The Effect of Metacognitive Strategy Training on the Improvement of Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing

Abstract

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the impact of explicit metacognitive strategy instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ writing . This study involved the teaching of five explicit metacognitive strategy lessons to students English at advance level. Students in both the treatment and comparison groups completed the Writing Pre-test Essay, which was holistically scored to determine the equivalence of groups. The Writing Pre-test Essays were submitted prior to the treatment and were compared to the Writing Post-test Essays that were submitted after the treatment (about six weeks later). The Writing Post-test Essays were holistically scored and analyzed to see if there was a significant difference in those essays prepared by students who had explicit instruction in metacognitive strategy use as compared to those who did not receive the instruction. The results of a ANOVA indicated that teaching metacognitive strategies could play a significant role in the improvement of the students’ essays.