Metacognitive Reading Strategies with Southern Thai University Students

Abstract

This research was designed to account for metacognitive reading strategies employed by undergraduate students in southern Thai context. The study examined the reading strategy use from both successful and less successful readers: 371 university student who experienced reading courses at tertiary level. through a quantitative mean using a survey and a qualitative mean using a semi-structured interview. Descriptive statistics: percentages, means, standard deviation, were used in quantitative data analysis. Additionally, t-tests were used to prove if there were any statistically significant differences between successful and less successful readers in employing metacognitive reading strategies. The findings demonstrated that successful readers tended to utilize metacognitive reading strategies higher than less successful readers at 52.36% and 46.03%, respectively. In addition, it was found that there were statistically significant differences between the successful readers and the less successful readers regarding their metacognitive reading strategy use (p<.05). The main results
revealed that the successful readers tended to plan before they read, monitor their comprehension and evaluate their used strategies. Meanwhile, the less successful readers, although, seemed to show some metacognition awareness, the deficiency use of metacognitive strategies could be a hindrance to their reading achievement. Consequently, this study urges that metacognitive reading strategies should be instructed in classes to raise the students’ awareness towards the available strategies, and to make less successful readers become successful readers.