Metacomprehension Strategy and Reading Performance among Grade 9 Students

Chapter 2

This chapter summarizes the comprehensive topics on literature and research findings

from international, national and local. This aimed to provide substantial ideas concerning

students’ metacomprehension strategy and reading performance. This review provided a relevant

presentation of overviews and insights of the reviewed literature and studies.

Metacomprehension

Metacomprehension refers to a person’s ability to judge his or her own learning and/or

comprehension of text materials. Researchers have fervently investigated the accuracy of peoples

metacomprehension judgements, because the importance of achieving high levels of

metacomprehension accuracy is evident in many areas. In learning new jobs, trainees often must

acquire a great deal of new information, such as about organizational structures and how to

accomplish specific task… (Dunlusky & Lipko, 2007)

Dunlusky & Lipko highly emphasizes and provides a clear definition of what

metacomprehension is. according to them metacomprehension is evident in several areas, though

not limited to learning jobs, and dealing with new information. Despite the implications provided

by Dunslusky and Lipko metacomprehension and metamemory are essential partners. for meta

comprehension to be effective one must have a well aligned metamemory.

Flavell and Wellman (1977), who conducted metamemory studies. Metacomprehension studies

were then extended to the field of reading and to applied educational work (Flavell, 1979;

Garner, 1987, Brown, Armbruster, & Baker, 1986; Paris & Paris, 2001, Baker, 2002; Pressley &

Block, 2002; Block & Pressley, 2007; Hacker, Dunlosky & Graesser, 2009, Azevedo & Aleven,

2013), such as how to improve self-regulated learning skills in the classroom or while studying at

home during learning episodes.

This includes both the reader's ability to understand and to apply the necessary strategies

during reading. A crucial challenge for studying metacognition is how to measure its

components. Several questions arise from this challenge, particularly when studying how

metacognitive knowledge, skills, and strategies influence reading comprehension. When

considering metacomprehension¸ researchers must consider questions such as how

metacognition influences a reader's understanding of a text, how knowledge of metacognition

relates to and differs from the enactment of metacognitive strategies, and which methodologies

are most appropriate.

Moreover, a group of researchers also provided their insights as to what

metacomprehension is. According to Schmitt and Sha, (2009) “Metacomprehension can be

described as a reader’s knowledge about their competence of the written material, i.e., the

knowledge that helps them know if they are understanding the text, which parts of the text are

more difficult and which strategies and actions a reader should carry out to improve their

comprehension.”
 With the efforts of different researchers to give insight as to how metacognition operates

and as to what it is. The question still remains on what are their implications and importance to

students and their performance.

In addition, a study has been conducted by a group of researchers regarding the effects

and implication of metacomprehension. The studies were conducted by (Zabruke et al., 2015)

titled Students’ Metacomprehension Knowledge: Components that Predict Comprehension

Performance.

In their abstract they stated the following (Zabruke et al., 2015) “we assessed students’

metacomprehension knowledge and examined the components of knowledge most related to

comprehension of expository texts. We used the Revised Metacomprehension Scale (RMCS) to

investigate the relations between students’ metacomprehension knowledge and comprehension

performance.

Their study was to evaluate the relationship of metacomprehension knowledge and

comprehension performance, this pertains to the student’s ability to judge their own

understanding of text materials and how well they understood or retained the information from

reading a text material.

Their study concluded that “Students who evaluated and regulated their understanding by

using explanatory strategies (adjusting to difficult material and identifying and making

connections across main points) performed better on a comprehension test than those who relied

on the use of external aids. Use of explanatory strategies was positively related to comprehension

performance, particularly for students with poorer evaluation and regulation skills. Results

suggest that the RMCS is effective at assessing students’ ability to both evaluate and regulate
their understanding and can help identify effective strategies for increasing comprehension

performance”. (Zabruke et al., 2015)

On the other hand, another group of researchers also conducted their research on

metacomprehension to provide a much deeper understanding of metacomprehension. The title of

their research is “A Deeper Understanding of Metacomprehension in Reading: Development of a

New Multidimensional Tool” (Soto et al., 2018) this is in align to help understand what the

researchers aiming to comprehend

The purpose of their research is to (Soto et al., 2018) “develop and validate a new

measurement tool predicated on previous research to assess learners’ metacomprehension during

reading.” With their intensive scrutiny of the subject their work resulted to two studies.

In two separate studies with Chilean undergraduate students (N = 923), they demonstrate

the versatility and utility of their proposed Metacomprehension Inventory (MI).

(Soto et al., 2018) “In Study 1, we provide empirical support for the psychometric

soundness and construct validity of the MI. In Study 2, we provide evidence of the measurement

invariance of the MI between males and females. Results of Study 1 revealed the hypothesized

factor structure of the MI is sound, with high factor loadings, excellent model fit, and moderate-

to-strong inter-factor correlations. Study 2 results indicated that the MI is interpreted similarly by

both males and females, as factor loadings were largely statistically identical across the two

groups. We discuss implications of our proposed MI for theory and applied research.”
 The related literatures presented proved to be excellent samples as they encompass the

study conducted by the researcher of this current study. The data and information is beneficial for

the completion of the researchers’ study.

