Metacognitive Awareness and Reading Strategy use: Investigating the Intermediate Level ESL Students’ Awareness of Metacognitive Reading Strategies

Metacognitive reading strategies and conscious attention to reading are some of the main contributors to language learners’ reading comprehension because readers can become autonomous if they are aware of which strategy works for them to accomplish their goals faster. In this study, the researcher investigated the reported use of intermediate ESL students’ metacognitive strategies and how frequently these participants reported to use metacognitive strategies. Correlational analysis investigated whether there was any relationship among reported metacognitive reading strategy choice and participants’ reading placement scores of the adult intermediate English learners when reading a text in English. Thirty-nine participants (N = 39) filled out the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) to identify their reported choice of metacognitive reading strategies. There were 3 strategy subscales or factors; Global Reading Strategies, Problem Solving Strategies and Support Reading Strategies. A correlational analysis investigated if there was a positive relationship between students’ reading achievement and metacognitive strategy use. Lastly, the researcher interviewed fourteen (N = 14) participants who volunteered to be interviewed. Results revealed that participants reported frequent use of problem solving strategies overall. Problem-solving strategies were reported to be the most preferred by ELLs, followed by Support and Global Reading strategies. A correlation study revealed that the overall scores of all intermediate Intensive English Program students’ and reading placement scores did not show any relationship between two variables