An Action Research on Metacognitive Reading Strategies Instruction to Improve Reading Comprehension

One of the most important skills that students need to master is reading, yet the dismal results of Malaysian students on international reading assessments suggest that they still lack the necessary skills for reading. An action research was conducted to investigate the effects of instruction in metacognitive reading strategies to aid students’ reading comprehension. Chosen based on convenience sampling, 25 participants in this study were 13-year-olds from a secondary school in Kuala Lumpur. The Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies – Revised (MARSI-R) was the main instrument used to identify the needs of the students and to keep track of their progress. The mean for the overall items and three subscales was calculated to compare the results before and after the interventions. Like previous studies carried out on reading strategies instruction, there was an increase in participants’ awareness of metacognitive reading strategies following the training. While the results were limited to this particular school and could not be generalised to all secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur, English language teachers in secondary schools could consider integrating metacognitive reading instruction into their reading classrooms. Future studies could investigate the metacognitive reading strategies that good and poor readers use. Researchers could also look into developing a handbook of materials for training in such strategies.