Metacognitive Strategy Awareness and Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This paper reports on a study investigating the relationship between metacognitive strategy awareness in reading and reading ability in L1 and L2. Forty Malaysian secondary school students responded to a reading metacognitive awareness questionnaire. They also completed four sets of reading comprehension tests to determine their reading competence in L1 and L2. Results indicate that reading metacognitive strategy awareness significantly contributes to reading ability for both L1 and L2. This suggests that students are aware of what constitutes efficient reading, and the higher their knowledge of effective reading, the better their reading ability. The paper concludes with a discussion on the pedagogical implications of these results.