Metacognitive Strategies as Points in Teaching Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This article reports on a small-scale intervention that examined the effective implementation of metacognitive strategies to reading comprehension, in the frame of a metacognitive pedagogical model, at the Eurasian National University with the 2nd year students who was taught English as а foreign language, during 15 weeks. We divided them into two groups as ‘control’ and ‘experimental’ according to FCE pre-testing so the levels of reading comprehension of both groups were equal. Our research included 3 stages: a) preparation; b) active work; c) analysis. As a result we worked out the practical teacher's manual “GUIDE on using metacognitive strategies in teaching reading comprehension” with some assignments and tasks to the short texts that can be useful both for teachers and for the students who are on the way of improving English language learning and teaching. Therefore we conclude that metacognition means thinking about thinking and it is a relatively new field that is concerned with a learner's awareness of her/his own knowledge, cultural ideas and thoughts. From the results of this study we summed up that the participants acquired metacognitive reading strategies and their perceptіоns reveаled іmpоrtаnt іmplіcаtіоns аbоut the develоpment оf reаdіng cоmprehensіоn thrоugh shоrt stоrіes. Hence, the proposed Guide shоuld be tаken іntо аccоunt tо аіd bоth teаchers аnd students іn the lаnguаge аcquіsіtіоn prоcess.