Reading performance

Reading performance refers to the capacity of an individual to understand, use and

reflect, on the written texts in order to achieve goals, develop knowledge, potential, ad

participate effectively in society. It measure the proficiency and ability of a person to

comprehend and engage withvarious types of written materials (PISA 2018). According to the

OECD (Organization for Economic cooperation and developments), reading performance, as

measured in the PISA(Program for International Students Assessment). It is a crucial skill that

enables individuals to acquire knowledge

Reading performance plays a crucial role in academic achievement and overall literacy

development. Several sources highlight the importance of reading skills and their impact on

various aspects of education. The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 specifically

emphasizes the significance of reading skills in English language proficiency within ESL
teaching and learning (Shaari & Mohamad, 2020). Furthermore, research suggests that reading is

not only a language skill but also a cognitive process influenced by various factors.

According to Ying, reading comprehension is influenced by linguistic and cognitive

factors, social and cultural factors, and affective and motivational factors. This suggests that

reading performance is not solely dependent on language ability but is also influenced by other

factors such as the learner's background, motivation, and emotional state. In addition, Harrison

highlights the role of reading in the development of knowledge and thinking ability, suggesting

that reading is not only important for acquiring information.

Factors that influence reading performance

In the study of by Dr. Beverley L. Zakaluk in 1982 titled “A THEORETICAL

OVERVIEW OF THE READING PROCESS: FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE

PERFORMANCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTION” he researched the factors that

may affect or influence reading performance and any implication for teaching.

According to Dr. Beverley L. Zakaluk “Students become fluent readers. When children

are learning to read they often sound out words letter by letter, make innumerable hesitations,

add words not on the page, omit words altogether, or are overly dependent upon pictures as an

aid to word recognition. Readers may mispronounce words and stop both to repeat words or to

go back and self-correct, all in efforts to make sense of or comprehend the text. For numerous

students, oral reading is laboured with both improper phrasing and repetition. Punctuation may

be ignored altogether. Some pupils may even exhibit reluctance to read aloud orally, while others

are overwhelmed by the task of reading a whole page of text silently. For many, learning to read

is thus an extremely difficult task, to which this lack of fluency attests”

orthographic knowledge, lexical knowledge, syntactic knowledge and even semantic knowledge.

In reading process Dr. Zakaluk studied the models that are used reading which are Bottom-up

and Top-down Model. In summary according to (Zakaluk, 1982) “ it may be said that there are

two opposing theories regarding what is involved in the reading process. One theory envisions

reading as a data-driven process ("Bottom-up") in which: (1) letters are transformed into

phonemic representations; (2) phonemic representations are then transformed into word

representations; (3) words are next assigned meaning; (4) words are combined into meaning-

bearing sentences; (5) meaningful associations are formed, and (6) information is finally stored.

The contrasting theory views reading as a "top-down" process in which higher level conceptual

processes direct word recognition and the reader: (1) samples the print; (2) makes predictions as

to what the word might be based upon prior knowledge of the topic and sentence sense; (3) reads

to confirm the hypothesis; (4) constructs meaning; and (5) assimilates new knowledge.

Dr. Zakaluk theorized the process on how reading and understanding undergo a

systematic procedure that follows a predetermined path to comprehension of text. On the bottom-

up process the reader utilizes the innate ability to construct ideas from text and then stores the

ideas upon completion of analyzing the said text. While the other reading process specifically

named Top-down is a counterpart of bottom-up, in which reader utilizes its own previous

knowledge to come up with a new knowledge in a process of correlating each word to previously

known word, thus synthesizing a new information.

In the same study of Dr. Zakaluk, also analyzed the correlation of Syntactic Knowledge

in reading performance. According to (Meredith, 2015) “Syntactic knowledge is the knowledge

of how words can be combined in meaningful sentences, phrases, or utterances. It involves the
way that words are assembled and sentences are constructed in a particular language.” There are

5 factors that are included in the study of Syntactic knowledge and these are Syntax as It Affects

Word Identification, Syntax as It Affects Comprehension, Dialect, Summary, Implications for

Instruction. And the results were “Far from the common belief that once children have "cracked

the code" their reading problems are over, the manner in which the written word differs from the

spoken leaves the task of breaking written communication into thought units to the reader alone.

This is a potential problem since children differ in linguistic competency - in the ability not only

to produce but to isolate syntactic units. Difficulties with reading comprehension and the ability

to recall what has been read may also be related to syntactic competence. Sentence complexity

also may inhibit sentence comprehension.”(Zakaluk 1982).

Dr. Zakaluk also showcased its implication for instruction “If readers fail to read with

correct phrasing, specific instructional strategies as follows may be helpful. (1). Providing

textual material commensurate with both children's experiences and level of grammatical

expertise. ( A time-honoured approach to matching the student's level of reading achievement

with appropriate material is language-experience.) (2). For beginners, furnishing practice in

reading text in which sentences overlap from one line to the next. (3). Practising echoic reading

in thought units. (4). Supplying activities which require students to mark off phrase units in

textual materials. (5.) Simplifying sentence constructions through embedding, combining or

chunking. (6). Providing exercises on solving sentence anagrams (Weaver, 1979). (7). Constantly

clarifying pronouns which stand for nouns or verb phrases (anaphoric references) through

appropriate questioning. (8.) Reading to children on up through the grades to familiarize them

with formal written language expression.