Beneficial Factors of Using Self-monitoring and Peer-monitoring Strategies in Writing

Abstract

Writing is an important experience through which we are able to share ideas, arouse feelings, persuade and convince other people (white & Arndt, 1991). It is important to view writing not solely as the product of an individual, but as a cognitive, social and cultural act. Writing is an act that takes place within a context, that accomplishes a particular purpose and that is appropriately shaped for its intended audience (Hamplyones & Condon, 1989). Here, the present research considers the significance effects of two important independent variables self-monitoring and peer-monitoring in writing activities on Iranian EFL learners. This study aimed to investigate new effects of two meta- cognitive strategies self-monitoring and peer-monitoring on 173 male and female learners' writing activities whose age ranged between the age 16-27, and they had a composing description writing paragraph as pre and posttest in the same conditions. In this study, self-monitoring helped learners to know more about their weaknesses and strengths for increasing a positive way of the quality and quantity in learning process for written task, and peer-monitoring occurred when learners achieved recognition level to evaluate their classmates’ behavior, and it was obviously understood that it was essential to have more training time for achieving the level of recognition.