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Presenter
Sattar Mutaqid

Title
Exploring the impact of the ESAP Reading Comprehension Text Difficulty on Metacognitive Strategy Use

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of text difficulty on meta-cognitive strategy use. More specifically, this research examines if Iranian EFL university students use different meta-cognitive test taking strategies, while doing  two different reading comprehension test tasks in term of text difficulty. The further concern of this study was to reveal the relationship between strategy use and students test performance. This study also aimed to show whether high, moderate, and low proficiency students differ in the use of metacognetive test taking strategies within easy and difficult reading comprehension test task conditions.

A total of 60 junior civil engineering university students participated in this study. Two ESP reading comprehension tests were developed by the researcher. Each test contained 25 multiple choice items, however, they were different in terms of text difficulty. In this research difficulty estimates were predicted using Flesch readability formula and expert judgments.

To collect the relevant data, the study was conducted in three phases. First, the standardized Nelson Proficiency Test was administered. Based on students' scores on the proficiency test, the participants were divided into high, mid, and low proficiency groups. The second phase, called the easy reading comprehension test task condition, took place one week after the administration of the standardized Nelson test. The students were asked to answer the easy ESP reading comprehension test and were instructed to consider the strategies they have used during the test to fill out the meta-cognitive questionnaire. Two week later, the third stage participants were asked to answer the difficult ESP reading comprehension test task and fill out the meta-cognitive questionnaire again based on the ESP reading comprehension test they had just completed.

The results suggested that (1) the participants resorted more to meta-cognitive strategies within easy reading comprehension tests as compared to difficult reading comprehension tests, (2) the meta- cognitive strategy use did not differ across the proficiency level of the junior civil engineering university students, (3) the use of meta cognitive test-taking strategies had a positive correlation with the ESP reading comprehension test performance (both easy and difficult), and (4) there was no interaction between metacognitive test-taking strategies, language proficiency and text difficulty.
Based on the findings, it can be suggested that the choice of the task and text difficulty level should be made carefully with regard to learners' proficiency levels. The results also provide the basis for task- targeted strategy instruction and enrich 1.2 learning and teaching.

Key words: ESP reading comprehension, Metacognitive Strategies, Flesch Readability Formula, Text Difficulty.