A Study On English Reading Strategy Metacognitive Awareness Of Non-English Majors

Reading in English is generally viewed as one of the effective means to extend the command of the language for most Chinese EFL learners. Since efficient reading seems to remain a vexing problem for many learners, it is of practical importance to conduct research on L2 reading process in a bid to improve reading efficiency. In L2 reading research, the strategies that readers employ have attracted more attention. Recently, the recognition of metacognitive awareness as a learner difference in second language acquisition offers new insights into reading research. Considerable research has indicated that metacognitive awareness of reading strategies has a significant impact on reading proficiency. Since most of the empirical studies in reading metacognition are conducted in the contexts outside China, whether their findings can be applied to English reading teaching in China remains a problem. Therefore, it is of theoretical and practical significance to conduct English reading research in China within the framework of metacognition.Based on the analysis and discussion on the theory of reading and metacognition, the present study makes a tentative investigation into the state of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among 105 Chinese sophomores of non-English majors and explores the relationship between the perceived use of reading strategies and reading comprehension by using the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Inventory (MARSI), English reading test and CET4 scores. SPSS 10.0 is employed to analyze the collected data and the quantitative analysis indicates that: The subjects' metacognitive awareness of English reading strategies is not very high and needs enhancing; Of the three categories of reading strategies, the problem-solving strategy category is most favored by the students followed by the global reading strategy category and support reading strategy category; Significant correlations do exist between metacognitive awareness and the scores of the reading test and CET4 scores respectively; No significant difference of reading strategy awareness exists between students of different specialties.To sum up, this paper presents the present state of some Chinese undergraduate of non-English majors' reading strategy metacognitive awareness and proves that there are positive relation between metacognitive awareness and reading performance. The study suggests that teachers should attempt to gain a clear understanding of their learners' metacognitive awareness about L2 reading to enhance their metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, and provide learners with guidance for approaching their L2 reading in a reflective manner through effective employment of reading strategies.