Examining the effects of English as a foreign language student-writers’ metacognitive experiences on their writing performance

Abstract

Learners’ metacognitive competencies play a vital role in affecting their learning outcomes, especially for language learners who need to write in English as a foreign language (EFL). Much research has widely explored writers’ metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies in EFL learning contexts, yet the role of metacognitive experiences in writing is underexplored. To fill this gap, we conducted this study to investigate the effects of EFL student-writers’ metacognitive experiences on their writing performance with reference to complexity, accuracy, and fluency. A total of 435 EFL student-writers at a university were invited to complete two writing tasks and the EFL Learners’ Writing Metacognitive Experiences Questionnaire (EFLLWMEQ). Findings of structural equation modelling showed that metacognitive estimates of EFL writing had a significant positive effect on lexical complexity and fluency but a negative effect on writing accuracy. Metacognitive feelings of EFL writing were positively related to syntactic complexity, and online metacognitive strategies of EFL writing also positively contributed to writing accuracy. The findings shed light on the theoretical and pedagogical implications for the role of metacognition in learning to write in EFL.