MULTILINGUALISM IN HIGH SCHOOLS: THE ROLE OF METACOGNITION IN ENGLISH LEARNING AND TEACHING FOR BACCALAUREATE STUDENTS

Abstract

The strategic location of Morocco at the crossroads of Africa and Europe makes the country a complex multilingual and cultural network. Such multilingual diversity is apparent in most of the social spheres and one of its noticeable occurrences is in the high school curriculum. This is where students are compulsory exposed to more than one language (English is a case in point); yet, they often hold negative attitudes towards them since one of the challenges facing English Language Teachers is that of nurturing learners with the capacity for independent analytical thinking and learning strategies. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (Global, Support and Problem solving strategies) in enhancing baccalaureate students ’ proficiency in English at large and in the reading process in particular. The significance of this research stems from the high status English enjoy in multilingual societies on the one hand, its importance as a variable for baccalaureate students’ success or failure on the other hand as well as the numerous evidence studies disclose on the benefits of metacognition. The study is coached within the ex post facto research design and the data collection instruments involve questionnaires to students in addition to their grades in English and in reading. The findings display significant correlation between students’ metacognitive awareness of the three strategies on the one hand and their performance in reading and in English on the other hand. Secondly, the results also reveal that the relationships between problem solving strategies and students’ grades in English and in reading are much more statistically significant.