5 means of questionnaire as the main data collector, they found that 40 Indonesian
respondents reported high-usage level of PROB strategies. Unfortunately, they also found that last two subscales reading strategies was reported in medium-
usage level. The result that the less proficient Indonesian students were not likely aware about their metacognitive strategies. Considering the level of students
’ metacognitive awareness, they claimed that those less proficient students were not
strategic learners. The latest research
related to the relationship between students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and reading comprehension was
conducted by Fitrisia, Tan Yusuf 2015. They conducted correlational study with 272 students in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. They found that there was weak
relationship between participants’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and performance in reading comprehension. In other words, the study came up
with the empirical discovery that the generally students herein were not thoroughly aware their reading strategies during reading task or facing school-
related reading materials. Regarding those sentences above, this study assumedly affirms that the
good readers or commonly called rich readers are the learners who are able to use some strategies in order to reach their comprehension level while the poor one
does not instead. It is important to instruct students about what, how, when, and
why to use various reading strategies, and it is equally important to assess
whether or not students understand and apply reading strategies effectively Paris Flukes: 2005, p.137
6 Thus, subsequently the readers can reach the better reading comprehension
if the supervisors are able to identify leaners’ awareness in metacognitive reading strategies use and promote it to them. It also can be useful for them by pointing to
the certainty that metacognitive strategies are constructed on the basis of planning, arrangement and evaluation and emphasizing on the active execution of these
strategies during reading. Particularly, metacognition as leading knowledge about cognition will be regarded in chapter 2 as declarative, procedural and conditional
knowledge Jacob Paris: 1987.
1.2 Statements of the Problem
As mentioned previously, metacognition has significant influence toward readers’ reading comprehension. It is evidently strengthened by some researchers
who are concerned on the importance of metacognition in reading comprehension. As Chammot Omalley 1995, p.99 say students without metacognitive
approaches are essentially learners without direction and ability to review their progress, accomplishments, and future learning directions. Additionally,
Anderson 2002 also highlights the important role of metacognition as “orchestrator of various strategies”. It means that metacognition has a prominent
role to control various reading strategies and cognitive strategies as well. The study calls the attention to several problems related to the scope of metacognition
and reading comprehension research: 1.
Reading comprehension becomes a complex activity. The readers are required to understand the meaning exists on the reading material. They are
also directed to interact with written text using various strategies. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
7 2.
The lack of rea ders’ awareness in using numerous strategies gets to be most
problems in reading comprehension. This condition also influences the decrease in readers’ motivation to solve difficulties when the comprehension
breaks down. 3.
Poor readers or low- ability readers are not prepared to read academic reading materials such as text book and fail to encode to construct representations that
are consistent with the topic of a text Mokhtary and Sheorey: 2003, p.4
1.3 Research Questions
This study is aimed to investigate the level of students’ awareness in
utilizing metacognitive reading strategies while interacting with reading materials and to
look over the relationship between students’ awareness in using metacognitive reading strategies to reach the reading comprehension and reading
comprehension achievement of the students. Hence, the study formulates two research questions in order to reach the goals of the study as below:
1 What is L
evel of students’ awareness in using metacognitive reading strategies and which reading strategy categories are perceived to be used
more by the participants during reading activities? 2
Which strategies do students favor? 3
What is Level of students’ reading comprehension?
4 Does the students’ awareness of metacognitive strategies have any
relationship with their English reading comprehension? PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
8
1.4 Research objectives
Associated with the foregoing research questions, this study carried out four objectives. The first question was aimed to investigate the
level of students’ awareness of metacognitive reading strategies use while interacting with written
text. It was meant to explore the general awareness of students’ in applying
metacognitive reading strategies. Afterwards, this study was also aimed to desc
ribe the students’ awareness in using each subcategory of metacognitive reading strategies.
The second question was proposed to find strategies preference of students. It was supposed to rank the five highest of strategies preference. I was
also expected to find the five-lowest strategies preference of the students. The third question was directed to describe the level of stu
dents’ reading comprehension. By means of CEFR standard, this study was aimed to consider
the level of students’ reading comprehension globally. The fourth question was intended to explore the relationship between both
metacognitive reading strategies use and reading comprehension. This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive reading strategies
awareness and reading comprehension. This study was also supposed to make enquiries about how far metacognitive reading strategies can explain the
students’’ reading comprehension. Finally, this study was aimed to investigate the influence of subcategories of metacognitive reading strategies
9
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study
As mentioned in the previous point 1.3, there are a number of problems in reading comprehension. In academic reading, exhaustive reading has come to
be essential because it is associated with readers’ knowledge and ability in using various strategies. The nature of reading comprehension becomes complex if the
readers could not find the appropriate reading strategies as the problem solver when the comprehension breaks down.
Thus, it deliberately concerns this study into problem number 1 and 2 in statements of the problem point, that are the relationship between metacognitive
strategies use and reading comprehension considered as indicator of reading competency and reading comprehension of the students.
1.6 Research Benefits
It is believed that learning strategies take an important role for the students’
success in reading. By means of correlational design, the study leads the result to give both sides theoretical and practical significances. In theoretical scope, this
study is expected to enhance the theory of metacognitive reading strategies use while reading. Afterwards, this study practically aims to provide teachers and
students an overview of investigation of metacognitive reading strategies use and its relation with reading comprehension. It is important to the teacher recognize
learners’ metacognitive awareness level as Mbato 2013 says “a metacognitive teacher should promote students’ active engagement in reading by engaging
students in planning, monitoring and evaluating their understanding” p.13. Learners readers could be motivated to improve reading skill and effective
reading strategies. They are also uplifted to do self-regulation, extend their PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
10 preferred reading strategies and consider their less preferred reading strategies.
Moreover, this study is also directed to promote learning strategies in order to
reach the success in reading. These terms metacognition and reading
comprehension can provide us with in-depth insights into the complexity of reading process and give us ideas about how to help learners to develop their
reading competence and how to assess their metacognitive strategy use Zhang Sheepo: 2013, p.55.
Eventually, the lecturers as the stakeholders in this opportunity are supposed to explicitly lead the learners to recognize and
effectively operate the reading strategies. This study is also intended to provide the latest circumstances of the
development of metacognitive awareness. The result of the study can be used as scientific references for the future research. It is supposed to be research-based
information source for future researchers. The present study also would like to lead the future research to use more complex research design after reading the
result of the study. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
