PERCEIVED METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS OF READING STRATEGIES

Running Head: PERCEIVED METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS OF READING STRATEGIES

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Recently, there are trends within the domain of reading that led to an increasing emphasis on the major role of metacognitive awareness of one's motivational and cognitive processes while reading. However, researchers have indeed agreed that awareness and monitoring of one's comprehension process are much important aspects of skilled reading (Allington, 2001). Such monitoring and awareness processes are normally referred to in the literature as metacognition, that can be thought of as readers' knowledge cognition about the about reading and self-control mechanisms that they exercise when monitoring and regulating text comprehension (Anderson, 2004).

Metacagnition construct is richly built through the efforts of several prominent researchers representing several research traditions using many data sources. Although this could be a challenge that could to account for all the characterizations of metacognition, we always try to attempt, in our short review, to reflect the wealth of inquiry behind the construct, which provides a foundation for advancing a valid and reliable instrument aimed at measuring readers' metacognitive control and awareness of the strategic processes invoked while reading (Anderson, 2004). Researchers have generally agreed that metacognition refers to the "knowledge related to cognitive states and abilities that can be shared among individuals while at the same time broadening the construct to include affective and motivational thinking characters.

Cognitive and Metacognition Monitoring is described as the process of cognitive monitoring occurring through the interaction and action of four classes or interrelated phenomena: Metacognitive knowledge and skills, metacognitive experiences and skills, goals and tasks, and actions and strategies. Other researchers have also used examples of students' reflections about their thinking while reading to show what they do when they read. Readers' reflections indicate how they plan, manage, evaluate, and use available information to them as they create sense of what they read. Such reflections unveil judgments about the thinking processes of the reader that act as conventional metacognition description (Allington, 2001). Recent conceptions of reading comprehensions and passages depict efficient readers as strategic and constructively responsive readers who more orchestrate cognitive resources when reading. Researchers investigating reading comprehension monitoring among skilled and unskilled readers have always recognized the importance of metacognitive awareness in reading comprehension because it differentiates between skilled and unskilled readers. Some researchers have always provided illustration of the differences between these two types of readers (Anderson, 2004).

The major role of comprehension and metacognition monitoring in the current descriptions of the reading process is widely reflected in the steady growth of interest in reading comprehension monitoring research. The value placed by researchers and teachers on this important aspect of reading is supported in the literature that documents the connections between comprehension monitoring and academic learning. However, some researchers have always maintained that metacognition can promote motivation and academics learning. There is always a better idea; that students can enhance their learning by become much aware of their own thinking as they write, read and solve problems at school. Teachers can easily promote this awareness simply making students aware about effective problem-solving strategies and discussing motivational and cognitive characteristics of thinking. One of the researchers argued that such consciousness-raising has twin benefits namely: it transfers responsibility for monitoring learning between teachers and students themselves, and (b) it also promotes positive self-perceptions and improvement, influence, and motivation among the students.

This way metacognition causes personal insights to one's own fosters and thinking independent learning. Researchers have indicated that students' awareness of their own reading comprehension processes can easily be enhanced through systematic and direct instruction. This point concurred with other researchers' view that strategic reading can be taught to students who need it through carefully devised instructional techniques and methods. They cautioned, however, that metacognition should not be regarded as a final aim for learning and instruction (Allington, 2001). Also it should instead be regarded as an opportunity to equip students with knowledge, skills and confidence that enables them to organize themselves and manage their own learning and empowers them to be zealous and inquisive in their pursuits. According to this research, reading strategies, which are operationally defined as generally deliberate and well planned activities undertaken by active learners, always to remedy perceived cognitive failure, facilitate reading comprehension and may be more teachable.

Garner, who is one of the researchers concurred with Paris, and Dixon that reading strategies can and should be learned to the highest point of automaticity, after which they become experience and skills, and that learners must be aware not only of what strategies to use but also where, when and how to use them. The research on reading and metacognition comprehension is extensive especially for recent reviews of the multidimensional nature of passage comprehension (Alvermann, 2003). This work has been very important in providing and prompting reading researchers to examine readers' awareness of their motivational and cognitive processes while reading and the actions they use to monitor comprehension. Such research has provided teacher, educators and practicing teachers with practical suggestions for assisting struggling readers improve their awareness and use of reading strategies while reading. However, there are relatively few instruments that can be used to measure students' awareness and perceived use of reading strategies while reading for academic reasons. Efforts to advance metacognitive awareness inventories have always been well intentioned but generally not good from a measurement perspective.

The few instruments that are available have been quite useful in assisting to determine metacognitive awareness and use of reading strategies among various elementary school students. Most