Enhancing Vocabulary Development and Reading Comprehension through Metacognitive Strategies.
Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: This article presents a study of the teacher trainees in an English department who have received instruction in metacognitive awareness for reading comprehension. Metacognition or ‘thinking about thinking ’ involves the awareness and regulation of thinking processes. Metacognitive strategies are those strategies which require students to think about their own thinking as they engage in academic tasks. Within this study, students have been taught metacognitive strategies for reading in a five week program they have joined voluntarily. The students have used reading logs to reflect on their own thinking processes as they have been engaged in reading tasks. The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of systematic direct instruction of multiple metacognitive strategies designed to assist students in comprehending text. Specifically, the reading comprehension and vocabulary achievement of 130 third year university students has been investigated to determine whether instruction incorporating metacognitive strategies has led to an increase in the reading comprehension of expository texts. In addition, the investigation is also designed to determine the impact of the metacognitive strategies on vocabulary. Metacognition One of the first definitions of metacognition comes from Flavell (1976), who describes it as one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes and products or anything related to them. Flavell also asserts that metacognition includes the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of information processing activities (Flavell, 1976, p.232). Baird (1990, p.184) uses these ideas to provide the following succinct formulation, “Metacognition refers to the knowledge, awareness and control of one’s own learning”. Metacognitive development can therefore be described as a development in one’s metacognitive abilities, ie, the move to greater knowledge, awareness and control of one’s learning. Scholars do not agree on the exact definition of metacognition. On one hand, some
Author: Feryal Çubukçu
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2171150941