metacognitive knowledge status between students with
different writing performance;
(4) regression analyses for a close examination of the influence of
metacognitive knowledge on English writing by controlling
the English proficiency variable.
4. Results
4.1 Descriptive Analyses
Table 2 presents the average score (Mean) and the standard deviation
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
34
(Std. Deviation) of each intended aspect concerning metacognitive
knowledge together with its corresponding item number in the
questionnaire.
Table 2: Descriptive statistics of each metacognitive knowledge variable
Person Knowledge N Mean
Std.
Deviation
1. Positive attitudes towards English writing 120 3.14 1.08
2. Beliefs on English writing proficiency 120 2.85 .82
3. Beliefs on English writing achievement 120 4.05 .65
4. Beliefs on overcoming writing difficulties 120 3.55 .67
5. English writing motivation 120 3.36 1.09
6. Self-efficacy of ability in word spelling 120 2.68 .65
7. Self-efficacy of ability in using punctuations 120 3.18 .85
8. Self-efficacy of ability in using word class 120 2.82 .85
9. Self-efficacy of ability in using English grammar 120 2.95 .79
10. Self-efficacy of ability in writing topic sentences 120 3.68 .89
11. Self-efficacy of ability in writing supporting details 120 3.64 .79
12. Self-efficacy of ability in writing endings 120 3.45 .91
13. Self-efficacy of ability in thesis organization 120 3.32 .99
14. Self-efficacy of ability in expressing ideas 120 3.68 .78
Task Knowledge N Mean
Std.
Deviation
15. Familiarity with the writing topic 120 3.38 1.07
16. English writing task purpose 120 4.15 .73
17. Demands for a large vocabulary 120 2.82 .86
18. Demands for proficient grammar 120 2.68 .94
19. Demands for clear expression 120 3.95 1.06
20. Demands for good organization 120 3.75 .96
21. Demands for rich contents 120 3.60 .94
22. Demands for originality 120 3.20 1.16
Strategic Knowledge N Mean
Std.
Deviation
23. Knowledge on pre-writing planning 120 3.79 1.19
24. Thinking from readers' perspective 120 2.21 1.03
25. Knowledge on on-writing monitoring 120 3.74 1.07
26. Using avoidance strategies in writing exams 120 3.99 1.05
27. Seeking help in times of difficulty 120 2.07 .87
28. Knowledge on post-writing checking 120 3.42 1.04
29. Checking spelling 120 3.58 1.21
30. Checking grammar 120 3.64 1.09
31. Checking expression 120 2.15 .95
32. Checking organization 120 2.56 1.04
33.Checking content 120 2.76 .98
34.Knowledge on after-writing reflection 120 2.21 1.22
Table 3 summarizes the results of the three components of
metacognitive knowledge and the overall metacognitive knowledge
[...]... revise their compositions for improvement 6 Conclusion This paper explored the role of metacognitive knowledge in the English writing of Chinese EFL learners By analyzing the data collected from an English writing task and self-designed questionnaires on metacognitive knowledge, this study has obtained the following major findings: 43 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing. .. knowledge in English writing The results of correlation and regression analyses demonstrate that metacognitive knowledge exerts positive influences not only on English writing, but also on English proficiency More specifically, the influence route chart obtained in the present study clearly 42 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing indicates that metacognitive knowledge. .. to improve their English writing ability 5.3 The Influence of Metacognitive Knowledge on English Writing The results of the two independent-samples t-tests indicate that students with a higher English writing proficiency often have a stronger metacognitive knowledge base and that students with a better metacognitive knowledge status often have a higher English writing proficiency These findings suggest... average level of our students’ strategic knowledge is only 3.01, suggesting that our students, on the whole, have a relative poor knowledge about the use of writing strategies Although they have a fairly good awareness to 41 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing plan their writing beforehand and monitor their writing process, they have little knowledge of thinking from... writing, metacognitive knowledge and English proficiency English Writing Metacognitive Knowledge English Writing 1 378(**) Metacognitive Knowledge 1 English Proficiency ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) English Proficiency 640(**) 361(**) 1 4.3 T-test Analyses To testify the influence of metacognitive knowledge on English writing, an independent-samples t-test of the English writing. .. average English writing grade (Mean=9.45) as the cut point Among 120 participants, 58 students whose writing is above or equal to the average have a mean metacognitive knowledge value of 3.31 while the other 62 students whose writing is below the average have a mean metacognitive knowledge value of 3.20 The difference between the metacognitive 36 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in. .. level of our learners’ strategic knowledge 39 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing In order to explore the causes for the students’ poor metacognitive knowledge in English writing, we undertook an informal interview with a few participants afterwards, in which some learners confess that, (1) “I have a lot of difficulties in expressing myself, so I don’t like writing. ..Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing status of the participants Table 3: Descriptive statistics of metacognitive knowledge Knowledge N Mean Std Deviation Person knowledge 120 3.31 82 Task knowledge 120 3.44 67 Strategic knowledge 120 3.01 74 Metacognitive knowledge 120 3.25 58 Table 4 presents the results of the writing performance and the English proficiency... follows: English Proficiency = 0.361 * Metacognitive Knowledge The above two equations demonstrate to us in accurate figures that metacognitive knowledge influences both English writing and English proficiency directly Moreover, metacognitive knowledge also exerts its influence on English writing indirectly by influencing English proficiency We therefore can draw the following route chart to show these influences... Chinese learners of English EFL learners from other first language backgrounds should also be examined to test the generalizability of the positive correlation between metacognitive knowledge and English writing found in this study In conclusion, a better command of metacognitive knowledge can empower learners in English writing and cultivate their autonomous 44 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive . findings:
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
44
(1) Chinese EFL learners’ metacognitive knowledge of. Third, the
previous studies have seldom controlled the influence of English
Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing
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