The Role of Metacognitive Strategies in Second Language Writing

Abstract - Metacognition is defined as one’s own awareness ofthe thought process; specifically it concerns the ability toregulate the cognitive processes of the learners in their learning.In the context of writing, it refers to ‘thinking about one’s ownwriting’ or ‘awareness of one’s own writing processes. Thisexperimental study investigates the role of metacognitive strategiesin promoting effective English writing. The data was collectedfrom 27 Indian ESL learners using strategy questionnaire,writing tasks and classroom observation. It is found that successfulemployment of Metacognitive strategies facilitates to meet thechallenges in writing in producing comprehensive content. Theresults of the differential and correlation analysis reveal thatthe employment of effective metacognitive strategies hassignificantly correlated with the development of writing skills