Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing

HKBU Papers in Applied Language Studies Vol. 14, 2010 Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing1 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 (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 26 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing 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 27 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing 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. 28 Zhang: Investigating the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in English Writing 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 29 ... - tailieumienphi.vn