THE USE OF COGNITIVE – METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN READING PROCESS AMONG CAN THO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AND JUNIORS

ABSTRACT As an investigation into the cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies, the current descriptive-approached thesis aims at 1 discovering the most frequently-used reading str

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATON ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Code: 7075911

Can Tho, May 8th, 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been accomplished without the help of many people

First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Thanh Duc,

a lecturer at the English Department, Can Tho University (henceforth CTU) for shaping

me on the path towards being an independent researcher I deeply appreciate for his valuable time, encouragements and constant guidance in my work in the very first drafts

of the chapters Thanks to his critical comments, I was inspired to be closer to the reality

I had initially perceived

Secondly, I gratefully acknowledge Ms Bui Minh Chau, a lecturer at the English Department She is one of my impressive lecturers that I have ever known in CTU during the time I attended her Reading and Second Language Acquisition Classes It was the unforgettable days that I acquired a great deal, triggering my interest in these fields Thirdly, I would like to express my special thanks to lecturers at English Department, CTU who were ready to offer me the opportunities in collecting the data in their classes Then, my sincere thanks also go to English – majored freshmen course 36 and juniors course 34 at English Department of School of Education and of School of Social and Science Humanities, CTU for responding to my questionnaires enthusiastically and seriously

Next, I am heartily thankful to my friends, Ms Vo Thi Kim Tuyen, Mr Dang Tran Thanh Danh, Ms Le Thi Bich Thuy, Mr Lieu Nguyen Duy Tan, Ms Van Thi Bao Tran and Ms Ly Thi Anh Tuyet for their useful pieces of advice Their encouragements evoke

my responsibilities to achieve my goal

Last but not least, I am indebted to my family raising me up whenever I intended to give

up Their love and sharing sustained this study

All of the mistakes left in this thesis are mine

ABSTRACT

As an investigation into the cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies, the current descriptive-approached thesis aims at (1) discovering the most frequently-used reading strategies of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies in the perception of the CTU English-majored freshmen and juniors and (2) recognizing the difference in the perception of two subjects to cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies in reading process To measure the degree of frequencies of using the most frequent reading strategies and the differences in the perception towards cognitive-metacognitive reading

strategies in the population’ s perception, the questionnaire titled “The questionnaire on

your reading of tertiary related academic materials” was used to find the answers of 196

respondents From the data obtained, the three most frequently-used reading strategies of cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies were found Three strategies of cognitive reading strategies: “predicting”, “recognizing cognates and word families” and

“activating general knowledge” were the most preferred to the freshmen, whereas planning strategies of metacognitive reading strategies were used most frequently (52%) Then, in cognitive reading strategies used among the juniors, “skimming and scanning”,

“recognizing cognates and word families” and “guessing meaning of the unknown words from context clues” were the most favorite, while they exerted planning strategies (51%) most regularly Regarding the perception, freshmen perceived the cognitive reading strategies higher than juniors did (M= 4.12, M=3.48 respectively), whilst the perception

of both subjects to the metacognitive reading strategies was nearly similar (M=3.4) Therefore, to improve learners’ metacognitive reading strategies in reading process, pedagogical actions (teachers’ instruction, relevant exercises and “learner-centered” environment) should be considered for further research in the future

TÓM LƯỢC

Với mục đích điều tra chiến thuật đọc nhận thức và siêu nhận thức, bài nghiên cứu theo hướng miêu tả được thực hiện với hai mục tiêu : (1) khám phá những chiến thuật đọc hiểu được sử dụng thường xuyên nhất trong chiến thuật đọc nhận thức và siêu nhận thức trong nhận thức sinh viên chuyên ngành Anh văn năm nhất và sinh viên chuyên ngành Anh văn năm ba, và (2) tìm ra sự khác biệt trong nhận thức của hai đối tượng trên về chiến thuật đọc nhận thức và siêu nhận thức trong quá trình đọc hiểu Để tìm ra mức độ thường xuyên sử dụng chiến thuật của việc đọc nhận thức và siêu nhận thức và sự khác biệt trong nhận thức về vấn đề được nêu của hai đối tượng, bảng câu hỏi với tựa đề:

“Bảng câu hỏi về việc đọc của bạn với những tài liệu học thuật liên quan đến bậc đại học” được thực hiện để tìm ra câu trả lời trong 196 người tham gia trả lời câu hỏi Sau

khi phân tích số liệu, ba chiến thuật được sử dụng nhiều nhất của chiến thuật đọc nhận thức và siêu nhận thức đã được tìm ra Ba chiến thuật thuộc chiến thuật đọc nhận thức:

