EXPLORATION OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY EMPLOYMENT AND TRANSFER FROM READING TO WRITING AMONG MOROCCAN EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This study explores the employment of metacognitive strategies (MSs) and their transfer from reading to writing. It investigated fifteen (15) randomly selected Moroccan EFL university freshmen’s use and transfer of MSs in before, amidst and after task completion. It also sought to explore the association between MS transfer and task outcome. With focus on a randomly selected sample of undergraduate learners in the English Department, specifically those in Semester 2, the data was gathered by means of a one-hour Reading Comprehension and Paragraph Writing Test along with a posttest Retrospective Questionnaire. The results show that MS use is common in reading and writing among EFL learners with a slight tendency toward Metacognitive Reading Strategies (MCRSs). However, the transfer of these strategies from reading to writing is extremely limited. Results also suggest a potential positive influence of MS transfer on task performance. Further, the findings imply students’ failure to transfer these strategies across near-transfer tasks is due to a lack of awareness of MSs. Nonetheless, students’ attitudes towards MS transfer appeared to be positive. This paper is put forth to inform the English language higher education of the metacognitive strategy status quo and the difficulties impeding intralingual strategy transfer for optimal task performance.