Metacognitive Learning Strategies Theoretical Description
20 Hyland 2002, the purpose of recount texts is to tell a sequence of events so that
it entertains. This idea could guide the teacher to be more creative in using the recount texts as the teaching media for students.
According to Nunan 2003, writing can be defined as product or process that is considered as a complex process because it goes through different stages to
reach its final format. It involves mental processes, thinking and rethinking to produce sentences. The process of writing is a way of looking at writing
instruction which emphasis students‟ writing. According to Harmer 2004, the process of writing includes planning, drafting, editing and producing final version.
Teacher should use different strategies to encourage students to produce a good writing.
Recount texts is a text genre which is used to retell a series of events or experiences in the past for the purpose of informing or entertaining Hyland,
2008. Moreover, there are many strategies that can be used by students and one of them is metacognitive learning strategies that help students to plan, monitor
and evaluate. Since the students have to write about the past event or their experience, the students can apply metacognitive learning strategies to review
their own progress in the form of writing. Englert 2001 confirms that a related area of difficulty is limited
metacognitive knowledge and control. Learners may lack awareness of appropriate strategies, or have difficulty exercising control over implementing and
monitoring them. As a result, this has contributed to evolving trends in the teaching of writing. According to Bereiter and Scardamalia 1987, learners make
21 the transition from spoken to written communication. In conversation, verbal and
nonverbal signals from a partner constantly stimulate and modify further thought and language production, but in the case of writing language production usually
has to be sustained by internal processes p. 109. This kind of thought has also contributed significantly to the teaching of writing.
According to Hyland 2003, writing activity assists learners in the process of learning with its techniques, including generating, drafting, reshaping and
evaluating texts. The process includes brainstorming, actual writing and revision, editing and publishing. On the other hand, according to Tompkins 2003, not all
writers use that process in their writing activity chronologically because some of them tend to move back and forth the process as they desire. Some writers edit
portions of their written work as they proceed with writing while others complete their writing first and then revise it. Therefore, Foster 2012 describes the writing
process as recursive in the sense that writers are flexible to deal with a selected aspect of the process.
The writing process may be taught in a variety of disciplines besides the Language Arts classrooms. Sobal 2001 defines the writing process as writing
that includes any activity that contributes to the final written product by including research practices, reading practices, thinking practices, and many more. Teaching
students how to write in any discipline, may require the teacher to introduce the particular ways of reading, thinking, researching, and writing in that discipline
and giving the learners opportunities to practice these processes by breaking them down into discrete skills.
22 According to Raimes 1983, learners can learn a great deal about how
writing works if they concentrate not only on what the writer has written but also on how writer has written it. Besides, during the writing process, writers must
continuously decide which activity to employ next MacArthur, Charles A., Graham S., and Fritzgerald J., 2008. In fact, according to Hyland 2002, writing
is seen as a social act that the writer brings to writing which is influenced both by the personal attitudes and social experiences. Moreover, it is central to writers‟
personal experience and social identities and writers are often evaluated by their control of it. According to Oxford 1990, Metacognitive strategy supports
learners to a variety of metacognitive awareness to develop learners‟ writing
skills. Therefore, the goal for teaching metacognitive in writing should help learners to develop their skills through the use of the strategies, so they can get
meaningful writing assignments in the learning process that helps them to enhance good writing strategies.
In addition, writing recount texts contributes a shared experience for students in the class that links to a variety of language activities. According to
Oxford 1990, by using metacognitive learning strategies, all students will plan, monitor and evaluate to produce appropriate vocabulary, idiom and sentence
structure through their writing. After students receive the sufficient knowledge by using the metacognitive learning strategies, they can create their own writing from
their past event or experiences. Nunan 2002 also notes that the appropriate learning strategy could be the basis of many aspects in learning. In writing, it can
23 be used to control composition, sentence-combining, or sequence sentence to the
writing of recount texts. By using metacognitive learning strategies, students and teacher could also
learn together and they would get new experience in learning how to write and compose a good writing. Practice writing is one of important ways to improve
students‟ writing skill. Finally, the students prefer to remember their experiences in order to help them in the writing process. The use of metacognitive learning
strategies in writing recount texts for junior high school provides the stimuli to build the students‟ knowledge. Therefore, metacognitive learning strategies could
be a sufficient strategy to make the students create their imagination and creativity in writing certain genres of writing.