EXPLORING METACOGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES USED BY LOW AND HIGH PROFICIENCY FORM THREE ESL STUDENTS

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the metacognitive reading strategies used by low and high proficiency Form Three ESL (English as Second Language) students and highlight suitable strategies that can be exposed to the low proficiency students. Methodology: To serve the purpose of this research, an explanatory sequential mixed method design was used. As for the sampling, purposive sampling was employed in this study. The respondents were drawn from two Form Three classes in the selected secondary school in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia. There were twenty-four boys and thirty-six girls. They were all fifteen years old and represented three main ethnic groups which are Malays, Indians and Chinese. The number of respondents was equally the same for both groups; 30 from the low proficiency group and 30 from the high proficiency group. Findings: The data gathered in this study revealed that the most popular metacognitive reading strategy among the respondents is self-evaluation. In addition, the most significant difference between the high and low proficiency students is that the latter employed fewer metacognitive reading strategies than the former. Furthermore, through the findings, this research also suggested the metacognitive reading strategies suitable for the low proficiency students; advanced organization, selective attention, self-management, directed attention and monitoring. Contributions: This research aids the teachers in adapting their instructions and putting extra effort into training students, especially low proficiency students, to use suitable metacognitive reading strategies. Keywords: Low proficiency students, high proficiency students, purposive sampling, metacognitive reading strategies, explanatory sequential mixed method design. Cite as: Jeevaratnam, J. A., & Stapa, M. (2022). Exploring metacognitive reading strategies used by low and high proficiency form three ESL students. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 335-365. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp335-365

Self-Efficacy Sources, Reading Self-Efficacy, Metacognitive Reading Strategies and Reading Comprehension Performance: A Correlational Study in Saudi EFL Context

The intended aim of this research was to identify the connection of Self-Efficacy Sources (SES) and Metacognitive Reading Strategies (MCRS) with Reading Comprehension (RC) by deploying reading Self-Efficacy Beliefs (SEB) as a mediating construct. A correlational design was utilized. Proportionate stratified random sampling was deployed to select a sample of 383 Saudi EFL university learners. Questionnaires and a reading comprehension test were employed to gather the data. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships. Results indicated that SES were substantially associated with SEB except physiological state. Moreover, all the three MCRS showed significant and positive association with SEB. Also, SEB were substantially associated with RC. Regarding mediation, it was discovered that SEB mediated the relationship among SES and RC except one source, i.e., physiological state. Moreover, SEB mediated the association between all the three MCRS and RC. This study provides several implications for learners, teachers, and policymakers. Keywords: Metacognitive Reading Strategies, Self-efficacy Sources, Reading Self-efficacy Beliefs, Reading Comprehension, Saudi EFL Learners

Unnatural Temporalities and Projected Places in Sam Shepard’s Cowboys #2

Sam Shepard’s Cowboys #2 (1967) belongs to his first period of play writing. In this phase, his works exhibit experimental, remote, impossible narrative/fictional worlds that are overwhelmingly abstract, exhibiting “abrupt shifts of focus and tone” (Wetzsteon 1984, 4). Shepard’s unusual theatrical literary cartography is commensurate with his depiction of unnatural temporalities, in that, although the stage is bare, with almost no props, the postmodernist/metatheatrical conflated timelines and projected (impossible) places in the characters’ imagination mutually reflect and inflect each other. Employing Jan Alber’s reading strategies in his theorization of unnatural narratology and Barbara Piatti’s concept of projected places, this essay proposes a synthetic approach so as to naturalize the unnatural narratives and storyworlds in Shepard’s play.

The Effect of Using KWL (Know-Want-Learned) Strategy on Reading Comprehension Of 5th Grade EFL Students in Kuwait

Metacognitive reading strategies play an essential role in improving reading comprehension. This study explores the effects of English metacognitive reading strategies and reading comprehension in Kuwaiti primary school students as foreign language learners; this experimental study tries to find a relationship between students' metacognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and students' reading performance. Participants were fifth grade EFL students in Kuwait primary education government public schools. The students' reading comprehension was evaluated. Comprehension tracking strategies were measured using Metacognitive strategies (K-W-L Plus). While the experimental groups (B) received instructions according to (K-W-L Plus) techniques, the control (A) group was trained with the traditional teaching approach based on the Kuwait national curriculum school textbooks. A questionnaire investigating the use of English and perceived English proficiency was also conducted. The results revealed that Perceived proficiency in English was not determined by the early or late pre-school age of second language acquisition. Also, bilingual students with perceived proficiency in English had better meta-cognitive reading skills than low perceived proficiency in English. Comprehension monitoring and (K-W-L) strategy was adequate and the most important predictor of reading comprehension among all students in the research sample.

