THE ROLE OF METACOGNITIVE KNOWLEDGE AND INFERENCE MAKING IN SECOND LANGUAGE READING

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study is an investigation of Japanese university students’ use of metacognitive knowledge for reading an English narrative text for general comprehension and their inference generation while reading. Research in second language (L2) reading and reading comprehension has advanced over the past three and half decades (Grabe & Stoller, 2020). Many studies focusing on L2 reading comprehension have shed light on the strong correlation of linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary and syntax with reading comprehension (e.g., Jeon & Yamashita, 2014). In addition, the literature on L2 reading has shown a strong interest in the role of higher-order processing and metacognition. However, there is a paucity of research on higher-order processing and metacognitive knowledge in L2 reading in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. With these gaps in mind, this study draws on Flavell’s (1979) model of cognitive monitoring and Nelson and Narens’ (1990) model of metacognition. It also draws on Kintsch’s (1988) Construction-Integration (CI) Model that elaborately describes the process of reading comprehension. Ten intermediate- and advanced-proficiency Japanese EFL learners voluntarily participated in this multiple case study, read a narrative text for general comprehension, and reported on their reading. The data collected from the participants’ course assignments, class oral presentation, class discussion, semi-structured interviews, and the think aloud and stimulated recall protocols were transcribed and coded for analysis. The transcribed data together with the written data were analyzed thematically clustering the data into categories manually using Flavell’s (1979) framework of metacognitive knowledge, person, task, and strategy, and by the types of inferences made. This study provides a descriptive account of the participants and contributes to the literature on EFL learners’ strategy use, metacognition, and inference-making in L2 reading. The findings reveal that intermediate- and advanced-proficiency Japanese EFL learners used strategies in combination to solve the difficulties they encountered, and metacognitive strategies to monitor and evaluate their strategy use while reading. Accordingly, this study supports the conclusion that metacognitive strategies are essential to self-regulated reading to achieve comprehension. In addition, the participants’ positive beliefs about themselves as EFL learners appeared to positively contribute to their motivation to read. In particular, their beliefs about good L2 readers helped them set goals with regards to the areas that they problematized. For example, the participants aspired to read faster because they recognized that their present L2 reading speed was slow. The findings also provide a detailed account of how readers constructed situation models for their reader comprehension. In particular, re-reading helped enhance participants’ ability to draw inferences, identify causal relationships, remove irrelevant or contradictory elements, and integrate relevant background knowledge to the textbase in the interest of updating their situation models. The rich description of the multiple cases in this study contributes to our understanding of difficulties intermediate- and advanced-proficiency Japanese EFL learners encounter while reading, how they use strategies to address them, how they draw inferences to connect information, and how they evaluate their comprehension on an ongoing basis.