Algerian Efl Students’ Awareness And Use Of Metacognitive Strategies In Writing

Abstract

The use of metacognitive strategies helps students enhance their writing competence and enables them to effectively plan, monitor, and evaluate what they write. This study aims to investigate the level of Algerian EFL (English as Foreign Language) students’ awareness and use of metacognitive strategies in writing. Forty first-year students from the University of El Oued responded to a metacognitive writing strategies awareness questionnaire to collect data within a descriptive case study research design. The obtained quantitative data were analysed by means of descriptive statistics. The results revealed that students’ level of awareness and use of the different metacognitive writing strategies was low, especially, with regard to evaluation. The study recommends the conduction of further research on the causes behind students’ low level of metacognitive awareness and the explicit instruction of metacognitive writing strategies.