Awareness in reading: EFL students’ metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies in an acquisition-poor environment

Abstract

Although studies on L2 learning strategies are a major strand of second-language research, recent research interest has focussed on language learners’ metacognitive knowledge or awareness of strategies. Previous research has shed important light on the amelioration in L2 educational practices, but little research is focused on EFL learners in input-poor environments. This paper reports on a study of 10 Chinese EFL readers’ metacognitive knowledge of strategies in learning to read EFL in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a typical acquisition-poor environment. The EFL readers’ metacognitive knowledge of strategies was analysed and interpreted from a broad metacognitive perspective within Flavell’s model (1987), which has been adopted in L2 studies by researchers such as Wenden (1991; 1998) and Goh (1998) to analyse learners’ strategies or their metacognitive knowledge of language learning. EFL readers’ knowledge of reading strategies was examined through analysing the mentalistic data (Cohen, 1996) obtained through retrospective interviews. The study found that the PRC EFL readers’ metacognitive knowledge of reading strategies had close links to their EFL proficiency. The results suggest that the available studies on PRC EFL readers have not adequately addressed the issue. Implications for learner training and recommendations for further research are also explored. © 2001 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.