“dự đoán chủ đề”, “nhận ra những từ cùng họ”, “sử dụng kiến thức nền” được sử dụng đối với sinh viên năm nhất, trong đó, “những chiến thuật lên kế hoạch” trong chiến thuật đọc siêu nhận thức được sử dụng nhiều nhất (52%) Đối với sinh viên năm ba trong chiến thuật đọc nhận thức, “đọc lấy thông tin tổng quát và đọc lấy thông tin chi tiết”, “nhận ra những từ cùng họ”, “đoán nghĩa từ không biết dựa vào các manh mối của ngữ cảnh” được

sử dụng nhiều nhất, và trong chiến thuật đọc siêu nhận thức, “những chiến thuật lên kế hoạch” được sử dụng nhiều (51%) Xét đến việc tìm ra sự khác biệt trong nhận thức, nhận thức của sinh viên chuyên ngành Anh văn năm nhất đối với chiến thuật đọc nhận thức cao hơn so với sinh viên chuyên ngành Anh văn năm ba (M=4.12, M=3.48 với vị trí tương ứng), trong khi đó, nhận thức về chiến thuật đọc siêu nhận thức của hai đối tượng gần như là như nhau và trên mức trung bình (M=3.4) Do đó, để củng cố việc sử dụng chiến thuật đọc siêu nhân thức của người học, những hoạt động (cách hướng dẫn của giáo viên, bài tập liên quan và môi trường học) cần được quan tâm cho các nghiên cứu sắp tới

TABLE OF THE CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TÓM LƯỢC iii

TABLE OF THE CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

TABLE OF ABBREVIATION ix

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.1.1 The importance of reading comprehension for language learners 1

1.1.2 The significance of cognitive-metacognitive strategies in reading process 2

1.2 Research aims 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Hypotheses 3

1.5 Organization of the thesis 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Definition of cognitive strategies 5

2.2 Definition of metacognitive strategies 6

2.3 Empirical Evidence about the Positive Effects of Metacognitive strategy use on EFL/ESL reading 8

2.3.1 Studies in Vietnam 8

2.3.2 Studies overseas 9

2.3.2.1 In Oriental (Asian) countries 9

2.3.2.2 In Western countries 10

2.4 Comments on empirical evidence about the positive effects of metacognitive strategy use on EFL/ESL

reading 12

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Research design 14

3.2 Participants 14

3.3 Research Instrument 14

3.4 Procedure 16

3.4.1 Pilot study 16

3.4.2 Administering the questionnaire 17

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 19

4.1 The perception of cognitive -metacognitive reading strategies of CTU English-majored freshmen in reading process 19

4.1.1 The most frequently-used reading strategies in cognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored freshmen’ perception 19

4.1.2 The least frequently-used reading strategies in cognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored freshmen’ perception 21

4.1.3 The most frequently-used reading strategies in metacognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored freshmen’ perception 22

4.1.4 The least frequently-used reading strategies in metacognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored freshmen’ perception 24

4.2 The perception of cognitive -metacognitive reading strategies of CTU English-majored juniors in reading process 25

4.2.1 The most frequently-used reading strategies in cognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored juniors’ perception 25

4.2.2 The least frequently-used reading strategies in cognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored juniors’ perception 27

4.2.3 The most frequently-used reading strategies in metacognitive reading strategies in CTU

English-majored juniors’ perception 28

4.2.4 The least frequently-used reading strategies in metacognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored juniors’ perception 30

4.3 The difference in the perception of cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies of CTU English-majored freshmen and juniors in reading process 31

4.3.1 The difference in the perception of cognitive reading strategies of CTU English-majored freshmen and juniors in reading process 31

4.3.2 The difference in the perception of metacognitive reading strategies in reading process of CTU English-majored freshmen and juniors 33

4.4 Discussions 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, WEAKNESSES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 37

5.1 Pedagogical implications 37

5.2 Weaknesses of the thesis 39

5.3 Suggestions for further research 39

5.4 Conclusion 40

REFERENCES i

APPENDIX iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: A taxonomy of cognitive – metacognitive strategies in questionnaire sheet 24 Table 4.1: CTU English-majored freshmen’ most used cognitive reading strategies

29 Table 4.2: CTU English-majored freshmen’ least used cognitive reading strategies

31 Table 4.3: CTU English-majored freshmen’ most used metacognitive reading strategies 32 Table 4.4: CTU English-majored freshmen’ least used metacognitive reading strategies 33 Table 4.5: CTU English-majored juniors’ most used cognitive reading strategies 34 Table 4.6: CTU English-majored juniors’ least used cognitive reading strategies 35 Table 4.7: CTU English-majored juniors’ most used metacognitive reading strategies 36 Table 4.8: CTU English-majored juniors’ least used metacognitive reading strategies 37 Table 4.9: Descriptive statistics of the difference in the perception of freshmen and juniors to cognitive reading strategies 38 Table 4.10: Descriptive statistics of the difference in the perception of freshmen and juniors to metacognitive reading strategies 39

