Learners’ Reported Use of Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies: A Study of Thai Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Research on EFL readers’ reported use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies in reading can shed light onto classroom teaching approaches. In this study, perceived use of strategies reported by Thai undergraduate students at Thammasat University—both higher and lower-reading-ability groups— while they were engaged in an academic reading task was investigated. The participants were asked to complete a reading strategy self-report form immediately after they had completed their academic reading task. The results show that the two groups of learners had a significantly different awareness of cognitive but not of metacognitive strategy use; that is the high-proficiency group deployed substantially more cognitive strategies—particularly higher-level processing ones— than their low-proficiency peers. All the findings obtained from this present study have implications for strategy training and could lead to useful
practical applications in the EFL reading context.

Key words: Cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies, EFL reading
instruction