Cross-gender Comparison of Metacognitive Strategies Utilized by Omani Students in Reading Comprehension Classes

Abstract

Given the fact that English is the language of the latest technological and scientific developments, comprehending English texts has priority for students to gain the knowledge and skills they will need in the future. However, most Omani students are not efficient L2 readers and do not have sufficient competence in reading authentic English texts. There is a variety of factors that might affect Omani students’ ability to read and comprehend English texts effectively. To find out what factors are involved in Omani students’ reading comprehension, in the first place, it is necessary to know what strategies they employ in reading. To this end, the current study attempts  to explore Omani students reported use of reading strategies using ‘Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory’ (MARSI) developed by Mokhtari and Reichard (2002). The self-reported survey completed by 200 students (90 female and110 male) who enrolled for Advanced Foundation program (level 4) at Salalah College of Technology (SCT). The results show that SCT students’ awareness of metacognitive strategies is at medium level (3.46). Furthermore, the comparison between two gender groups (Males Vs. Females) shows that male students use metacognitive reading strategies moderately (3.28) while female students use them more frequently (3.64). The outcomes of the study contribute to the improvement of SCT students reading ability and can be used by teachers to teach students different strategies to build meaning of the reading material which is among the goals of any educational system.