Relationships Between Writing Self-efficacy And Writing Metacognition Of English Major Undergraduates

Writing is an important skill in English language learning. It is of some difficultyto reach a deep insight into the nature of writing, since successful English writinginvolves many complicated processes. Most students are frustrated by the fact thatthey are not making expected progress in English writing in spite of their diligent careand effort. As found in the previous research, limited metacognitive knowledge basewould lead to students’ inability to monitor their progress in writing, as well as to feela sense of achievement brought by the progress, which finally resulted in slowincrease in writing self-efficacy. However, few studies are focused on the relationshipbetween self-efficacy and metacognition, especially in English writing.The objectives of this study were to examine the relationship among writingself-efficacy, writing metacognition and writing proficiency and to investigate thestatus quo of English major undergraduates’ English writing self-efficacy and writingmetacognition. Questionnaires for writing self-efficacy and writing metacognition aredeveloped. Three hundred and sixteen third-year English major undergraduates inJiangxi Normal University (296females and20males) participated in the study.In this study, quantitative data analysis was performed, which involved threemethods: descriptive statistics, independent T-test and Pearson correlations analysis.The results revealed that:1) students generally exhibited moderate self-efficacy andrelatively high metacognition in English writing; students showed more confidence inaccomplishing a writing task than in using English writing skills and they were highlyaware of the assessment of writing criteria and its importance.2) no significantdifferences of overall writing self-efficacy, writing task self-efficacy and writing skillself-efficacy existed between the high-level and low-level groups; significantdifferences between high-level and low-level students exist in overall writingmetacognition, strategy for words choice, strategy for equal importance attached tocontent, organization and language, strategy for revision and resort to external help and assessment of writing criteria; differences between these two groups were notsignificant with regard to assessment of reasons for deficiency in writing ability,assessment of writing importance and assessment of painful experience.3) a positiveand significant correlation existed between overall writing self-efficacy and overallwriting metacognition; writing self-efficacy was negatively correlated withassessment of reasons for deficiency in writing ability and assessment of painfulexperience; writing self-efficacy was positively and significantly correlated withwriting proficiency; writing metacognition was positively and significantly correlatedwith writing proficiency except for assessment of reasons for deficiency in writingability and assessment of painful experience, which were negatively correlated withwriting proficiency.The findings of this study provide us with some revelatory insights not only onrelevant theoretical issues about the relationships between writing self-efficacy andwriting metacognition, but also on confirmation that writing self-efficacy and writingmetacognition are of great significance in English writing teaching. Based on theresearch findings, suggestions on how to improve students’ self-efficacy andmetacognition in English writing are put forward so as to advance learning andteaching in English writing.