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ABSTRACT
This study examined the effectiveness of explicit instruction of metacognitive strategies over a 14-week semester with a group of 40 EFL learners at a private university in Thailand. A metacognitive questionnaire and a reading test were administered at the beginning and at the end of the course to find the changes in both the questionnaire responses and test scores. The data obtained were analyzed by using mean, standard deviation, and paired sample t-tests. Qualitative data from a semi-structured interview were also analyzed to explore students' views on the strategy-based instruction. It was found that after the instruction, the reading score and metacognitive strategy use of the three groups namely: high, moderate, low were significantly higher than those before the instruction at the .05 level. In addition, different types of learners exhibited different responses to the strategy instruction. This study's findings contribute to a better understanding of strategy instruction and support the belief that strategy training should be conducted to enhance reading performance of the learners.
Keywords: metacognitive strategies, reading strategies, strategies-based instruction
INTRODUCTION
Metacognition is referred to the knowledge people have about their own thinking which is considered as an important key to learning and learning performance (Brunning, Schraw, & Ronning, 1995). By definition, metacognitive strategies surround the learning activity and are often triggered by the success or the failure of a learner's selected or habitual strategies (Roberts & Erdos, 1993). Metacognition clearly involves more executive components such as setting goals, selecting strategies and monitoring their effectiveness in the accomplishment of learning tasks. According to Kuhn (2000), metacognition has two components, firstly, the students' self awareness of a knowledge base in which information is stored about how, when, and where to use various cognitive strategies and secondly, their self awareness of and access to strategies tìiat direct learning (e.g. monitoring difficulty level, a feeling of knowing).
Basically, metacognitive strategies are effective tools which help learners to be consciously aware of what they have learned and recognize situations in which it would be useful. Alderson (2000) explains the connection between metacognition and reading comprehension that the ability to use metacognitive skills effectively and to monitor reading is an important component of skilled reading. Readers who are metacognitively aware know what to do when...