Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies on Second Language Vietnamese Undergraduates

Abstract

Metacognitive awareness is considered a crucial factor in reading comprehension. In the present study, the quantitative research method was applied using descriptive statistics, T-test, and ANOVA to identify: (1) What is second language (L2) Vietnamese students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies? (2) Are there any significant differences between male and female L2 Vietnamese students in metacognitive awareness of reading strategies? (3) Are there any significant differences between good, medium, and poor L2 Vietnamese readers in metacognitive awareness of reading strategies? One hundred and twenty-three English-majored undergraduates of Hong Bang International University completed an online survey which discovers their frequencies of using problem-solving, global, and support reading strategies. They next took a comprehension test on the TOEIC format test, whose results were adopted to classify students into three levels, namely good, medium, and poor readers. Reading strategies usage mean scores were compared across three strategy types and these scores were collated between groups. Results showed; first, reading strategies were used in academic texts at medium frequency level with the high usage of problem-solving strategies, followed by medium usage of support and global reading strategies. Second, female readers showed a higher frequency of using support strategies than males did. Third, learners’ proficiency levels were found to predict the levels of metacognitive awareness in reading with high-reading-ability students applying reading strategies more frequently than poor-reading-ability ones. This is significant to indicate that instructors should integrate all three reading strategies in their teaching, especially, raising awareness of global and support reading strategies among Vietnamese learners.