IJCCS, Vol.x, No.x, July xxxx, pp.

1~5
ISSN: 1978-1520

COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE READING

STRATEGY IN IMPROVING ENGLISH COLLEGERS
READING COMPREHENSION
Riana Ulina, Mutiara Apriani, Fitri Angelina, Rahmizul Ummi, Louis Daniel
State University Of Medan;, Sumatera Utara, 0616613365
English Literature, Faculty of Language and Art, Medan

A. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, research on learning strategies has become a hot issue in the field
of educators and psychologists. Learning strategies refer to specific thoughts or behaviors
that individuals use to help them understand, learn, or retain new information and can be
divided into three categories depending on the level or type of processing involved:
social/affective strategies, cognitive strategies, and meta-cognitive strategy. Most
research on learning strategies in second language acquisition and learning has focused
on the identification, description and classification of learning strategies, and some
research has attempted to instruct or train learning strategies. In reading, cognitive
strategies relate directly to the target language and the world of knowledge of learners,
which enables them to construct meaning from texts and perform assigned tasks.
Cognitive strategies include making predictions, translating, summarizing, and relating
to prior knowledge or experience, and applying grammar rules and guessing meaning
from context. Metacognitive strategies are related to self-management or self-regulation
in a given reading activity. Meta-cognitive strategies include planning and monitoring
strategies. Strategic planning refers to what actions need to be done, and how and when
to do them. Monitoring strategies are actions students take to check, monitor, and evaluate
their thinking and reading performance.

In this study, the reason for conducting research and analyzing the use of cognitive
and metacognitive reading strategies to improve English students' reading comprehension
is to find out which strategy is most dominantly used by English students before they read
a text for their understanding of the text. The researcher wants to know from these two
strategies whether students can improve their comprehension skills in a reading text.
Through this research, researchers can also find out how the cognitive and metacognitive
reading strategies differ significantly in everyday reading life and what are the uses of
these two strategies. Through this research, readers can find out what cognitive and
metacognitive reading strategies are and which English students use more in their reading
activities.

Received June 1st,2012; Revised June 25th, 2012; Accepted July 10th, 2012
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B. PROBLEM

What reading strategy beetwen cognitive and metacognitive that more improve
english collegers reading comprehension?

C. METHOD

In this paper, the researcher uses a qualitative descriptive method to understand

cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies in improving reading
comprehension in English lectures. Patton and Cochran (2002) define qualitative
research as a feature of purposes related to understanding some social life, and its
research. a method that generates words, not numbers, as data for analysis. We
used a qualitative method by creating a questionnaire form for students to look at
cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies in improving their reading
comprehension in English lectures.
The first step we took in collecting the research data was deploying the 2 strategies
to see which results were higher and which were lower and then distributing them
to students majoring in English. Then we analyzed the sentences or words from
the student's answers using gform, therefore we used a qualitative research method
because the opinion of each student was definitely different.

D. THEORY

The learning strategies refer to the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to
help them comprehend, learn or retain new information and it can be differentiated into
three categories depending on the level or type of processing involved: social/ affective
strategies, cognitive strategies and meta-cognitive strategies (O’Malley J. M. & Chamot
A. U. 1990).

Cognitive Strategy
Cognitive strategies refer to the steps or operations used in learning or problem-solving,
which require direct analysis, transformation, or synthesis of learning materials (O'Malley
& Chamot, 1990).
Cognitive reading strategies, according to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), that is going to
be investigated by the writer in this study are resourcing, repetition, grouping, note-
taking, summarizing, getting the idea quickly, inferencing, deduction, imagery, and
elaboration.

Metacognitive Strategy
O'malley and Chamot (1990), they stated metacognitive strategies is an executive skills
relating to planning, monitoring, and evaluating the success of a learning activity, they
divided the processes into four subsets based on receptive or productive language tasks.
O'Malley and Chamot (1990) pointed out that metacognitive strategies are “higher order
executive skills”. O'Malley and Chamot's (2001:8) definition for metacognitive strategies
is that “metacognitive strategies involve thinking about the learning process, planning for
learning, and self-evaluation after the learning activity has been completed”. Based on
information -processing theory and procedural and declarative knowledge, O’Malley and
Chamot (1990) classified metacognitive strategies into three categories: (1) planning, (2)
monitoring, (3) evaluation.

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E. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies are one of the strategies that people
commonly use in reading. Cognitive strategies are the various rehearsal, elaboration,
and organizational strategies, such as analyzing and combining activities and
choosing between main and trivial information (Mayer, 1998; Pintrich, 1999; Pressley
& Hilden, 2006; Weinstein et al., 2000; Wolters & Pintrich, 1998). The use of this
strategy depends on one's comfort and characteristics, Cognitive itself is a strategy for
someone to process their knowledge. Metacognitive strategies are higher-order
executive skills that may involve planning, monitoring, and evaluating the success of
a learning activity. Metacognitive strategies apply to a variety of learning tasks.
Metacognitive strategies are usually used by someone more inclined to learn
independently and find out how learning occurs.

