The use of metacognitive strategies among engineering students in reading academic texts

Abstract

This research focuses on readers’ metacognitive strategies when reading second language (L2) academic texts. This research seeks to find out readers’ perceived use of metacognitive strategies when reading L2 academic texts and the actual metacognitive strategies used by the readers when reading L2 academic texts. Instruments for data collection were questionnaire, think-aloud protocol and interview. The subjects for this study were first year students from Chemical Engineering Faculty. Twenty eight students were chosen from one section of English for Academic Communication class as participants for this research. They were given the adapted questionnaire on Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) to determine readers’ perceived use of metacognitive strategies in reading. Data from the think-aloud protocol were used to determine the actual metacognitive strategies used by readers when reading. Results showed that overall, most of the readers indicated their awareness of the strategies use when reading, with some strategies such as “stop and reread when confused”, “translate new information into own language” and “slow down when encounter important information” showed to be used more than others. However, not all the strategies the readers perceived to be using when reading a text were present in the actual reading process, for example, the strategy “draw pictures or diagrams to help understanding’ and “focus on overall meaning rather than specific”. Futhermore, the readers’ perceived use of strategies did not mirror their actual use, for instance, all respondents reported using the strategy “focus on overall meaning rather than specific” but none used this strategy in actual reading. It can be concluded that readers were aware of their metacognitive strategies and did use some of the strategies they reported using.