English language teachers’ use of metacognitive reading comprehension strategies in Jordanian secondary schools

Other Title(s)

استخدام معلمي اللغة الإنجليزية في المدارس الثانوية الأردنية للاستراتيجيات فوق المعرفية في الاستيعاب القرائي

Dissertant

Abu Sarhan, Id Awdah

Thesis advisor

Abd al-Fattah, Husayn

Comitee Members

al-Makhzumi, Khalaf Falah
al-Smadi, Uqlah Mahmud
Shakir, Abd Allah

University

Amman Arab University

Faculty

Faculty of Educational Sciences and psychological

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

University Country

Jordan

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Date

2003

English Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the metacognitive strategies used by the English language teachers to enhance their students’ reading comprehension skills.

It also aimed at probing the effects of the variables of text genre, qualifications, years of experience and attitudes on the teachers’ use of metacognitive strategies in reading comprehension instruction.

The study sought to answer the following questions: 1.

What are the metacognitive strategies used by Jordanian English language teachers to enhance the students’ reading comprehension? 2.

Are there any significant differences at (α=0.05) in the teachers’ use of the metacognitive strategies due to teaching different types of text genre? 3.

Are there any significant differences at (α=0.05) in the teachers’ use of the metacognitive strategies due to qualifications and experience? 4.

Are there any significant differences at (α=0.05) in the teachers’ use of the metacognitive strategies due to their commitment and attitudes towards English language teaching? The population of the study comprised all currently appointed English language teachers of the eleventh grade in public schools in the directorates of education in Qasabat Al-Zarka and Al-Russeifa.

A stratified random sample of (54) eleventh grade English language teachers (males and females) were chosen from (23) public schools out of the (82) public schools in these two directorates of education.

For the collection of the data for this study, a checklist of model metacognitive strategies was prepared by the researcher as an indicator of the classroom discourse behaviour of teachers.

It was analysed and assessed.

The validation of these instruments was confirmed by a group of experts.

The reliability of the checklist was established by the test-re-test method.

It was 0.86.

A special questionnaire on the teachers’ attitudes was also prepared by the researcher.

In addition, personal interviews of the subjects were conducted after classroom instruction to determine why they used or why they did not use the metacognitive strategies.

The reliability of the attitudes questionnaire was computed by Cronbach Alpha formula and the split half-formula which yielded 0.79 and 0.82, respectively.

The statistical treatment included the use of frequencies, means, standard deviation, ANOVA, Scheffe test, T-Test , MANOVA and L.

S.

D.

Test .

Seven major strategies were identified which are :plan of action , knowledge about cognition, control of learning process, self control , metacognitive behavior , comprehension monitoring and self regulation .

The seven metacognitive strategies consisted of seventy five substrategies which indicated various metacognitive behaviours.

The findings of the study revealed low, rather unsatisfactory use of the metacognitive strategies by Jordanian teachers.

Specifically the study showed that : The First , Third and Sixth metacognitive strategies were medially used by the subjects of the study in teaching the reading texts .

The Second and the Fifth metacognitive strategies were used at low scale by the subjects in teaching the reading texts.

The Fourth metacognitive strategy was very frequently used by the subjects in teaching the reading texts, whereas the Seventh metacognitve strategy occurred at a very low scale .

1) The rank order of the teachers’ use of the seven metacognitive strategies was as follows: the fourth strategy came at the top of the ladder, followed by the first, then the third, the sixth, the second, the fifth and finally the seventh strategy at the bottom.

The study also showed that 8 substrategies out of 75 were very frequently used by the subjects of the study, whereas 11 substrategies were highly used and 16 substrategies were medially used and 12 ones were scarcely used and 25 were even lower.

Three metacognitive substrategies were not used at all.

2) There were no statistically significant differences at ( = 0.05) in the teachers’ use of the second, third and fourth metacognitive strategies due to text genre.

But there were significant differences at ( = 0.05) in the teachers’ use of the first, fifth, sixth and seventh metacognitive strategies due to text genre.

3) There were no statistically significant differences relevant to teachers’ qualifications and experience in the use of the metacognitive strategies used by the English language teachers in teaching the three reading comprehension text types except for the third metacognitive strategy which was affected by the variables of experience and qualifications.

4) There were no statistically significant differences in the use of the metacognitive strategies used by the English language teachers in teaching reading comprehension text types due to their attitudes.

In the light of the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that adequate guidance on how to use the identified metacognitive strategies in actual classroom discourse be given in the teacher’s guide book.

He also proposed the need to prepare and implement in the students’ books relevant material and reading exercises conducive to the use and practice of the metacognitive strategies.

He also recommended that ELT training programs use the identified strategies as a database for designing and implementing future teacher training.

Furthermore, the study suggested that future experimental studies need to be conducted on the effect of the metacognitive strategies on improving reading comprehension .

Main Subjects

Educational Sciences
Languages & Comparative Literature

Topics

• Education
• Learning
• Secondary education
• Second language learning
• Jordan
• English language

No. of Pages

192

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-434890