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: Total mean of two participants’ perception towards cognitive reading

strategies 39 Figure 4.2: Total mean of two participants’ perception towards metacognitive reading strategies 40

TABLE OF ABBREVIATION

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

L1: A person’s native language

L2: A person’s target language

FL: Foreign Language

CTU: Can Tho University

MARSI: Metacognitive Awareness Reading Strategies Inventory RCT: Reading Comprehension Test

MSAS: Metacognitive Strategies Awareness Scale

TOF: Teacher Observation Form

SORS: Survey of Reading Strategies

Q: Question

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter will address (1) the rationale of the research, (2) the research aims, (3) the research questions, (4) hypothesis, and (5) the organization of the thesis

1.1 Rationale

In this chapter, two reasons are presented for conducting this research: (1) the importance

of reading comprehension for language learners and (2) the significance of metacognitive strategies in reading process

cognitive-1.1.1 The importance of reading comprehension for language learners

Cognitively, reading is by and large a pause button for comprehension and insight into one’s idiosyncrasy Therefore, from the viewpoint of a language learner, reading yields the positive outcomes

First of all, it is a well-known fact that reading is a primary leisure activity among a great number of interesting activities in this new century Reading can help language learners travel to far-away lands in their mind and provide the productive consequences such as word power and abundant vocabulary sources (Quach, 2010) Second, reading can promote the degree of concentration and passion during reading process (Gherardi et al., 2007) Also, learners’ minds become sharper and more nimble in solving the problems (Huckin & Coady, 1999) It is thus advisable for language learners to become proficient readers in reading performance inasmuch as reading is the most fundamental tool for language learners to develop their abilities in linguistic field (McNamara, 2001) Understandably, without solid reading proficiency, approaching the extensive number of academic materials written in English, especially to the tertiary context in which many assignments and papers are required, is impossible Many varied factors impacting language leaners’ reading ability such as insufficiency of target language proficiency, unfamiliarity with the content and reading strategies (Zare-ee, 2007) Moreover, many findings investigated that students had the difficulties with an array of reading tasks, such

as identifying the main ideas in the simple folktales (Douglas, 2009) Especially, language learners are detected not to pay close attention to the actions which are about to

do for the next steps; i.e their awareness to meet the comprehension goals are not inspired enough to accomplish their current tasks (Douglas, 2009)

In conclusion, amongst the impacts, reading strategies are paramount to facilitate leaners

to confront with the texts and contents in the complex nature of reading Cognitive – metacognitive strategies are considered to help the researcher have insights into language learners during the receptive language process; i.e reading (Zare-ee, 2007)

1.1.2 The significance of cognitive-metacognitive strategies in reading process

According to Pelletier (2006), Kummin and Rahman (2010), as well as Carrell, Gajdusek, and Wise (1998) and so forth, metacognitive strategies are earth-shattering discoveries to EFL/ESL reading achievements

Tremendous studies have marked the values of metacognitive strategies in reading aspect (Douglas, 2009) Metacognitive strategies have been considered all-important to assist learners in their performance, particularly in problem-solving and reading comprehension (Quach, 2010) Also, the strong correlation between reading achievements and cognitive-metacognitive strategies was endorsed in many studies of Ali (2007), Anderson (2002), Dhieb-Henia (2003) and so forth According to Baker and Brown (1984), proficient readers exert a number of metacognitive strategies during their reading process, facilitating them to understand a text Though many controversial discussions around the significance of metacognitive strategies have remained elusive, Robert (2008; cited at Douglas, 2009, p 9) adjudged that

“…In the early days, metacognition was more of curiosity and some psychologists wondered whether it was a viable construct Today, I think the question is not a viable construct, but rather, how it best can be understood, assessed and developed…”

In addition, albeit some ideas to metacognition’s characteristics (potentially controllable, reportable and tacit), metacognitive strategies highlight the importance of instruction to some experienced learners during their reading process (Douglas, 2009) Apparently, instructions of teacher during the reading period play a key role in the awareness of learners in actions to direct the next steps As O'Malley et al (1985, p 561) declared that

“students without metacognition approaches are essentially learners without direction or opportunity to review their progress, accomplishments and future directions” As being competent at metacognitive reading strategies, learners are easy to become successful

readers, in other words, awareness about reading strategies is the cognitive gain (Sen, 2009)

To sum up, reading comprehension evinces to parallel the discussion of the significance

of cognitive-metacognitive strategies As a result, this research aims at the perception of language learners in using cognitive-metacognitive strategies in reading for further possible pedagogical actions

