Examining the relationships among growth mindset, future selves, metacognitive strategy use and L2 writing performance: A self-regulatory loop

Metacognitive strategies are a set of proactive operations that enable L2 writers to plan, monitor, and evaluate cognitive endeavors when completing a writing task. Regarding the self-regulation lens, initiating and maintaining these proactive operations stem from motivational feelings and beliefs. However, previous studies have not explored motivational sources, i.e., growth mindset and future selves in conjunction with metacognitive strategy use to influence L2 writing. To address this gap, we adopted the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis to examine the relationships among growth mindset, future selves (i.e., ought-to and ideal selves), metacognitive strategy use, and L2 writing performance with 242 English major students. The results suggest that growth mindset and future selves predicted metacognitive strategy use positively and directly; growth mindset also predicted metacognitive strategy use indirectly via the mediation of future selves. Besides, metacognitive strategy use directly contributed to L2 writing performance; growth mindset and ought-to self indirectly contributed to L2 writing performance with metacognitive strategy use as the mediator. However, the ideal self was not found to predict L2 writing performance either directly or indirectly. These results highlight the synergy between motivational forces and metacognitive strategies in boosting L2 writing performance.