Self-Monitoring Training In College English Writing: A Metacognitive Perspective

Self-monitoring, being a basic metacognitive strategy, refers tochecking, verifying, or correcting comprehension or performance in thecourse of a language task. Former studies show that EFL students areconstantly monitoring their writing. However, a few have been reportedabout the relationship between self-monitoring and writing, and empiricalstudies relative to it are found fewer both at home and abroad. Hence, theauthor tries to study ways and validity of self-monitoring strategy trainingin EFL writing as to improve students' writing proficiency. The purposeof this study is mainly to answer the four questions: 1. Can EFL learnersbe trained to self-monitor their writing effectively? 2. What effects canSM training bring about on EFL writing? 3. Are there any differences inthe effects of SM training on students of high-achiever groups andlow-achiever groups? 4. What are students' attitudes towards SMtraining?To find the answers, a self-monitoring training model has beenproposed on the basis of the metacognitive theory and the ZPD ofVygotsky, hoping to give guidance to the one-year-training program,which was integrated into the routine college English writing instruction.The study involves 120 non-English major freshmen in two classes from a university as its subjects. Each class consists of 60 Chinese students.One class was randomly chosen to be the experimental group (EG),taking part in the self-monitoring strategy training, and the other wastreated as a comparison group (CG), receiving no special training exceptthe routine college English writing instruction. Both qualitative andquantitative methods were adopted in analyzing the data gathered fromthe subjects' writing tasks, questionnaires and face-to-face interviews inorder to find differences between EG and CG after the training.Research findings confirm that self-monitoring training can beintegrated into EFL non-English majors' writing with explicit teachingmethods, and is effective in improving students' writing proficiency,because positive changes in the annotations of midterm test and thescores of posttest were found. For one thing, the annotations show thatstudents in the experimental group (EG) tend to be more responsible totheir own writing. For another, there is noticeable progress in the scoresof EG at the level of content and organization in posttest compared withthat of the comparison group (CG). Moreover, a remarkable improvementin organization and content was found in low-achievers' writing,suggesting that SM strategy training should have a greater impact on poorlanguage learners than those who are thought to be good languagelearners. The study may help to increase college English teachers'understanding of the self-monitoring strategy and English writing. Byway of demonstrating the SM training model, it provides means forfacilitating peer negotiation and collaboration, which might benefit bothteachers and students in large-sized classes. In a word, the study couldshed some light on the teaching of Chinese college English writing andpromote students writing proficiency as well.