The Impact Of Metacognition On Writing Motivation And Writing Proficiency For Non-English-Major Students

This thesis is attempted to examine the relationship among the use of writing metacognitive awareness, the application of writing motivation and the proficiency of English writing in the empirical study. A total of 73 non-English-major sophomore students from two ordinary colleges respectively in Zhejiang and Shanghai provinces participated in this study. Two questionnaires ("Questionnaire of Metacognition in EFL Writing" and "EFL Writing Motivation Questionnaire"), a relevant interview, and four writing tests were accomplished in their regularly scheduled English class, and the conclusions drawn through the quantitatively statistical analysis were listed as follows.Firstly, the results indicated that the participants in this study paid more attention to the utilization of metacognitive assessment than that of metacognitive awareness, suggesting that Chinese non-English-major students were familiar with the criteria of excellent EFL essays, but they seldom initiatively applied metacognitive strategic knowledge to improving their individual English writing level. In particular, a majority of students still had language barrier and negative experience which tremendously limited their writing proficiency.Secondly, the results also revealed that most Chinese non-English-major students were moderately motivated in English writing. On the other hand, they preferred to focus on extrinsic motivation as compared with intrinsic motivation. Although the intrinsic motivation is theoretically one of the most important factors influencing English writing proficiency, in the present study the participants' extrinsic motivation was significantly correlated with their English writing proficiency, thus proving to be more helpful to enhance their ability of their English writing.Finally, there was deep correlation between the use of EFL writing metacognitive strategy with EFL writing motivation for Chinese non-English-major students, which manifested that three motivation variables including amotivation, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation showed a strong relationship with most writing metacognitive strategies. The use of metacognitive strategies in the EFL writing process was significantly dependant on their intrinsic motivation. However, metacognitive assessment presented a relatively weak correlation with EFL writing proficiency.According to the above conclusions, some suggestions were proposed for the teaching and learning of English writing.Teachers should scientifically identify learners' metacognitive awareness and motivational level and assist them in reinforcing the ability to apply their writing metacognitive strategies and consolidating their writing motivation. Besides, the educational authority should take more action to train English teachers in strategy teaching and motivation instruction to fulfill their teaching tasks based on scientific methods.