Exploring Metacognitive Strategies Employed by ESL Writers: Uses and Awareness

Abstract

The present study explored metacognitive strategies employed by English as second language (ESL) writers. The study also investigated students’ awareness of the effectiveness of these strategies and the relationship between students’ language proficiency levels and the frequent uses of metacognitive strategies. The data was collected via a questionnaire completed by non-native English speaker students (23 males, 38 females) at a midwestern university in the United States. The findings indicated that students frequently employed the three components of metacognitive strategies (i.e., monitoring, planning, evaluating; where evaluating was the most frequent strategy, followed by monitoring and planning). Moreover, the results indicated that students had a relatively high awareness of the effectiveness of the strategies discussed in the study which consequently affected students’ uses of these strategies during a writing task, such as essays. Among the students, there was a positive correlation between students’ proficiency levels and the frequency of the use of strategies. The study suggested several pedagogical implications including the need for increasing students’ as well as teachers’ awareness of metacognitive strategies in teaching and learning academic writing.