Metacognitive Awareness Guidance In The Efl Reading Instruction

For nearly three decades the study of metacognition has been largely historical and reconstructive in nature. Educators and researchers have used the ideas, writings and significant instructional events shaping reading teaching norms as the lens for understanding present conditions and even for projecting foreseeable futures in EFL reading instruction. Recent trends within the domain of reading comprehension have led to an increasing emphasis on the role of metacognitive awareness of learners' cognitive and motivational processes while reading. Researchers agree that awareness and monitoring of one's comprehension processes are critically important aspects in skilled and effective reading. From this perspective, reading is understood to be an active, fluent, complex and cognitive process in which reader and text interact to build meaning and to (re)create meaningful discourse.The purpose of the study is to explore the effects of using Metacognitive Awareness Guidance (MCAG) as a psychological tool designed to prompt the Chinese EFL students to think reflectively and metacognitively about their learning goals, motivation, understanding, learning strategies on their learning performance and metacognitive awareness in EFL reading class. The main questions to be answered in the present study are:1. Are there any significant differences of metacognitive awareness in EFL reading among university students in China?2. Does Metacognitive Awareness Guidance, as a "psychological tool", positively affect the Chinese EFL learners' reading achievement?3. What are the effects of using the MCAG on the three components of learner performance: (1) achievement on reading assessment tasks; (2) performance on metacognitive awareness guidance; and (3) awareness of metacognitive reading strategies? Or what is the correlation among each of the three segments of the EFL learners' "triarchic assessment"?A total of 130 college sophomores studying in three independent classes from Xi'an Innovation College of Yan'an University participated in the research. The classes were...