Eleventh-grade Students’ Use of Metacognitive Reading Strategies in Arabic (L1) and English (L3)

Abstract

The current study investigated eleventh-grade students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategy use in Arabic (L1) and English (L3). In particular, (i) it examined whether there is any association between the use of MCRS in a reading comprehension task in English and Arabic among trilingual learners, and (ii) whether the application of MCRS when doing reading comprehension tasks in these languages predicted the reading comprehension scores in both languages. This study included 42 eleventh-grade students from a public high school in Morocco. The Metacognitive Reading Strategies Questionnaire (MRSQ), (AbuRabia, 2018), was utilized along with two reading comprehension tests, one in Arabic and one in English. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to see whether there is any connection between the use of MCRS in English and those used in Arabic. Multiple linear regression analyses were employed to predict the reading comprehension scores in Arabic and English based on MCRS use. Results revealed a significant correlation between the use of MCRS in both languages. MCRS were found to be underused among lower-achievers. Furthermore, the application of MCRS predicted higher reading comprehension scores in both study languages. Based on the findings, the study discusses some practical implications of MCRS use.