1.2 Research aims

The current research aims (1) to discover what the most frequently-used reading strategies of cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies in CTU English-majored freshmen’ and juniors’ perception are and (2) to investigate the difference in perception

of the population in using the cognitive-metacognitive strategies in reading process

1.4 Hypotheses

It is hypothesized that (1) in cognitive reading strategies, “skimming and scanning” is the most popular choice, and in metacognitive reading strategies, “planning strategies” are the most favored to the freshmen; (2) in cognitive reading strategies, “guessing the unknown words” is the most preferred, and “monitoring strategies” are the most common

to the juniors; and (3) the juniors perceive the cognitive-metacognitive strategies more than the freshmen do

1.5 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature review, (3) Research methodology, (4) Results and Discussions, and (5) Conclusion, weaknesses, and suggestions for further research In chapter 1, I have illustrated the rationale of the research, the research aims, the research questions, hypotheses, and the organization of the thesis I will review the literature, in chapter 2, relevant to the cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies, the empirical evidences between reading comprehension and cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies and comments on those reviewed empirical studies I will introduce the research methodology (research design, participants, research instruments, and procedure of the study) In chapter 4, I will report the investigation, interpret the data I collected, and discuss the implications of the research results In chapter 5, I will reflect on the weakness of the research, and put forward suggestions for further research and reach conclusion of the thesis

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, I will address (1) the definitions of cognitive strategies, (2) the definitions of metacognitive strategies, and (3) empirical evidences about the positive effects of metacognitive strategy use on EFL/ESL reading

2.1 Definition of cognitive strategies

There are various accumulations of cognitive strategies definitions impacting significantly the realm of education The term has caught the linguists’ and experts’ attention; therefore, many exhaustive definitions will be strived to illustrate in the chronological order

Derry and Murphy (1986, p 15) asserted in their studies that “cognitive strategies signify the collection of mental tactics selected, employed and controlled by an individual in a particular learning situation to facilitate their acquisition of knowledge or skill, and to achieve their desired objectives” Crowley and Siegler (1993) also took the cues from researchers in defining cognitive strategies to be conscious and planned process, but he also argued that cognitive strategies are any goal-directed cognitive activities, obligatory

or non-obligatory, conscious or unconscious, efficient or inefficient Conversely, Luke and Hardy (1999) officially proclaimed that cognitive strategies can be characterized as being deliberate, learner-initiated and learning

In terms of the functions of cognitive reading strategies, Oxford (1989) issued taking, summarizing, inferencing, using prior knowledge, predicting, analyzing, and using context clues Likewise, Goh and Kwah (1997) described in their study that the four sets of functions are practicing, receiving and sending messages, analyzing and reasoning, and creating structures for input and output After that, Goodman (1998) advanced the functions by referring the “binary division” of cognitive strategies in reading including bottom-up and top-down theory The former implies reading is a process of decoding, a series of letters, words, phrases, and sentences identified for its meaning The latter, on the contrary, requires the readers to fulfill the predictions and to formulate the hypothesis related to the text content by incorporating the new information with the prior knowledge and cueing many the language signals Phakiti (2003) has recently clustered the cognitive reading strategies into comprehending and retrieval

note-According to Hamdan et al (2010), cognitive strategies are regarded as the mental process related entirely straightforward to the information transaction system comprising

of obtaining, storage, retrieval or use of information to serve for learning, which are more general than Phakiti (2003)’s study

After many aforementioned definitions, I deem that cognitive reading strategies used in three phases (pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading) are skills that learners apply into the reading text consciously; i.e they are aware of extracting and synthesizing the linguistic facts in reading text to encode the reading questions To lay a foundation for the questionnaire sake, the thesis will follow the taxonomy of cognitive reading strategies of Phakiti (2003)’s and Hamdan et al.(2010)’s theoretical framework to show the comprehending and retrieval in cognitive strategies used by the subjects Next, I will provide the succinct illustration about the metacognition strategies to better understand the other terminology of the thesis

2.2 Definition of metacognitive strategies

Metacognition, a branch of Indirect Strategies in language learning strategy by Oxford (2003), is one of the most widely concerned studies in the educational, instructional and developmental psychology, although the conundrum to delimit the diversification of its definition remains elusive (Douglas, 2009) Thus, the successively hierarchical organization will make the sweeping generalization in facilitative comprehension

First of all, the term “metacognition” coined by Flavell (1979) refers to the individual’s awareness of thinking and learning In other words, it is the notion of thinking about thinking, “cognition about cognition”, specifically what, how and why the person is currently thinking and thinking in a particular way in the learning tasks Metacognition is also engaged to the ability in regulating the thinking process He acknowledged to propose a formal model of metacognitive monitoring consisting of metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive experience, tasks or goals, activities or strategies that further highly evolved from the 1976 construct of active monitoring, consequent regulation, and orchestration of cognitive processes to strive for cognitive goals

