Various programs have been implemented to improve the quality of English in Malaysia classroom. However, the quality of English in Malaysia remains poor especially in writing. This paper aims to see the effects of metacognition in lowering writing anxiety and improving low-intermediate ESL students’ writing performance. Employing action research design, 12 Form 5 students of a secondary school in sub-urban area in Sarawak were selected as respondents based on their previous examination result where they score between 15 – 25 marks in paper 1 section B. Cheng’s Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (2004) was administered to measure respondents’ anxiety level before and after metacognition implementation. To see the effects of metacognition in improving low-intermediate students’ writing performance, pre and post writing test were conducted. They were also interviewed using a semi-structured interview regarding the strategies employed in their writing stages. Cheng’s SLWAI was analysed descriptively where mean score was extracted. Content analysis procedure was used to analyse data from the writing journals and the interview. The findings revealed that the respondents had high anxiety level (Mean: 65.33) when given writing task and performed badly in the writing pre test (mean: 19.00). When metacognition is explicitly taught in writing lesson, it helps to lower respondents’ anxiety level (mean: 64.08) as a result, it increases their writing performance (mean: 23.75). Based on the finding’s educators are encouraged to teach and train students to use metacognitive strategies in writing task so that they are able to improve their writing strategies and enhance their performance.
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In-Text Citation: (Jalok & Idris, 2020)
To Cite this Article: Jalok, Q., & Idris, F. (2020). Using Metacognition in Lowering Writing Anxiety and Improving Writing Performance among Low-Intermediate ESL Students. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(3), 733–748.
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