Metacognitive Process in Online Text Construction

Many studies have reported the results of how students constructed texts, yet the cognitive process of how texts were constructed by sentences and how the constructive process was formulated and reformulated have rarely been addressed. This study aims to develop a computer-aided text construction system which supports 83 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students in inserting sentences to construct texts with the scaffoldings of lexical cohesion and sentence relations. The students’ actions in text construction were recorded in a recording module which showed their metacognitive process during the task. Results of this study revealed that the engagement in metacognitive process was rarely found in the students who made little progress through three online texts. The students who demonstrated the developmental progress in three texts were actively engaged in the metacognitive process to monitor and evaluate their text constructive problems. They then frequently revised the text by reselecting the sentences with the assistance of lexical cohesion and sentence relations. It was further found that students’ metacognition could be strengthened by the text construction task. The increased engagement in metacognition, especially reselecting the sentences (revising), led to higher scores being obtained in text construction.

[1]  J. J. Higgins,et al.  Recognising coherence: the use of a text game to measure and reinforce awareness of coherence in text , 1999 .

[2]  H. Munby,et al.  Metacognitive strategies in second language academic reading: A qualitative investigation , 1996 .

[3]  Ellen L. Block.  See How They Read: Comprehension Monitoring of L1 and L2 Readers , 1992 .

[4]  A. Glenberg,et al.  Enhancing comprehension in small reading groups using a manipulation strategy , 2007 .

[5]  David Clarke,et al.  Scaffolding and metacognition , 2006 .

[6]  R. Azevedo,et al.  Does training on self-regulated learning facilitate students' learning with hypermedia? , 2004 .

[7]  Judith A. Langer,et al.  Meaning Construction in School Literacy Tasks: A Study of Bilingual Students , 1990 .

[8]  Marcel S. Kerr,et al.  Metacognition and Freshman Academic Performance. , 2000 .

[9]  Neil J. Anderson.  Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing. , 1991 .

[10]  Tim F. Johns,et al.  Four versions of a sentence-shuffling program , 1999 .

[11]  Gregory K. W. K. Chung,et al.  Computer-based performance assessments: a solution to the narrow measurement and reporting of problem-solving , 1999 .

[12]  L. Resnick.  The Nature of Intelligence , 2024 .

[13]  Jennifer Masters,et al.  Teacher Scaffolding: An Exploration of Exemplary Practice , 2004, Education and Information Technologies.

[14]  R. Flesch.  A new readability yardstick. , 1948, The Journal of applied psychology.

[15]  Yolanda N. Padron,et al.  The Effect of ESL Students' Perceptions of Their Cognitive Strategies on Reading Achievement , 1988 .

[16]  J. R. Pinzas Garcia.  Cognitive monitoring in reading comprehension: a study of differences among schools in Lima, Peru , 1993 .

[17]  Marc Romainville,et al.  Awareness of cognitive strategies: The relationship between university students' metacognition and their performance , 1994 .

[18]  Beau Jones,et al.  Dimensions of thinking and cognitive instruction , 1990 .

[19]  Roger Azevedo,et al.  Adaptive Human Scaffolding Facilitates Adolescents’ Self-regulated Learning with Hypermedia , 2005 .

[20]  Gregory Schraw.  Promoting general metacognitive awareness , 1998 .

[21]  Esther Geva,et al.  The Role of Conjunctions in L2 Text Comprehension , 1992 .

[22]  Reind P. van de Riet,et al.  WORDNET++: A lexicon for the COLOR-X-method , 2001, Data Knowl. Eng..

[23]  Davida Charney,et al.  Cultural Representations of Rhetorical Conventions: The Effects on Reading Recall. , 2002 .

[24]  Scott G. Paris,et al.  Comprehension Monitoring, memory, and study strategies of Good and Poor Readers , 1981 .

[25]  S. Paris,et al.  How metacognition can promote academic learning and instruction. , 1990 .

[26]  P. David Pearson.  Handbook of reading research. , 1990 .

[27]  Yu-Fen Yang,et al.  Interaction Chain Patterns of Online Text Construction with Lexical Cohesion , 2010, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[28]  M. Araceli Ruiz-Primo,et al.  Examining Concept Maps as an Assessment Tool , 2004 .

[29]  J. Jenkins,et al.  Simplification of Flesch Reading Ease Formula. , 1951 .

[30]  R. P. Fishburne,et al.  Derivation of New Readability Formulas (Automated Readability Index, Fog Count and Flesch Reading Ease Formula) for Navy Enlisted Personnel , 1975 .

[31]  Cynthia L. Selfe,et al.  Literacy and computers: The complications of teaching and learning with technology , 1995 .

[32]  B. Laufer,et al.  Lexical Guessing in Context in EFL Reading Comprehension. , 1984 .

[33]  Miyoung Lee,et al.  Designing Metacognitive Maps for Web-Based Learning , 2006, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[34]  Michael Halliday,et al.  Cohesion in English , 1976 .

[35]  H. Swanson,et al.  Cognition, Metacognition, and Achievement of College Students with Learning Disabilities , 2005 .

[36]  Hope J. Hartman.  Developing Students’ Metacognitive Knowledge and Skills , 2001 .

[37]  Kendall Hartley,et al.  Learning strategies and hypermedia instruction , 2001 .

[38]  Anne-Mari Folkesson,et al.  Self-regulated learning through writing on computers: Consequences for reading comprehension , 2007, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[39]  Hilary Horn Ratner,et al.  Effects of Passage Type on Comprehension Monitoring and Recall in Good and Poor Readers , 1992 .

[40]  A. Brown.  Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation, and other more mysterious mechanisms , 1987 .

[41]  J. Flavell.  Metacognitive aspects of problem solving , 1976 .

[42]  Myounghee Kang,et al.  A Conceptual Framework for a Web-based Knowledge Construction Support System. , 2000 .