In O'malley and Chamot (1990)’s study, metacognitive strategies involve both knowledge about learning (cognitive knowledge) and regulation over learning (metacognitive

strategies) Cognition knowledge refers to knowledge of one’s own cognitive processes and that of others Regulation over learning entails the use of metacognitive strategies These strategies consist of three functions: planning strategies or advance organization, self - monitoring strategies, and self-evaluating activities In terms of planning strategies, learners are in the pre-reading phrase, using background knowledge to stick with the knowledge to be learned with a series of skimming, scanning, predicting, overviewing statement, and K-W-L (what I know, what I want to know, and what I learned) Self–monitoring strategies are the binary division of comprehension monitoring and production monitoring through the activities as ongoing summary, paraphrasing, thinking aloud, outlining, writing reflections, etc Self –evaluation includes the modification of learner’s task execution, strategy use and language repertoire

Apparently, O'malley and Chamot (1990) developed the definition of the term, specifying the system of the strategy In lieu of restricting in regulating the thinking process acclaimed by Flavell (1979), O'malley and Chamot (1990) added cognitive knowledge as

a part of the term and classified into three strategies: planning, monitoring and evaluating

so that the other researchers could take that framework in their studies as a standard Oxford & Zhan (1990) supported that another advantage of their studies was to raise learners’ awareness on explaining the strategies they use and why they employ them Rather, Phakiti (2003) in his study bored metacognitive strategies which are defined as ones’ intentionally mental manners in order to direct and control their arranged executive cognitive strategies process for successful performance Metacognitive planning strategies and metacognitive monitoring strategies have pieced together in his study The former helps allocate resources to the current tasks, establish the order of steps to fulfill the tasks and set time or intensity to work on the tasks The latter bolsters to identify the contemporary tasks, examine the ongoing progress, evaluate the progress and augur the outcomes of that progress This study results in the deeper understanding to the planning strategies and monitoring strategies so that the researcher can observe and examine the reliability and validity of the participants’ perception as well as capacity towards the metacognitive strategies The weaknesses of the research obviously lack the standard of O'malley and Chamot (1990)’s theoretical framework, but it can bore deeply the functions of planning and monitoring

After presenting the varied metacognitive strategies definitions, metacognitive reading strategies, in my opinion, are cognitive reading strategies over cognitive reading strategies; i.e metacognitive reading strategies have higher order cognition in learners’ thinking, they can control the cognition function to manage learner’s thinking towards solving the problems, especially and clearly in answering the reading questions in particular as well as in controlling the reading process in general Language learners thus fail to recognize their current cognition to call out that process To accomplish the thesis; hence, the researcher appreciates Phakiti (2003)’s study for the questionnaire sake in purpose of analyzing the question aims Therefore, metacognitive reading strategies will have two subscales: planning strategies and monitoring strategies

I have just mentioned the multidimensional definitions of metacognition, and recognized its functions are crucial to language learning, especially in reading performance Therefore, in the next part, I will manifest the relationship of metacognitive strategies use and achievements in reading performance

2.3 Empirical Evidence about the Positive Effects of Metacognitive strategy use on EFL/ESL reading

2.3.1 Studies in Vietnam

Studies related to the productive impacts of metacognitive reading strategies use and reading process have been humbly conducted The two studies conducted by Tran (2006) and Quach (2010) are among the featured ones in Vietnam in general and in CTU in particular

Tran (2006) carried out the research to investigate CTU non-English majors’ level of metacognitive strategies use and the reciprocation between students’ metacognitive strategies use and their reading performance The findings investigated that a very strong correlation occurred in such two variables (r=.96, with 1.0 as maximum) and level of students’ metacognitive strategies use was moderate (M= 3.16, on the scale of 5.0 as the maximum) based on two instruments: questionnaires and reading English test

Quach (2010) did the research which targets at uncovering to what extent EFL learners employed metacognitive strategies and which strategies were utilized most frequently when learners read English texts All of 35 participants were Vietnamese from the

beginning class of the level B of CTU Foreign Language Center in Can Tho city Two instruments used in this study were questionnaire and think-aloud protocol The findings discovered exerting metacognitive strategies of EFL learning in reading comprehension was positive, though the participants differed in utilizing kinds of metacognitive strategies, in which monitoring was used most frequently (91%) Then, the studies overseas will be illustrated in the event of the incontrovertible evidence

2.3.2 Studies overseas

There are various studies with great emphasis on the positive virtues of metacognitive strategy use on EFL/ESL reading succinctly manifested as the chronological order with the stratified arrangement in Oriental (Asian) and Western Countries

