Effects of metacognitive strategy training on academic writing achievement and metacognitive awareness

This study investigates effects of instructional activities designed with metacognitive strategies on English academic writing achievement and metacognitive awareness of Turkish students. The study was conducted with the sophomore students (two experimental and two control groups) taking the English Academic Writing course at a state University. The data collection phase of this mixed-design study was launched at the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. A ten-week metacognitive strategy training was carried out with the experimental groups. The control groups, however, were not given any instructions on metacognitive strategies. Interview forms, observation forms, Padlet application, exams on academic writing and "Metacognitive Awareness Writing Questionnaire" were used as data collection tools in the research. The scores of both the writing exams and the "Metacognitive Awareness Writing Questionnaire" given as pretests and posttests were analyzed by using the SPSS programme. The qualitative data, obtained from interview forms, observation forms and Padlet application, were evaluated by employing the content analysis method. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between writing scores of the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental groups. The level of metacognitive awareness was also statistically higher among the experimental group students compared to those of the control groups. Furthermore, experimental group students declared, during the interviews, that they regarded both instructional activities and training under metacognitive strategies as quite helpful. The findings of the study could potentially contribute to national and international literature in the field of curriculum development and instruction in language teaching and to the knowledge base of researchers, teachers, course-book writers and policy makers working in this field. Keywords: Academic writing skills, metacognitive strategies, foreign language learning, university students, higher education