EXPLORING THE CONSTRUCT OF LEARNER AUTONOMY IN RELATION TO METACOGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE HIGH, THE AVERAGE, AND THE LOW ACHIEVING STUDENTS

Abstract

The study undertaken in this thesis, entitled “Exploring the Construct of Learner Autonomy in Relation to Metacognitive Knowledge among the High, the Average, and the Low Achieving Students. The Case of Algerian Third Year Students at ENS Bouzareah”, concerns and applies to EFL Writing skill specifically, as it represents one of the challenging skills for EFL students. This is the case of ENSB (i.e., Ecole Normale Supérieure de Bouzareah) EFL students who are unlikely to produce quality written content works. To explore the problem, only two factors are sought in the current thesis. First, ENSB students’ EFL Writing impediments may be due to their dependency on the teacher as the depository of knowledge. Second, the problem may lie in their limited metacognitive knowledge in EFL Writing. The purpose of this thesis is to explore whether or not Third Year ENSB students’ proficiency levels in EFL Writing are related to their readiness for autonomy and metacognitive knowledge. The current exploratory thesis involves two phases. In phase one, the objective is to explore ENSB students’ profile in terms of readiness for autonomy and metacognitive knowledge in EFL Writing, and in phase two, focus is put on gaining insights into the relationship between ENSB Third Year students’ proficiency levels, their readiness for autonomy, and their metacognitive knowledge. Content analysis reveals the unfamiliarity of the participants with the decisions conducting to autonomous learning. Quantitative data obtained from statistical analyses, indicate a weak association between ENSB Third Year students’ proficiency levels and both their readiness for autonomy and metacognitive knowledge