A Case Study Of Metacognitive Knowledge In EFL Writing For Non-English-Majors

Wen Qiufang regards that one of the most important criteria to judge whether he is talented person or not is to see his English writing ability. However, writing actually is not an easy work compared with all the four basic English skills, and has been a big headache interfering both teachers and learners for a long time. It is said that successful learners have their special ways of learning, it is the same with writing. "Metacognition"---a psychological term is a newly heated field in applied linguistics. In order to help students improve their writing abilities, it is quite important for teachers to promote students'awareness of metacognition for writing. Many studies have suggested that metacognition plays a critical role in successful learning, but few students have received any formal metacognition instructions on the promotion of writing skills in China.Based on Flavell's framework of metacognitive knowledge, this study attempts to explore and investigate the correlations between metacognitive knowledge and English writing outcomes of non-English-majors, so as to improve their writing by strengthening their metacognitive knowledge. In response to the problems appearing in their writing, the study aims to find:1. What metacognitive knowledge do non-English-majors manifest in EFL writing in this study?2. Is students'metacognitive knowledge in EFL writing correlated with their writing performance? If yes, how is one related to the other? 3. Which of all the metacognitive knowledge has the closest relationship with EFL writing? How is it correlated with writing performance?According to the three problems, this thesis will explore from both empirical and descriptive perspectives, and it is hoped that both teachers and students can get some insight and help in the instruction and study of writing.