Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies among a Korean College Students

This paper explores Korean EFL college students' metacognitive awareness of reading strategies in reference to factors that may facilitate strategy use, such as L2 proficiency, L1 reading experience and academic L2 reading experience. A survey questionnaire adapted from the Survey of Reading Strategies (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002) with three subscales (i .e. global reading, problem solving, and support reading strategies) was administered to 96 students, 50 upper-class English majors and 46 freshmen. The data analysis revealed the following: 1) The students' overall strategy use was at the upper moderate frequency level, concurring with the results of previous studies in L2 reading (Kweon, 2009; Malcolm, 2009; Zhang & Wu, 2009). 2) Of the three variables, the extent of L1 reading experience had main effects on the use of the overall strategies, the global reading and the support reading strategies, with L2 proficiency exerting a limited effect. 3) L1 translation was a strategy favored by the students with low L2 proficiency but extensive L1 reading experience. The reliance on L1 as the medium of cognitive processes was obvious among the upper-class students, possibly due to their positive experience of utilizing L1 as the language of thought in dealing with academic texts.