Exploring Students’ Language Learning Strategy: How Metacognition Works and Does It Impact in Writing Skill?

Abstract

This paper focuses on describing the learning strategies used by EFL students during their writing accomplishment and examining its effects on their writing skills. Metacognitive strategies , as the learning strategy, is the techniques and approaches that students use to plan, monitor, and evaluate their writing process. This research identifies 27 students who have designated in executing the metacognitive strategies applied in essay writing course with the phases (1) planning before writing, (2) monitoring during writing, and (3) evaluating at the writing works. In a mixed method single case study research, a survey design has been utilized through distributing a questionaire to examine the impact of the strategies to students’ writing performances, and open- ended questions were employed in the interviews to identify the students’ responses toward the implementation of the learning strategy for the success of learning activity. The results of the data showed that most students perceived metacognitive learning strategies positively by exhibiting implied characteristics, such as the ability to approach ways in generating ideas, self- influence in text errors, and evaluate the progress toward the completion of the task. Findings appear to extend on the notion that metacognitive strategies are important to consider during learning because it may result in specific changes in how learning is managed.