A qualitative inquiry into metacognitive strategies of postgraduate students in employing ChatGPT for English academic writing

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a growing application of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology in writing instruction. Students should mobilise their metacognitive strategies during this endeavour to maximise the benefits of GenAI while avoiding the potential negative impacts. Within the context of tertiary education in Hong Kong, this qualitative research investigates 13 postgraduate students' metacognitive strategies when utilising ChatGPT for English academic writing. Using data collected from audio recordings, semi-structured interviews and human–GenAI chat logs, we explored students' metacognitive strategies within five dimensions, namely, planning, monitoring, evaluating, information management and debugging. The identified themes and subthemes within each dimension exhibited similarities to those observed in other educational settings. Meanwhile, certain metacognitive strategies (e.g., debugging) were found to be unique to the context of GenAI-supported academic writing. This study contributes to the literature in two ways. Firstly, it provides a detailed and thorough understanding of metacognitive strategies, complementing the extensive quantitative research in this area. Secondly, this research expands the framework of metacognitive strategies to the context of GenAI-supported academic writing learning.