Metacognitive strategy training through the cognitive academic language learning approach (CALLA) as a way to improve reading comprehension performance among students of an English language course at UiTM Penang

Abstract

The use of learning strategies has an immense effect on students’ learning progress, where different students are accustomed to the use of different learning strategies. While one strategy may work well for one student, the same strategy may not be as effective for another. Among these, metacognitive strategies (MCS) are considered to be the most important as they oversee the execution of the other skills during the learning process. There are many ways students can be trained to master the MCS. The researchers propose the cognitive academic language learning approach (CALLA) as a strategy training approach for this purpose. The aim of this study was to gauge whether CALLA as an instructional strategy in training students’ MCS helps to improve their reading comprehension performance. A quasi-experimental design was utilised using non- equivalent groups to compare the performance of both the control (n=32) and experimental groups (n=33). Results obtained showed that the group that received training through CALLA showed better use of the MCS, thus improving their reading comprehension performance in the post test. It can therefore be concluded that the use of CALLA as an instructional strategy does aid towards improved performance in language learning, particularly in reading comprehension. It is recommended that teachers consider the use of CALLA as a teaching option for students in their classes. However, the actual impact of this approach needs to be compared back-to-back with other similar approaches first to ascertain its effectiveness, besides taking into account the students’ motivation and anxiety level towards language learning itself.