Assessing EFL learners' writing metacognitive awareness

Research on metacognition in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing is heavily dependent on a valid measure to assess metacognitive ability. Since there is no report of a validated domain -specific measure of metacognitive awareness of foreign language (FL) writing this study made an attempt to develop and validate a metacognitive awareness writing questionnaire (MAWQ). In order to construct the questionnaire, an interview with 59 EFL learners was conducted. Based on the content analysis as well as the literature, a framework for metacognitive awareness of writing was developed which led to a hypothesized model, as well as a preliminary inventory. To validate  the  questionnaire,  various exploratory factor  analyses were  run,  and  as  a  result,  no  clear  pattern  of hypothesized subscales of knowledge and regulation of cognition emerged. However, in the analysis of the whole questionnaire  through  EFA,  the  researcher’s  assumption  regarding  the  two  general  scales  of  MAWQ  was supported indicating that knowledge and regulation of cognition are two main components of MAWQ.