An assessment of the metacognitive knowledge of Botswana ESL university student writers

Abstract

This research explored metacognitive knowledge of the University of Botswana (UB) students taking the Advanced Writing Skills course, and related this knowledge to their writing performance. The specific objectives of this study were: (a) To explore the metacognitive knowledge of the Botswana students taking the Advanced Writing Skills (GEC 211) course; (b) To examine the relationship between the metacognitive knowledge of the students and their writing performance. Data for this study were collected using two questionnaires: The Biographic Information Questionnaire and the Metacognitive Style Questionnaire adapted from the instrument used by Kasper. Data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data were analysed descriptively by calculating means and standard deviations of the autobiography, task and strategy variables of the metacognitive questionnaire. It was also analysed inferentially using two-tailed ANOVA to test for significant difference between the means. Qualitative data were analysed to look for common patterns between the students’ responses and to see whether the data supported the statistical data. The results showed that the UB Advanced Writing Skills of students had moderate metacognitive knowledge and that they tended to focus more on the linguistic aspect of writing rather than on communicating with the audience. For that reason they fell short of being effective writers. Key words: Metacognitive knowledge, autobiographic variable, task variable, strategy variable, linguistic information, communicating with audience.