The Relationship between English Writing Ability Levels and EFL Learners’ Metacognitive Behavior in the Writing Process

Abstract

The impact of globalization has been felt by those who need to communicate in English. The corollary to this is that an emphasis is now placed on traditional writing skills within an increasingly complex range of communicative media. To meet the demands of writing competence that EFL learner’s now face, Flower and Hayes (1981) proposed a cognitive process writing model to provide insights, into how writers go about planning, generating, and revising, during the process of writing. Sitko (1998) proposes that one way to engage students in the cognitive process is to provide instruction in metacognition. Since there have been fewer studies focusing on examining the impact of metacognitive behavior in the Taiwanese learning context (e.g., You & Joe, 2001, 2002), the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between English writing ability levels and EFL learners’ metacognitive behavior during the writing process; and further, to explore their attitudes and perceptions, concerning metacognitve operations, during the writing process. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this non-experimental study. Subjects in the present study were 152 students majoring in Applied English at a university in the south of Taiwan. The finding of this study reveals that high-level writers make better use of metacognative behavior in the stages of planning as well as reviewing; however, there is no significant difference at the translating stage. The interview results show that highlyproficient writers: generate complete ideas, and concern themselves with the needs of their audience and the demands of specific genres, as well as additionally organizing an outline in English during the planning stage; whereas most intermediate- and low-proficient writers, only generate rough ideas and make an outline in Chinese. It is expected that the results of the present study will inform EFL writing teachers of the pedagogical implications and International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development conclusions to be drawn from a fuller understanding of the metacognitive writing behavior exhibited by proficient EFL students.