The metatextual skills: an intervention in the written production of narrative texts

Abstract The metatextual skills are an aspect of metacognition, referring to knowledge and control over the structural organization of different textual types. The objective of this study was to verify the effectiveness of intervention sessions aiming at the development of metatextual abilities, on the written production of stories and the explicit knowledge of the narrative structure of students of elementary school. The participants were 97 students from the 4th and 5th grade of a public school, which were divided into experimental and control groups. The instruments that have used were the production of texts about free theme and a questionnaire on the knowledge of narrative structure, applied before and after the intervention. The results indicated a significant favorable effect on the intervention concerning the knowledge of the narrative structure, but this improvement was reflected only partially in the written productions. The difference between the knowledge and control processes involved in the concept of metacognition is discussed.