At this time reading strategies in real life are still not recognized because we do not
understand what our goals are for reading a text. English Literature collegers,
especially those who play a role in the field of literature, of course, have a lot of time
to read both literary works and general texts to broaden their knowledge, so it is very
important to know what reading strategies are more dominantly carried out by
collegers. In this study, the researchers presented the results of two tests between
cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies with several questions showing the
existence of the two strategies so that we could see which result was dominant of the
two reading strategies.
This is the question that the researcher attached to the test questionnaire which was
then distributed to English collegers and also the results of the average scores obtained
from all respondents 2 questionnaire tests of cognitive and metacognitive reading
strategies.

Cognitive Reading Strategy Questions and Respons:

1. Before starting to read you recall previous knowledge and experiences that
are relevant to the text to be read. (Activate)
YES - 12 people
NO - 4 people
2. Unite Understanding In the text you are reading with your previous
understanding to form understanding. (Conclude)
YES - 16 people
NO - 0 people
3. Think about how and what is read to determine goals, both while reading and
after reading. (Monitoring)
YES - 12 people
NO - 4 people
4. Engage in learning with the text read, By asking yourself questions and then
answering these questions. (Questioning)
YES - 13 people
NO - 3 people

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5. Looking for various appropriate sources to answer the questions you made
to solve our misunderstandings about the text you read. (Searching-
Selecting)
YES - 14 people
NO - 2 people
6. Restate the contents of the text in your sentences to conclude your
understanding. (Conclude)
YES - 15 people
NO - 1 people
7. Build mental pictures in your mind to illustrate what you read.
(Visualization)
YES - 14 people
NO - 2 people

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Metacognitive Reading Strategy Questions and Response:

1. Paying general and specific attention to language or detailed situations. (Notice)
YES - 15 people
NO - 1 people
2. Slow down the reading of the text when you doubt your understanding when reading
that part of the text and then repeating it. (Repetition)
YES - 16 people
NO - 0 people
3. Plan what you should look for and what you need before reading the text. (Planning)
YES - 13 people
NO - 3 people
4. Criticize what you read with what you know before, then filter the information for
you to save. (Filtering)
YES - 16 people
NO - 0 people
5. Find your way how you can understand the contents of the text without having to
focus on text that you don't understand. (Evaluate)
YES - 12 people
NO - 4 people
6. Review what the focus of the discussion of the text is rather than what the text
contains. (Review)
YES - 13 people
NO - 3 people

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7. Reflect on what you read and what you should know more about. (Reflection)
YES - 15 people
NO - 1 people

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Based on the data above, out of 16 respondents, 7 people got 10 points on the
cognitive reading strategy form, and 9 people got 10 points on the metacognitive
reading strategy form. We know that students are more dominant in using
metacognitive reading strategies before they read the text for their understanding
of the text. Metacognition refers to the process of considering and organizing one's
own learning. In reading this means readers can think critically about their own
understanding. They are aware of their own cognitive experience.

Metacognition and cognition are two important aspects of human thinking and
learning. Metacognition involves understanding and self-regulation of the
cognitive process itself, while cognition involves information processing,
problem-solving, and concept understanding. Metacognition is more inclined
because it serves as a supervisor or regulator of the cognitive process. It involves
the ability to reflect on and monitor our own understanding and thinking. By
understanding how we think, we can recognize our strengths and weaknesses and
identify effective strategies for learning and problem-solving. In contrast,
cognition is lower because it focuses on direct information processing. It involves
understanding, analyzing, and synthesizing information obtained from the
environment. Although cognition is crucial in problem-solving and
understanding, without adequate metacognitive involvement, we may not be able
to evaluate and optimize our cognitive performance. In general, metacognition is
more inclined because it provides a framework for managing thoughts and
learning effectively. By understanding our own cognitive processes, we can
identify errors, organize better learning strategies, monitor understanding, and
enhance overall cognitive performance.

F. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Tunga S, Gracella. 2020. COGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN READING CRITICALLY BY

HIGH AND LOW ACHIEVERS. Kupang : Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira.

Xiufeng Zhang. 2020. Cognitive and Metacognitive Reading Strategies Training in EFL
Reading. Beijing : Capital Normal University.

Azizul Ghofar Candra Wicaksono. 2016. PERBANDINGAN KEMAMPUAN

KOGNITIF DAN METAKOGNITIF MAHASISWA DENGAN GAYA BELAJAR
YANG BERBEDA. Semarang : UPGRIS.

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https://www-gemmlearning-com.translate.goog/can-
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Title of manuscript is short and clear, implies research results (First Author)