Metacognitive awareness and use of reading strategies by the students of forms 11 and 12 in Parksepa Secondary School

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a skill equally important in one´ s native language as well as any foreign language acquired. Reading is considered a major source of input and therefore, examining and promoting all the subskills that influence reading should be a target for every language instructor. The present paper focuses on metacognition in relation to reading strategies when reading in English as a foreign language. The main aim of the conducted study was to examine the metacognitive awareness and use of reading strategies by a group of high-school students attending Parksepa Secondary School in Võru county. The first part of the paper provides an overview of metacognition and metacognitive readings strategies: the definition of the terms, historical background, classifications of metacognitive strategies and their importance to reading. Also, a short overview of research into the field is given, by describing briefly the studies similar to the current study in their essence. The second part of the paper begins with stating the research questions, after which the descriptions of the conducted case study, the research instuments used, the sample and the method of research are given. Following, the paper presents the results of the study with the concurrent analysis of the main findings. In this section, also the major similarities and differences between the results of other similar studies and the current study are pointed out. The final section of the paper provides a discussion of the results and the implications made for future research. Also, the limitations of the present case study are pointed out, making suggestions for similar, but more thorough studies.