2.3.2.1 In Oriental (Asian) countries

The first study reviewed in this part was conducted by Li and Munby (1996) This paper partially posed a concrete picture of metacognitive strategies employed by ESL students

in their academic reading and explored the idiosyncrasy of those strategies The participants were two Chinese students of Queen’s University selected based on no specific criteria with the aim of indicating their willingness in participation Interview, think-aloud and participants’ journals provided the data for the study Then, the data were analyzed through open coding, i.e a process of breaking down, examining, repairing, conceptualizing, and categorizing data The findings showed that (1) the predominant strategies used by the participants were the translation, use of background knowledge, self-questioning, prediction and context clues, attention of topic sentence, “picking out key words,”, and “comparison and contrast to L1 knowledge domain”, (2) the participants had a substantial awareness and control of cognitive activities as well as process verbalization capacity in English The researcher furthermore implicated that (1)

a wide range of strategies had to be exerted by ESL readers to achieve the efficiency in reading due to some inapplicable or inadequate ESL reading instructions, (2) it would be timely to enhance the exhaustive picture of L2 reading in which metacognitive strategies could be considered, e.g the metacognitive process of L1 and L2 readers in a similar environment

A recent research conducted by Lawrence (2009) strongly advocated the vital importance

of metacognition to reading comprehension There were 270 students in Hainan province

of China in this research to help respond to 28-item survey of reading strategies (SORS) adopted by Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002) Methodologically, this research was set up in a quantitative way In the result, the participants were recognized to apply the problem-solving strategies from moderate to high level (M=3.78, SD=0.59), followed by global strategies (M=3.63, SD=0.59) and support strategies (M=3.06, SD=0.64), and the effectiveness of global strategies use correlated to the general EFL‘s student proficiency, i.e.: higher English achievements

In the descriptive-approached research, Temur el al (2010) strived for discovering the difference among the participants of 6th, 7th and 8th grades in respect of metacognitive reading awareness Likewise, Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) was adopted to assess students’ metacognitive reading awareness Though there was no statistically important difference in supportive reading strategies, the study unveiled those students in the lower grade utilized the metacognitive strategies in reading frequently

2.3.2.2 In Western countries

While the bulk of studies dealing with the EFL/ESL reading outcomes in oriental countries have attracted researchers’ attentions, a great number of the relevant-problematic studies in western contexts have still occurred

Mokhtari and Reichard (2002)’s study was carried out to assess adolescent and adult readers’ metacognitive strategies awareness and to examine their perception towards use

of reading strategies in tertiary-related academic materials by using a new self-report instrument, the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) The findings showed the moderate use (M=2.83) amongst the users from grade 6 to college students The researchers suggested using interviews and observation for further research Berkowitz and Cicchelli (2004) have adapted the MARSI instrument, think-aloud protocols and interview in their study with the scope of detecting the similarities and differences in metacognitive reading strategies exploited by 5 high achieving and 5 underachieving gifted middle school students in New York city The result produced

three subscales of metacognitive strategies (global, problem-solving and support) were homogeneously used by both groups in MARSI, whereas there was frequency of metacognitive reading strategies exertion in think-aloud protocol As interviewed, the high achievers responded to apply more frequently assorted metacognitive reading strategies than the others did; more specifically, monitoring emerged as the predominant choices Moreover, MARSI testified the accumulation of the participants was consciously aware of metacognitive strategies at the medium level strategy users

Poole (2005) has conducted a research whose goal was to discover whether or not ESL males and females have similar or different strategic reading habits The population of

248 (138 males and 110 females) involved in the research was the advanced college ESL students The quantitative survey followed by the Survey of Reading Strategy (SORS) aims to record adolescent and adult ESL students’ self-perceived academic reading, comprising global reading strategies, problem-solving strategies and support strategies The results revealed there are no significance in strategy use (p>.05) among the subjects (M=3.42)

One recent research related to the relationship between the use of metacognitive strategies and reading comprehension reported at World Conference Education Science

2009 carried out by Sen (2009) examined the liaison between students’ reading comprehension level and metacognitive strategies use in finding the main idea, guessing the end of the text and achievement scores The participants consisted of 228 individuals:

222 the 5th grade student and six teachers The research model was the pre- and post- test control group design Data collection tools were reading comprehension test (RCT), Metacognitive Strategies Awareness Scale (MSAS) and Teacher Observation form (TOF) The result revealed the experimental groups were more successful at guessing the end of the text, acquired how to operate metacognitive strategies better than the control groups

2.4 Comments on empirical evidence about the positive effects of metacognitive strategy use on EFL/ESL reading

With regards to the studies related to non-native and native readers using metacognitive strategies in reading, Lawrence (2009) investigated in the bulk of studies that (1) non-native readers apply into L2 or FL reading contexts through L1 background knowledge of

reading process and strategies, (2) L1 and L2 employ the same kinds of reading strategies and (3) proficient L1 and L2 readers show the comparably degree of metacognitive reading strategies use than the non-proficient ones

