Abstract:
The sway of the pendulum in language pedagogy towards conscious learning processes marks the paramount role of metalinguistic awareness. The purpose ofthis quasi-experimental study was to compare the impact of teacher-oriented vs. learner-generated metalinguistic awareness activities on Iranian TEFL students‟ writing accuracy. Sixty participants in three intact classes were randomly assignedas one control, and two experimental groups. All the participants received the same process-oriented instruction based on identical teaching materials. In the firstexperimental group, the teacher-focus metalinguistic awareness (TFMA) group, however, a collection of various form-focused activities, compiled by the teacher, was assigned and reviewed in the class weekly. In the learner-focusedmetalinguistic awareness (LFMA) group, the same assignments were assigned as supplementary self-study activities. The control group did not receive anystructural assignments. The treatment perpetuated for six sessions and the analyses of the data obtained from the writing post-test revealed that both TFMA and LFMA groups outperformed the control group by producing more accurate writingand that the TF group surpassed the LF group. The findings lend credence to the significance of language awareness in EFL contexts and offer a number ofpedagogical implications.
Machine summary:
"However, the protracted debate over the extent to which knowledge about formal features of language should be caught implicitly or taught explicitly has not reconciled yet and research data is scarce on whether learners‟ focus in self and peer-monitoring coincides with that of teachers and the extent to which post-graduate students of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) might assume responsibility for monitoring their own and their peers‟ performance.
Research findings in second language acquisition (SLA) soon underscored the need for a balanced attention to both form and meaning particularly in teaching productive skills like writing (Ferris, 1999; Piri, Barati, &Ketabi, 2012; Robb, Ross, &Shortreed, 1986; Truscott, 2007).
Teachers‟ assistance is also urgently demanded at the post-writing stage to teach learners how to enhance their use of language and thereby shape meaning more convincingly through pedagogical interventions like supplementary form-focused activities and feedback either generated by the leaner as self-monitoring and peer-editing or by the teacher.
The findings are in line with those of Eckman, Bell & Nelson (1988), Ellis (1989), Pica (1983) and Pienemann (1989) who, as stated in Graaff and Housen, (2009), collectively claimed that if appropriately planned, formal instruction can assist learners to overcome the risk of fossilization of prematurely learned grammatical items, achieve higher levels of grammatical accuracy and proficiency."