Abstract
This study explored metacognitive awareness level of University of Botswana students in the Faculty of Social Sciences. It also considered the more recent research focusing on the role of metacognitive awareness in reading and how it relates to proficiency. The following questions are addressed: (1) What are the self-reported reading proficiencies of the University of Botswana students? (2) Are the University of Botswana students aware of their metacognitive reading strategies? (3) What kind of metacognitive reading strategies are frequently used? (4) Is there a difference in metacognitive awareness of reading strategies used by high- and low-proficiency students respectively? The Survey of Reading Strategies Questionnaire (SORS) developed by Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002), and the semi-structured interview technique were used to collect data for this study. The findings indicate that University of Botswana English as Second Language (ESL) students reported high reading proficiency and high use of metacognitive strategies, but there was no vast difference in terms of proficiency. Students who reported their proficiency as high had an edge over low-proficiency ones mainly because their management and monitoring of reading was guided more by the goals they have set themselves than by the tests and assignments they were supposed to write.
Highlights
The importance of the reading skill in academic contexts has made it imperative for second language researchers to find out how students can be helped to deal with academic reading and writing tasks
The results show that 15% rated their reading as excellent, 44% as good, 39% as moderate, and 2% as poor
It was explained to the students that reading proficiency meant how good or bad they thought they were at reading academic materials
Summary
The importance of the reading skill in academic contexts has made it imperative for second language researchers to find out how students can be helped to deal with academic reading and writing tasks. This study explores the awareness level of the University of Botswana students as to the use of metacognitive reading strategies. Exploring the use of metacognitive reading strategies and their relation to proficiency is of interest in this study because it reduces the dearth of research in this area. In the Botswana ESL context, no studies have investigated the use of reading strategies and their relationship to reading proficiency. According to Mokhtari & Sheorey (2002:3), interventions that help students to increase awareness of their metacognitive reading strategies increase their level of engagement when reading English texts. They further posit that it is this awareness that distinguishes skilled from unskilled readers. Are the University of Botswana students aware of their metacognitive reading strategies?
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