Research Proposal - Draft 1

1. THE INFLUENCE OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES AND AUDIENCE
AWARENESS ON UiTM PASIR GUDANG UNDERGRADUATES' WRITING
PROCESS
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
Writing, in general, is important due to its value of communicating with others (Khaki
& Hessamy, 2013). Compared to speaking, writing helps people to communicate better as it
can convey the intended message without changing the original structure.
1.1 Background of the Research
Galbraith and Trent (2009) writing is not simply a matter of translating preconceived ideas
into text. It also involves creating content and ensuring the message in the content reaches the
audience the way it was initially intended by the writer.
Writing involves a wide range of processes and it demands cognitive processing from the
writer to the audience (reader)
Writing process Flower and Hayes (1981) –Cognitive theory of writing- (a) writing consists
of a set of distinct process, (2) processes are hierarchical, (c) writing is goal-oriented, (d)

2. writers’ create goals and sub-goals-and these goals develop sense of purpose, revising goals
or establishing new goals based on what is learned through writing
Metacognitive strategies
##Check Yayan (2010)
Wenden (1998)- summarizes metacognitive strategies as:
(a) part of a learner’s store of acquired knowledge, (b) relatively stable and statable, (c) early
developing, (d) a system of related ideas, (e) an abstract representation of a learner’s
experience
Flavell (1985) , metacognitive knowledge involves three distinct and highly interactive
knowledge variables , (a) person knowledge, (b) task knowledge and (c) strategic knowledge.
Person knowledge may include cognitive and affective variables such as age, language
aptitude , motivation, and specific acquired knowledge. Task knowledge involves three
aspects – (a)learners’ knowledge about the task purpose and how it will meet their learning
needs and goals, (b) knowledge about the nature of the particular task identified through the
classification process, and (c) skills needed to complete the task
Audience awareness
Flower (2000) suggested that writer analyzes the audience of their text. She suggested that
writers gauge the distance between them and the audiences such as age and background.
These differences fall into three areas; (a) the readers’ knowledge about the topic, (b) his or
her attitude toward it, and (c) the writer’s and the audiences’ personal and professional needs.

3. Cheng (2010) writers who are able to think of their audience before, during and after their
writing process are reported to be more efficient writers
This research focuses on how metacognitive strategies and audience awareness can influence
ESL writers during a writing process.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Writing process
Metacognitive strategies
Audience awareness- Cheng(2010) conducted a research to look into the audience strategies
by EFL college writers and found that audience awareness is a strategy used by proficient
writers.
1.3 Research Objectives
The three research objectives are:
i. To determine ESL writers' writing behaviour during the writing process.
ii. To determine the meta-cognitive strategies used by ESL writers' during the
writing process.
iii. To determine ESL writers' audience awareness during the writing process.
1.4 Research Questions
The three research questions are:

4. i. How does writing behaviour influence ESL writers during the writing process?
ii. How does meta-cognitive strategies used influence ESL writers during the writing
process?
iii. How does audience awareness influence ESL writers during the writing process?
1.5 Operational Definitions
1.5.1 Writing Process-Flower and Hayes (1981)-####the act of writing involves 3
major elements- (a0 Task environment, (b) writers’s long term memory, (c) writing processes
1.5.2 #####Types of Writers –skilled vs less skilled, good vs weak writers (Flower
and Hayes, Bereiter and Scardamanlia)
1.5.3 Metacognitive Strategies
According to O’Malley and Chammot (1990) tabled Metacognitive Strategies
###(check
https://dea.lib.unideb.hu/dea/bitstream/handle/2437/79665/de_1447.pdf?sequence=1&isAllo
wed=y for referencing)
Metacognitive Strategies (O’ Malley and Chamot, 1990)
(a) Planning (Advance Organization)
(b) Directed Attention
(c) Selective Attaention
(d) Functional Planning
(d) Self-Management

5. (e) Monitoring
(f) Problem Identification
(g) Self-evaluation
1.5.4 Audience Awareness
According to Cheng (2010) audience awareness involves 4 basic moves and they are
(a) Naming moves, refers to writers’ recognition of an audience existence by direct and
indirect reference
(b) Context moves, refer to strategies that writers use to establish context and provide
background information to the reader
(c) Strategy moves, refer to implementing tactics that recognize readers’ traits by appealing to
readers’ interest
(d) Response moves, refers to writers’ awareness of readers’ questions, objections, such as
stating readers’ concerns or giving reasons for these concerns
(e) Negative moves, involve writers’ references to the audience that would impair the writer-
reader relationship by giving reasons that were not adequately explained
1.6 Limitation of the Study
1.7 Significance of the Study

6. 1.8 Conclusion