I strongly recognize the importance of conducting this research on the profound basic of incontrovertibly aforementioned evidence Firstly, in Vietnamese educational setting, the studies documenting the positive impacts of metacognitive strategy use have made odds compared to the oversea studies Besides, the participants are the non-English majors (Tran, 2006) or the small population of the immediate foreign language learners’ level (Quach, 2010) is 35 Since the insufficiency of the quantity and the quality of the prevailing topic of metacognitive strategies on reading that impedes further pedagogical actions to increase Vietnamese language learners’ proficiency, it is necessary and crucial

to conduct a research to meet these demands It is thoughtfully believed to be the priority reason for me to carry out the research

Secondly, regarding the Asian full-blown educational context, I endorse that Asian researchers have acquired the definitions and functions of metacognitive strategies pretty selectively and explicated the radical comparatively germane with the reliable and valid findings in their studies In Li and Munby (1996)’s study, the findings acclaimed that there was a substantial awareness in ESL students’ perception towards metacognitive strategies in academic reading Likewise, Lawrence (2009)’s participants were 270 students attending the survey to respond 28-item questionnaire The results witnessed the high frequency of using metacognitive strategies leading to higher English achievements The productive outcomes of metacognitive strategies were recognized to be conducive to the lower levels (grade 6, 7, 8) who are the subjects in Temur et al (2010)’s research This proves that metacognitive strategies can be operated in the young children’s perception To sum up, Asian researchers have attested the reciprocal relation between metacognitive strategies use and the higher English achievements in reading regardless of the age of subjects My present research will thus demonstrate Vietnamese milieu clearly related to the current issue to ponder more implications for further research

Thirdly, cogently, the western countries’ studies have resonated for the quantity and quality so far In their studies, Mokhtari and Reichard (2002) examined the language learners’ perception by using the new instrument MARSI; after that, Sheorey and

Mokhtar (2001) adapted it and explicated the weaknesses of the previous one for better research, the results of both studies recognized that the language learners (the gifted high school students and the 6th- tertiary students) used metacognitive strategies at the medium level Genders were found not to interplay to the frequency of using metacognitive strategies in Poole (2005)’s study, thus I will not include this aspect in the research Sen (2009) had the predisposition in researching the 5th grade youth for the newer path, but I stress the main importance that even 5th grade pupil also acquired the metacognitive strategies and used them successfully after the post-test control group On the basis of the solid evidence, I strongly believe the applicability of metacognitive strategies will occur

in the intended participants, and I have been inspired to conduct the reliable research Moreover, for the restriction in research to examine the degree of frequency in using cognitive strategies, the current research partially opens a new path for further research For such the three motivational reasons, I decided to conduct this research to contribute a clearer picture of cognitive-metacognitive strategies used in Vietnam to make the positive impacts on Vietnamese students’ proficiency level in the future

To sum up, I have just presented the literature studies related to the current topic The researcher considers it the foundation for the questionnaire sake in the next chapters

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes (1) the research design, (2) the participants, (3) the research instruments for data collection and (4) the procedure of the study

3.1 Research design

To conduct this study, descriptive approach was used because according to Seliger and Shohamy (1995), descriptive approach was used to establish the naturalness of the phenomenon by describing them explicitly (1) The most frequently-used reading strategies of cognitive-metacognitive reading strategies in reading process in the perception of English-majored freshmen and juniors, and (2) the difference in perception

of two groups of subjects about the cognitive and metacognitive strategies in reading process will be demonstrated

3.2 Participants

At the outset, participants in this study were 200 English – majored freshmen course 36 and juniors course 34 at English Department of School of Education and of School of Social and Science Humanities, CTU All of them are Vietnamese, the L1 readers Freshmen have been studying Reading 2 in the second semester, while juniors will have finished their Reading 5 by the end of the sixth semester In the curriculum of English majors in CTU, the students have to pass five reading levels (from reading 1 to reading 5)

3.3 Research Instrument

After the pilot study, 196 valid responses were utilized for statistical analysis Four questionnaires were invalid Two respondents did not answer the first 20 sentences, one left 10 sentences without making any responses and the other did not do anything with the questionnaire sheet

To answer the three research questions, I measured the participant’s perception towards the cognitive-metacognitive strategies in reading process through the questionnaire Therefore, I will describe the questionnaire in detail below

To design this questionnaire titled “The questionnaire on your reading of tertiary related

academic materials”, I based on Phakiti (2003)’s and Hamdan et al (2010)’s theoretical

frameworks of cognitive and metacognitive strategies I adapted and collected the items

to make the final complete questionnaire sheet

The questionnaire comprises 49 items in total These items are categorized into two clusters: cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies based on a five-point Likert scale

