An examination of the metacognitive reading strategies used by native speakers of Arabic when reading academic texts in Arabic and English

Scope and method of study. This study explored the metacognitive awareness and use of reading strategies by native speakers of Arabic when reading in two languages, namely Arabic and English. The main research questions in the study focused on finding out (a) the strategies that native speakers of Arabic report using when they read in English and Arabic, (b) the strategies they actually use when reading texts in these two languages, and (c) the conditions under which they use such strategies when reading strategies across the two languages. Quantitative as well as qualitative research methods were used to collect data for purposes of this study. The subjects' metacognitive awareness of reading strategies was assessed by using the Survey of Reading Strategies (Mokhtan & Sheorey, 2002) while their actual use of reading strategies was identified through the use of a think-aloud protocol.;Findings and conclusions. The results obtained revealed five important findings. First, all the subjects reported using all the 30 strategies listed in the SORS instrument. Second, there were statistically significant differences in the strategies reported in English and Arabic. Third, some strategies were actually used more often than others. Fourth, think-aloud data showed that the subjects actually used more than half of the strategies when they read in English. Finally, while there was some variation in reported and in actual strategy used by the participants, more strategies were used in English than in Arabic. These findings have important implications for reading instruction, assessment, and research.