Exploring Chinese multilingual students’ metacognitive knowledge, strategies, and experiences in academic writing

Abstract

This paper examines the role of metacognitive awareness in academic writing in a mixed-method study. In addition to validating an instrument assessing metacognitive knowledge and strategies in the context of academic writing, the study uncovered how Chinese multilingual students’ metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive strategies, and metacognitive experiences influence their process of writing. A questionnaire was administered to 143 third-year undergraduate multilingual students and a semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 students. Through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, a five-factor model was obtained, comprising metacognitive strategies (e.g. information management strategies and debugging strategies), metacognitive knowledge (e.g. declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge), planning, monitoring, and evaluating. The interviews suggested that metacognitive experiences (e.g. judgments and feelings) were shaped by learners’ metacognitive knowledge, thus influencing their awareness of metacognitive strategies. The study contributes to a better understanding of the theoretical and pedagogical implications of metacognition in developing multilingual students’ academic writing competence.

ABSTRACT (CHINESE)

本文旨在通过一项混合研究考察元认知意识在学术写作中的作用。不仅验证了学术写作中评估元认知知识和策略的一个调查工具, 而且揭示了中国多语学习者的元认知知识、元认知策略和元认知经历如何影响学术写作过程。143名大学三年级多语学生参与了问卷调查, 其中15名学生参加了半结构化访谈。通过探索性因子分析和验证性因子分析得出一个五因子模型, 包括元认知策略(信息管理策略和调试策略)、元认知知识(陈述性知识和程序性知识)、规划、监控和评估。访谈结果发现学习者的元认知经历(例如判断和感受)受其元认知知识的影响, 从而影响他们使用元认知策略的意识。本研究有助于更好地理解元认知在促进多语学生学术写作元认知方面的理论和实践意义。

PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY

Metacognition refers to thoughts about thoughts. Metacognition comprises three key components: metacognitive strategies, metacognitive knowledge, and metacognitive experiences. Metacognitive awareness refers to ability to recognize the appropriate timing and methods for applying knowledge and strategies. In the process of academic writing, students may use metacognitive strategies (e.g. planning, evaluating, monitoring) to regulate their metacognitive knowledge (e.g. person, task, and strategy). Their metacognitive experiences (e.g. judgement and feelings) influence both metacognitive knowledge and strategies. The theoretical and pedagogical implications promote a deeper understanding of metacognition in the context of academic writing. First, students should be made aware of applying metacognitive knowledge to have a comprehensive understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in completing the academic writing task. Second, teachers need to focus on developing students’ abilities to process, organize, and interpret information from the literature accurately and efficiently. Third, educators should also attend to students’ affective responses in tasks, which may facilitate the control of other metacognitive components.

Keywords:

• Multilingual students
• metacognition
• metacognitive awareness
• academic writing

Acknowledgments

We extend our sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on this manuscript. We also thank Dr. Mark Feng Teng and Prof. Shaofeng Li for their valuable advice on the manuscript. Our appreciation goes to the teachers and students who participated in the study.

Ethics statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee, School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Wuhan University, China (Approval number: 2021030120). The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Science Research Foundation of Chinese Ministry of Education (Grant number: 19YJA740025), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (Wuhan University, Grant number: 1103-413200184), and China Scholarship Council (No. 202306270224).

Notes on contributors

Jinghua Qian

Jinghua Qian is a PhD candidate at the English Department of School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Wuhan University, China. Her research interests include foreign language teaching, second language learning/acquisition and assessment.

Chuanqi Li

Chuanqi Li is an MPhil student at the English Department of the School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Wuhan University, China. His research interests include language education, pragmatics and sociolinguistics.

Danli Li

Danli Li is an associate professor of English Applied Linguistics at the English Department of School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Wuhan University, China. Her research interests include second language learning/acquisition from Sociocultural perspectives, language policy in education, teacher development, and cross-cultural communication.