The Use of Metacognitive Strategies in EFL Academic Writing

Metacognitive is one of the subcategories of learning strategies that consist of planning, monitoring and evaluating. In academic writing, students may have different attitudes towards the use of strategy they might use positive or negative attitudes, namely cognitive, affective and behavioural strategies, depending on personal preferences. This study aims at determining students' attitudes towards metacognitive strategies based on the three dimensions of attitude. The study identifies how students implement metacognitive strategies at the planning, monitoring and evaluating stages of academic writing. The participants of the study were 26 students in IV-B Academic Writing at the English Education Department of the University of Mataram, Indonesia. Questionnaires and interviews were used as data collection instruments, and all students answered the questionnaire. Six students were interviewed as a sample to verify information from the questionnaire. The study shows that the students have a positive attitude in using metacognitive strategies. The study also indicates that the students, at a cognitive level, are aware of the importance of metacognitive strategies in writing the academic papers. The study confirms that students use metacognitive strategies as the background knowledge of ideas before writing down developing the idea, drafting and evaluating the structure and quality of writing.