The Impact of Expanding A Level Students' Awareness and Use of Meta‐cognitive Learning Strategies on Confidence and Proficiency in Foreign Language Writing Skills

Xinyang Li

《International Journal of Social Science and Education Research》 4卷12期 (2021/12) Pp. 208-218

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202112_4(12).0032

摘要

As globalization becomes the dominant 21^(st) century trend, English as a second language education in non‐native countries is of paramount importance to the English teachers and policy makers today. This paper examines how the use of meta‐cognitive strategies within secondary school English lessons impacts pupils' confidence and proficiency in academic English writing. The small‐scale action research study was conducted with a class of seven (age 16‐17) Advanced Level (A Level) pupils in an international school in China. While all of the pupils have completed IGCSE ESL examinations and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) tests once or twice already. They are, however, struggling with their academic writing in the Task 2 of IELTS test, of which they have an average score of 5.2. The core aim of this study was thus to introduce the students to a range of meta‐cognitive learning strategies with a view to improving their confidence and proficiency in writing tasks. Data was collected from questionnaires, interviews, and assessment marks collected both before and after a eight‐week period of strategy instruction. The results imply that meta‐cognitive learning strategies are effective tools to increase second language writing proficiency and confidence as every student managed to increase their effectiveness and confidence between the first and second presentation tasks.

關鍵字

Meta-cognitive ； Strategy-based intervention ； Second language acquisition

參考文獻

AI-Abed-AI-Haq, F., & Ahmed, A.S.E.A. (1994). Discourse problems in argumentative writing. World Englishes, 13,307-323.

Anderson, N. J. (1991). Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing. The Modern Language Journal, 75, 460–472.

Zhao, N. (2009). Metacognitive Strategy Training and Vocabulary Learning of Chinese college students. English language teaching 2(4), 123-129.

Bereiter, C., and M. Scardamalia. 1987. An attainable version of high literacy: Approaches to teaching higher-order skills in reading and writing. Curriculum Inquiry 17(1):9-30.

Bereiter, C., and M. Scardamalia. 1987. An attainable version of high literacy: Approaches to teaching higher-order skills in reading and writing. Curriculum Inquiry 17(1):9-30.