Table 3.1: A taxonomy of cognitive – metacognitive strategies in

questionnaire sheet

Clusters Number

of items Items used Aims

Seliger and Shohamy (1995) suggested that a pilot study will crucially qualify the quality

of the data obtained; hence, the current researcher decided to use the English version of the 50-item questions for a group of 10 freshmen and 10 seniors of English Department Because the subjects were English students, English version was chosen; however, English in the questionnaire was carefully worded to be relevant to the readers’ proficiency As a result, the purpose of the pilot study was to check clarity and comprehensibility of the items Additionally, the amount of time to answer the questions was calculated in detail Some modifications to the questionnaire were made in response

to the problem arising from the pilot test I will thus present clearly the pilot procedure

I conducted a pilot research by delivering the questionnaire sheets to CTU majored freshmen and juniors on February 17, 2011

English-At first, I came to meet 10 juniors at room 203 of College of Aquaculture and Fisheries at 11:15 A.M Then I asked them to have an overview of instruction of the questionnaire and encouragingly required them to raise questions if any problems caused their misunderstanding The time started at 11:20 A.M and ended at 11: 40 A.M The first one completed all of the questions at 11:30 A.M During their responses, the respondents raised the questions at the following items with the subsequent reasons: 8 (they couldn’t understand the meaning of the sentence), 10 (the term “think out loud” was complicated and incomprehensible), 31 (they couldn’t understand the meaning of sentence), 36 (it was the technical error in arranging the line), 41 (the term “keep track of” was not understandable) I also interviewed them the difficulty level of questions, i.e which questions caused them not to understand, whether any mistakes was made in the questionnaire sheets When the papers were delivered, all of them raised a question about the definition of title, I offered the clear explanations for the new above-mentioned terms and definitions then Since time to conduct this pilot research was quite late, some classmates urged a subject to finish the questionnaire constantly, therefore as next time’ real research is set up, I intended to make it before the class starts so that the statistics can

be more reliable

Next, in the afternoon, I did the same things to the freshman at room 110 of C2 Building

of School of Education at 4:10 P.M I encouragingly supported them to raise as many questions as possible because there were many new words and strange definitions to them Asking them to have an overview of the questionnaire, I started to count the time after that Time began at 4: 15 P.M and ended at 4: 40 P.M Time of freshman’s actions

is around 5 minutes longer The first respondent finished the questionnaire at 4:35 P.M The respondents, obviously, raised more questions in the following items: 10 (the term

“think out loud”), 11 (the term “regardless of”), 17 (the word “word-for-word”), 21 (the term “post-reading”), 22 (the word “remedy”), 40 (the words “be aware of” and

“ongoing”), 41 (the term “keep track of”, as the questions of juniors), 43 (the word

“relevant”), 44 (the word “go back and forth”), 45 (the word “concentration”), 49 (the

word “accuracy”) The pressure of time did not happen at the freshman; hence, they did the questionnaire comfortably

Before the pilot research, I made a presupposition the problems with which two groups of subjects could confront, and then I made a list of explanation for their concerns For instance, item 6 that reads “I use my prior knowledge to understand the topic of the text” can be known as the background knowledge occurring not in the text to correlate to the information in the text Item 22 that reads “I reread the text to remedy comprehension failures” can be understood as “I reread parts of the text which I didn’t understand or couldn’t answer” After the pilot research, I come to conclusion in the successive parts: (1) Time to conduct the research should be initiated at the beginning of the class to avoid the subjects’ psychology for their personal reasons, and the amount of time for one completed questionnaire sheet is 15 minutes on average, (2) some items will be corrected

to facilitate their understanding during the process of questionnaire response such as

“think out loud”, “keep track of”, (3) technical errors of the document typed will be checked carefully to assure their concentration

3.4.2 Administering the questionnaire

On the last three weeks of March 2011, the finalized questionnaire was administered to

200 students, including 100 freshmen and 100 juniors, in 10 classes, assisted by the class English teachers To obtain the reliable data, I had given careful instructions before the students completed the questionnaire First, the participants were informed the purpose of the survey, therefore they were asked to be honest and serious in responding the items Second, I went over the five-point Likert scale to assure the students could completely understand the measurement system Next, to ensure the students did not misunderstand any items in the questionnaire sheets, I chose suitable examples that I had predicted in the pilot test to explain to the subjects Apparently, all of the questions are at my hand Then, they began responding the questions, and most of them were able to finish the questionnaire in 15 minutes Last, all the completed questionnaire sheets were examined,

196 valid questionnaires were used for statistical analysis because four questionnaire sheets were not responded completely Two respondents did not answer the first 20 sentences, one left 10 sentences without making any responses and the other did not do anything with the questionnaire sheet