The Correlation between Metacognitive Awareness and Reading Comprehension Ability of the Fifth Semester Students at the English Language Education Study Program of Lambung Mangkurat University

Abstract

One of the essential aspects for students at the university level is reading comprehension ability. The students are required to read any kind of text as their materials, and it is not easy to comprehend the authentic information involved. In an effort to minimize misleading information during the reading, students need to be aware of strategies to control their process in foreign language learning. The idea is that the students might stimulate their comprehension by becoming aware of their own thinking as they read, and managing when and how to consider the strategies during reading. This study aimed to find out the correlation between metacognitive awareness and reading comprehension ability of the fifth semester students at the ELESP of Lambung Mangkurat University. A quantitative approach in terms of the correlational design was applied. The population was the fifth semester students at the ELESP from batch 2019 who have passed the Advanced Reading course. There were 42 students who took part as the sample. In collecting the data, Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) to measure students’ awareness of metacognitive strategies was distributed, and Reading Comprehension Test was administered. The data were analyzed by using Pearson Product-moment Coefficient to find out the magnitude of the correlation. Afterward, hypothesis testing was conducted to find out the significance of the correlation. The findings revealed that the coefficient correlation was 0.283 and the significance level was 0.069. It indicates a low positive correlation between the variables. By means of hypothesis testing, the significance level was greater than 0.05. It indicates that the hypothesis was rejected. Therefore, it can be interpreted that there was no significant positive correlation between students’ awareness of metacognitive strategies and students’ reading comprehension ability. Based on the results, the average of students was categorized as high level in awareness of metacognitive strategies, whereas the result of students’ reading comprehension score varied from moderate to a good reading comprehension level. Based on the findings, it is suggested for the students to become aware of their process in reading. By considering metacognitive strategies appropriately, students might become more prepared to take on any materials in dealing with reading tasks at the university level, and this will make them independent readers.