The Effect of Reciprocal Approach on Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy, Comprehension, and Vocabulary

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate how Korean EFL learners’ perceptual change of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARS), comprehension, and vocabulary learning are influenced by reciprocal reading (RR) while reading test-based materials. These were compared with the results by translation-based reading (TR). Fifty-four participants were chosen and divided into the two reading conditions, who were involved in all data collection procedures during 6 weeks: a pre and a post questionnaire of MARS, a pre test for target words, two reading practices, two interventions for data, two post reading comprehension tests, two immediate tests for word recall and a delayed test for word retention. The results revealed that RR approach was effective in enhancing learners’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, comprehension and word knowledge. In perceptual change of MARS, learners in RR approach reported significant increases in metacognitive awareness of global, problem-solving, and support reading strategies, whereas TR group did not show any significant increase in those strategies. In both reading comprehension performance and receptive word gain, RR group benefited more than TR group, while immediate word recall was similar in both conditions. (Dankook University)