NFLUENCE OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES ON SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPOSITION WRITING IN JOS SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, PLATEAU STATE

This study investigated the influence of metacognitive strategies on senior secondary students’ achievement in composition writing in Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The study was motivated by the persistent difficulties experienced by students in composition writing, particularly in the areas of paragraph development, revising and editing, and writing coherent compositions. A quasi-experimental research design, specifically the pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design, was adopted for the study. The population comprised 1,644 senior secondary school II students offering English Language in public secondary schools in Jos South Local Government Area. A sample of 118 students were selected from the population using an appropriate sampling procedure. A Composition Writing Achievement Test (CWAT) was used as the instrument for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts in English Language education and measurement and evaluation, while its reliability was established before administration. Students in the experimental group were taught composition writing using metacognitive strategies involving planning, monitoring, self-questioning and evaluation, while those in the control group were taught using the conventional teaching approach. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The study is expected to establish whether metacognitive strategies significantly improve students’ performance in composition writing compared with conventional teaching. The findings provided empirical evidence for English Language teachers on the usefulness of learner-centred metacognitive approaches and contribute to improved teaching and learning of composition writing in secondary schools in Plateau State. Keywords: Metacognitive strategies, composition writing, students’ achievement, English Language, senior secondary school.