The Students in Class 8A of SMP BOPKRI 1 Yogyakarta Academic Year

15 the information. Furthermore, the writing skills that have been explained can apply across grade levels among students. In the teaching and learning process, an effective writing practice is expected. Effective writing practices have a proven record of success. In other words, they have been shown to be successful in enhancing students‟ writing on multiple occasions Graham, 2010. Primary sources for such practices are scientific studies examining the effectiveness of specific teaching techniques. They provide a trustworthy approach for identifying an effective practice, such as investigations that provide direct evidence both that the intervention works and of how much confidence can be placed in its effect. In connection with this, teacher, as the facilitator, should help learner to foster their autonomy through the use of group-work and pair-work and by acting as more of resource than a transmitter of knowledge Harmer, 2007. Besides, in order to be able to respond, the students need to see things or explain orally even though it will take time to brainstorm ideas and draft a piece of writing. According to Harmer 2007, with the teacher‟s help in reviewing and editing their writing in various ways, the students will be more focused on generating more ideas, re-drafting, re-editing and so on. For that reason, if teachers want their students to master their language skills, teachers need to make learning activities enjoyable, which will make teaching more enjoyable too and far less exhausting Bright and McGregor, 1973. According to Rubin and Thompson 1982, there are some characteristics of learner in the learning activity and good learner characteristics are students who 16 can find their own way without always having to be guided by the teacher through learning tasks, who are creative, who make intelligent guesses, who make their own opportunities for practice, who make errors work for them not against them, and who use contextual clues as cited in Harmer, 2007, p. 86. In addition, it is suggested that teacher must encourage the students to respond to texts and situations with their own thoughts and experiences, rather than just by answering questions and doing abstract learning activities Harmer, 2007. Therefore, according to Harmer 2007, stu dents‟ responses in the learning activity will depend on how the teacher act and vary their behavior in giving the materials in the learning activity.

2. Metacognitive Learning Strategies

According to Zhang 2013, metacognitive strategy is a strategy to help the students in order to improve and develop their language skills. It is related to the improvement of writing skills. Metacognitive refers to students‟ ability to be aware of and monitor their own process. It can increase students‟ abilities to transfer or adapt their learning to new contexts and tasks. It also includes a critical aware ness of one‟s thinking and learning. People can use metacognitive strategy in the writing activity because it shows how the human brain processes and produces various ideas and information. Metacognitive refers to metacognition. According to El-Koumy 2004, metacognition is the conscious awareness of one‟s own cognition and the conscious control of one‟s own learning. Metacognition is one of the important