Exploring Metacognitive Online Reading Strategies among University Students in Four Nonnative English Speaking Countries

Abstract

In this cross‐cultural study, the researchers investigated metacognitive online reading strategies of students from four countries: Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, and Kenya. An online self‐report survey of reading strategies (OSORS) was administered to 132 university students from the four countries. The self‐report survey tool was then complemented through a think‐aloud procedure administered to eight randomly selected students. The students were instructed to “speak out” their thoughts as they navigated around an online text. ANOVAs were applied to examine whether there were significant differences in the students’ use of strategies from the different countries. The researchers also analyzed the think‐aloud outputs from each student to determine the strategies that were used. The findings show that the students from the four countries differed significantly only in their use of global online reading strategies, but not in their use of problem‐solving and support strategies.