The Comparative Effect of Teaching Metacognitive Strategies and Collaborative Strategic Reading on EFL Learners' Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This study was an attempt to systematically investigate the comparative impact of teaching Metacognitive Strategies (MS) and Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' Reading Comprehension (RC). The participants were 58 homogenized intermediate level female EFL learners, within the age range of 18-30 (Mage = 24); they were non-randomly selected and were randomly assigned into two experimental groups of 29. One experimental group received MS training based on Anderson's (2002) model, and the other experimental group received training in CSR based on Klingner and Vaughn’s (1998) model. Inspecting the initially-homogenized participants’ post-treatment performance, through using a piloted PET reading test and running an independent-samples t-test, revealed that the MS group performed significantly better than the CSR group in terms of RC. The study concludes with a discussion on the obtained results, followed by presenting some implications for EFL teachers, EFL learners, and EFL material developers.