Critical Reading for Self-Critical Writing

This study aims at exploring students’ critical reading strategies and explaining how their critical reading encounters critical writing. It is due to students were lack of confidence in their ability to challenge the arguments and evidence put forward by respected academics author. The qualitative design was established by Gay and Airasian (2012) by delivering open and closed ended questions through Google forms and analyzing corpus based on students’ proposal text. Then, it had been analyzed by using cyclical steps; reading, describing, clarifying and interpreting. Based on the data, firstly, it has been revealed that students’ critical reading strategies mostly established are making connections, contextualizing and making applications and identifying problems and creating annotations. Students were rarely to challenge author’s assumptions, translate ideas into visuals and evaluate arguments. Secondly, their reading activity also reflected their critical reading, in other words, students state their purpose of writing, define key terms, and manage references on their work. Based on this, it can be figured out that students’ critical writing were relied on superficial argument development and format-based writing which performed a shallow writing.

Looking for a Bookstore in Town: Intellectual Readers and the Death of “Gutenberg Galaxy”

The author analyses the problems of erosion of the book culture and the role of bookishness in the contemporary Western and Russian identities. While analysing the processes of disappearance and displacement of bookshops, the author presumes that culture of bookstores and communication subcultures in them cannot compete with networks and e-commerce. It is assumed that the logic of capitalism favours the progress of on-line bookstores, specialising in the serial and mass literature while independent bookstores prefer to sell intellectual, non-fiction, and academic books that are not interesting to consumer readers of mass culture. The author tries to analyse causes of private non-mass bookstores crisis. The author believes that intellectuals of 2000s were optimistic in their prognosis for the development of bookstores as spaces of cultural initiatives. By the end of 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of independent bookstores decreased significantly when on-line bookstores occupied their place. It is assumed that the cultures of reading, book collections, personal libraries lost the positions they held in the 20th century and even in the first decade of the 21st century. The author presumes that independent bookstores became cultural ghettos and intellectual reservations, when net bookstores became successful actors of the mass culture. In general, it is predicted that heterogeneous, regionally localised minority book cultures and reading strategies of the New Medievalism may replace the “mass” book as a cultural institution of a modern political imagined communities as elements of the dying Gutenberg Galaxy with its heterogeneous national identities.

Investigating the Reading Strategies Used by French Immersion Pupils as They Engage With Dual-Language Children’s Books: A Multiple Case Study

As dual-language children’s books are becoming increasingly popular in language and literacy education, scholars are starting to zero in on how students construct meaning as they read these books. In this paper, in light of the previously mentioned body of literature, we present a qualitative study focusing on the reading strategies that three Grade 3 French immersion pupils schooled in Saskatchewan deployed when they read two types of dual-language books: translated, where the entire text appears in both English and French, and integrated, where passages in French organically complete those in English without providing the exact same information. This multiple case study highlights three distinct reading profiles, and shows how monolingual and cross-linguistic reading strategies can be used by the same student as they read a dual-language book. It also shows that some students were able to adapt their reading strategies as they engaged with different types of dual-language books, whereas others more frequently utilized the same strategies. Keywords: dual-language children’s books, reading strategies, French immersion Résumé Alors que les livres bilingues deviennent de plus en plus populaires en didactique des langues, la recherche commence à s’intéresser aux comportements cognitifs de l’élève qui s’engage dans la lecture de ces œuvres. Dans cet article, à la lumière de ces études, nous relatons les résultats d’une recherche qualitative visant à décrire les stratégies de lecture que trois élèves de 3e année scolarisés en Saskatchewan en immersion française déploient lorsqu’ils lisent deux types de livres bilingues : le livre traduit, dans lequel tout le texte apparait en français et en anglais, et le livre intégré, dans lequel le texte en français complète celui en anglais, sans toutefois offrir au lecteur la même information. Cette étude de cas multiple relève donc trois profils distincts de lecteur et, par son entremise, nous montrons comment des stratégies de lecture monolingues et translinguistiques peuvent être utilisées par un même élève lorsqu’il lit un livre bilingue. Nous révélons en outre que certains élèves sont à même d’adapter leurs stratégies de lecture selon le type de livre bilingue lu, tandis que d’autres font fréquemment usage des mêmes stratégies. Mots-clés : livres bilingues, stratégies de lecture, immersion française