An Examination of the Metacognitive Reading Strategies Used by Native Speakers of Arabic When Reading in English and Arabic

Abstract

This study examined the metacognitive awareness and reading comprehension strategies used by advanced proficiency ESL readers whose native language is Arabic. The study looked at the perceived use of reading strategies by Arabic native speakers in Arabic and English and their actual use of these strategies in reading academic texts in the two languages. The goal was to compare the reading strategy profiles of Arabic native speakers in English and Arabic through quantitative means using a self-report survey of strategy use (n=90), and qualitative means using a think-aloud protocol with a subset of the original sample (n=10). The topic and research questions are pertinent because they add to a relatively small database showing Arabic native speakers rely heavily on reading strategies in their L2 than when reading in their L1.