Analysis On Metacognition In Writing Of English Majors In Improving Stages

Metacognition was first raised by Flavell as an important term in cognitive psychology, which refers to one's knowledge, one's own cognitive processes and products or anything related to them, including the occurent cognitive processes, self-regulative ability and the reciprocal action of both, as well as the active monitoring an controlling in these processes. Metcognition is made up of two parts: metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experience. Metacognition can be defined as "knowledge and cognition about cognitive objects" and it is based on metacognitive strategies. Metacognition in writing is the cognitive monitoring system in the process of writing. The essence of the system is self-management and self-control of self-consciousness. It can be embodied in the process of the writer acquiring information and analyzing the information to monitor the cognitive process correctly and immediately and choosing the suitable strategy to monitor the writing, to persist in or change the method or manner. The function of the metacognition in writing can be expressed in the process of orienting, controlling, monitoring and modifying the writing.Writing is a process which involves various elements and is a process which is monitored by metacognition. So this thesis makes a systematic study on cognition process, metacognition and metacognition in writing, its structures and its influencing factors, and makes an exposition of these theories. Based on the study of the previous theories, the writer has rough statistics and analyzes the information that is fedback by 160 English majors who are juniors and seniors. The purpose of the thesis is to reveal the general developing features of metacognition in writing depending on the analysis of the collected data, such as the strategies used by English majors, the metacognitive experience in writing, regularity of writing and retrospection of writing, ect; and to adjust teaching contents and methods according to the features and principles of metacognition in order to direct students to make self-planning, self-regulation and self-assessment in writing and to change the writing prosess into an active cognitive activity which uses metacognitive strategies to monitor their writing consciously and improve their writing ability at last.Although the data in the thesis are relatively rough and can not cover all the information of writing of English majors in improving stages comprehensively and integratedly, but the thesis is try to provide the information of English majors in writing improving stages objectively, analyze the information and sum up the general features of metacognition in writing in purpose of furnishing writing teaching and studying of English majors.