The Role Of Metalinguistic Reflection While Writing In Foreign Language Learning

Although research on the interface between second language acquisition(SLA)and second language(L2)writing has been conducted at home and abroad for more than two decades,the topics and empirical studies in this field are still inadequate in quantity.Some relevant studies on “write to learn” were primarily carried out from the perspective of cognitive psychology to examine the noticing/triggering and the hypothesis testing function of output,ignoring the role of metalinguistic reflection in language learning to some extent.Though recently a few studies in this domain have explored the role of oral or written languaging in foreign language learning,they were conducted exclusively through collaborative writing instead of independent writing,which obviously is a much more common task at school or in everyday life.In view of this,this study tries to explore the role of metalinguistic reflection in foreign language learning,with a view to deepening the understanding of the language learning potential of L2 writing and promote the in-depth research on writing-to-learn.To this end,the present study,informed by the Output Hypothesis,the Deep Learning Theory and the Sociocultural Theory,investigated the overall characteristics of learners’ languaging while writing and its possible relationship with second language development by means of a mixed qualitative and quantitative research method with the “pretest-observation-posttest” design and think-aloud protocols.The data were collected and analyzed concerning the changes of eight low-intermediate learners’ language proficiency after six-week treatment with composition writing.The results show that the participants’ metalinguistic reflection,mostly occurring in the composing and self-editing stages,was mainly concerned with syntactic and lexical problems and their writing performance improved in general when the learners concentrated on their language,i.e.their metalinguistic reflection was strongly correlated with their L2 development.The possible reasons for the improvement are as follows: Firstly,their metalinguistic reflections,by triggering cognitive processing activities,may impel them to pay attention to and reflect on their linguistic expression in writing and notice the differences between their interlanguage and the target language.Secondly,languaging was likely to regulate and reshape their cognition by playing a mediating role in cognitive development.Thirdly,they may be driven by their metalinguistic reflection to think actively and critically about language,thereby engaging themselves in meaningful learning.Fourthly,languaging could enhance their lexical and syntactic awareness,enable them to learn in depth and so facilitate their acquisition of explicit knowledge.It was also found that the learning potential of metalinguistic reflection while writing may be affected by a variety of learner factors such as learning attitude and cognitive processing styles.The current study may provide some implications for the instructed foreign language learning.Firstly,teachers should pay more attention to cultivating their students’ metalinguistic awareness and help to improve their sensitivity to linguistic form.Secondly,learners also need to change their attitudes toward writing and reflect positively on the linguistic knowledge while writing.