Development of children's metacognitive knowledge, reading, and writing in English as a foreign language: Evidence from longitudinal data using multilevel models.

Three variables (i.e., metacognitive knowledge, reading, and writing) showed high stability and increasing variance over time. These findings suggest individual differences in children's development of metacognitive knowledge, as well as reading and writing proficiency. Students' metacognitive knowledge grew more quickly among those who entered primary school with already strong metacognitive skills; the same was true for their reading and writing development. Results also revealed predictive effects of students' metacognitive knowledge on their reading and writing performance. Implications are discussed based on these findings.