Research On Metacognition In English Academic Writing Of Non-English-Major Doctoral Candidates

There are lots of research achivements on EFL writing based on themetacognition theory at home and abroad. However, it is focused on the study ofEFL basic writing and there are few researches on cognition and EFL academicwriting.With the development of science and technology and the strengthening ofinternational communication, various academic activities are increasing. Academicwriting is an indispensable bridge and carrier in terms of academic exchanges andthe reports of academic achievements. It can be said that the quality of academicwriting has a great impact on the success and failure of academic exchanges. It isrequired that academic papers should be written in English in the internationalexchanges and accord with special demands in English academic contexts. Thus, thestudy and teaching of English academic writing is of great importance to EFLwriters.In this thesis, Non-English-major doctoral candidates are the research subjectsand the author explores metacognitive effects on English academic writing ofnon-English-major doctoral candidates through empirical research. The subjects arechosen from a comprehensive university and chosen from three majors ofmathematics, physics and chemistry, including twelve from mathematics, twelvefrom physics and ten from chemistry. All the doctoral candidates were convened to ameeting room and required to finish the metacognitive questionnaires of Englishacademic writing within limited time. After that, each of them handed in an abstractof English academic paper as writing samples.The research questions of the thesis are:1) What is the state of non-English-major doctoral candidates in metacognitive knowledge of English academic writing?2) What are the influences of metacognitive control of non-English-major doctoralcandidates on English academic writing?3) What are the types of metacognitive experience of non-English-major doctoralcandidates and their influences on English academic writing?The research results of the thesis are:Firstly, Metacognitive knowledge of English academic writing of theinvestigated non-English-major doctoral candidates is at the middle level; the levelsof metacognitive knowledge of English academic writing of the doctoral candidatesof different majors are basically the same with no obvious deviation.Secondly, Metacognitive control and writing quality are in positive correlation,which means that, with the increase of the level of metacognitive control, writingquality improves.Thirdly, Metacognitive experience can be divided into joyful experience,painful experience and calm experience; metacognitive experience and writingquality are in the negative correlation; with the increase of the level of calmexperience, writing quality decreases.According to the findings of the research, the author put forward somesuggestions for the learning and teaching of English academic writing ofnon-English-major doctoral candidates and hope this research could arouse attentionand interest from a great number of researchers, making metacognition theory moreapplicable to the field of English academic writing of doctoral candidates.