The Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in Writing Ability of Iranian EFL Learners

Metacognitive knowledge shows a significant effect on cognitive tasks regarding language acquisition. Thepresent study through mixed method data analysis examined the effect of metacognitive knowledge on thewriting performance of Iranian EFL university students and investigated instructors’ attitudes towards theimplementation of metacognitive knowledge awareness in the higher educational context. To this endthrough stratified random sampling ۳۰۰ freshmen, English language students in Islamic AzadUniversity(IAU), and ۳۰ instructors in (IAU) were selected as the participants of the study. After conductingOxford Placement Test (OPT) ۱۶۹ students, whose level of language proficiency was estimated aboveintermediate were selected as participants. The study was conducted for ۱۶ weeks which involved pre-andpost-tests. The results revealed that learners’ metacognitive knowledge and related constructs are positivelycorrelated with the writing ability of EFL learners. Furthermore, effective application of metacognitiveknowledge awareness assisted students writing performance. Besides, the results of the semi-structuredinterviews revealed that instructors’ had a positive attitude towards the implementation of metacognitiveknowledge awareness in the higher educational context. In this study, the researcher took the initiative tomake a distinction between person knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge. The study hassome implications for the EFL/ESL students in writing pedagogy and can provide some hints for developinga comprehensive model for the writing process. The teachers could employ metacognitive knowledgeawareness tasks in their writing classes.

Keywords:

EFL Learners , Metacognitive Knowledge , Instructors’ Perceptions , Writing Ability