A Contrastive Approach To The Use Of Metacognitive Reading Strategies By Tanzanian Secondary School English Learners

Reading helps students to learn many other mechanisms of language,and metacognitive reading strategies(MRSs)are very important in reading comprehension and language learning.For this reason,this study aimed to investigate the use of MRSs among English learners at Tanzanian secondary schools using contrastive approach.The study used Sheorey and Mokhtari(2002)classification of metacognitive reading strategies(MRSs)which contain 30 reading strategies divided into three categories;Global reading strategies(13),problem-solving reading strategies(8),and support reading strategies(9).This study was designed to explore three research questions: 1)Do Tanzanian secondary school students use metacognitive reading strategies while reading? If yes,what are they? 2)Is there any difference between the uses of MRSs by students’ with high and low reading comprehension performance? If yes,what is the difference? And 3)How teachers should help students promote their reading performance by enhancing their awareness of use of MRSs?Data was collected from a sample of 100 participants at questionnaires,who were divided into 2 groups as good readers(63)and poor readers(37)respectively,and 20 students at interviews from four secondary schools in Mosh-Tanzania.All the questionnaires and interviews were conducted by the English teachers and data of the questionnaires were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Science(SPSS Version 26).The results are as follows: 1)generally speaking,compared with what was revealed by some documents years ago,Tanzanian secondary school students do have good awareness of using MRSs;2)Both good and poor readers are good at using global reading strategies than problem-solving reading strategies and support reading strategies(S.D <1);3)Comparatively,good readers are better at using MRSs than poor readers(S.D <1);Compared to good readers,poor readers are not good at using support reading strategies with significant difference(S.D >1);3)95% interviewees reported that the use of metacognitive reading strategies is useful in enhancing their English reading ability;45% interviewees think they don’t know how to use MRSs,and most of them hope to be told how to obtain the skills of MRSS use.Based on what was found in the study,the author put forward some suggestions for what teachers should do to help students use MRSs.