Introduction
1. Research Background
When the learners have been in acquaintance with a second language for a longtime，the ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate and with goodcomprehension has long been recognized to be as important as oral skills，if not moreimportant(Eskey 1970). In second language learning or teaching for academicpurposes，reading ability is of great significance when it comes to attain the extensivematerials written in English‘Reading is a psycholinguistic process in that it starts with a linguistic surfacerepresentation encoded by writer and ends with meaning that the reader constructsafter a complicated mental process (Kenneth Goodman 1975). What's more，aproficient reader is both efficient and effective. The proficient reader canaccommodate the meaning he constructs to the original meaning of the author in ahigher level of agreement. To achieve the efficiency, readers constantly focus onconstructing the meaning throughout the process, seeking the most direct path tomeaning, using strategies for reducing uncertainty, being selective about the use of thecues available and ckawing deeply on prior conceptual and linguistic competence(Carrell，2006).Since the 1970s, focus has been shifted from how to teach to teaching students howto leam. An increasing number of researches have been conducted to find out thefactors affecting the reading comprehension ability (Baker, 1989; Schraw, 1998 etc.).However, most of the studies focus on pointing out tiiese factors where consciousfactors and imconscious factors are mingled with each other. In this way, the readers'subjective initiatives to some extent are neglected. In the reading process, readers arenot passive receivers, yet they are actively constructing the meaning drawn from thetext using various strategies consciously or unconsciously to facilitate the readingburden. The degree to which the readers employ the reading strategies varies fromperson to person as a result of their metacognitive awareness of the reading strategies,thus the reading comprehension ability gap between the high proficient readers andlow proficient readers.
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2. Purpose and Significance of the Study
This dissertation is a case study that investigates non-English majors' metacognitiveawareness of reading strategies when they are reading school-related or academicmaterials written in English. Within the theoretical framework of the related literature,the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between t non-Englishmajors' metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their readingcomprehension ability.The present study is both theoretically and pedagogically significant.Theoretically, the findings of this research are expected to contribute to the presentunderstanding of the reading process, and add to knowledge of English education.Despite of many researches on the English reading comprehension processes at homeand abroad，there is a need to move beyond identifying the strategies that readers useto obtain a deeper understanding of their complicated reading process, level ofcomprehension monitoring, and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, whichcan be achieved to some extent through the researches on reading comprehensionprocesses from metacognitive perspective. We need to figure out the cognitiveobstructions that obstruct the smooth reading comprehension way to provide atheoretical basis for the following reading ability enhancement and improvement.Pedagogically, since the study attempts to reveal the readers' metacognitive awarenessof strategic processes invoked while reading，such researches will provide teachereducator and practicing teachers with practical suggestions for helping strugglingreaders increase their awareness and use of reading strategies while reading foracademic purposes.
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Chapter One Literature Review
1.1 Reading Processes
According to Flavell (1976)，reading both in LI and L2，is a cognitive enterprisewhich occurs, in part, as a result of the active interaction among the reader, the text,and the context in which the reading takes place. According to Anderson (1999)reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading materialin building meaning. According to Carrel (2006)，reading competence and reading comprehension abilityare used interchangeably. Competence is used in references to linguistic knowledge,processing skills, and cognitive skills. It is believed that successful comprehensionemerges from the integrative interaction of dOTved text information and preexistingreader knowledge. It means that comprehension occurs when readers have been ableto extract 肪d integrate various information segments from the text and combine whattiiey have derived from the writtea text with what is already known to them. In thisview, it is believed that reading success is governed by three ccrapetency groups:visual information extraction, ino'emental information integration and text-meaningand prior-knowledge consolidation.
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1.2 Metacognition
Studies suggest that language learners have definite beliefs about ways of learninga language and that they are also capable of becoming aware of their mental processes,this awareness, and these beliefs, are collectively called 'metacognitive knowledge，，and defined by Flavelle(1979)，who invented the term ‘metacognition，，as consistingprimarily of an understanding or perception of the ways different factors act andinteract to affect the course and outcome of cognitive enterprise. Metacognition is a concept used to refer to a variety of epistemological processes.It refers to the second order cognitions; it essentially means cognition about cognition,thoughts about thoughts，knowledge about knowledge or reflections about actions. For:?.cognition involves thinking about perceiving, understanding remembering and soforth, metacognition involves thinking about one's own perceiving，understanding，remembering, etc..Flavell(1978) refers to it as knowledge that takes as its object or regulates anyaspect of any cognitive endeavor. Moore (1982) defines it as an individuarsknowledge about various aspects of thinking. It's also been described as the abilitiesof individuals to adjust their cognitive activitivies in order to promote more effectivecomprehension. The definition of metacognition according to Paris&Winograd( 1990)entails two featuresself appraisal and self-management of cognition. Self-appraisalsare peoples' personal reflections about own knowledge states and abilities，and theiraffective states concerning their knowledge, ability, motivation, and theircharacteristics as learners. Such reflections answer questions about, what you know,how you think and when and why to apply knowledge strategies. Self managementrefers to orchestrate aspects of problem-salving including the plms tbat learners makebefore tackling a task，the adjustment they make as they work and the revisions theymake afterwards.Gradually the definition of metacogaitio
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Chapter Three Results and Discussions........ 28
3.1 Status Quo of Non-English Majors' Metacognitive Awareness........28
3.2 Differences in the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies........ 35
3.2.1. Differences in the Metacognitive Awareness of Overall ReadingStrategies........ 36
3.2.2 Differences in the Metacognitive Awareness of Specific ReadingStrategies........ 39
3.3 Correlations between Metacognitive Awareness of Reading ........ 48
3.4 Summary ........ 50
Conclusions ........ 52
1. Major findings........ 52
2. Implications for Reading Instruction and Learning........ 54
2.1 Implications for Teachers in Reading Instruction........ 54
2.2 Implications for Students' Learning in the Reading Process........56
3. Limitations and Suggestions for Future Researches........ 57
Chapter Three Results and Discussions
3.1 Status Quo of Non-English Majors' Metacognitive
The first question of this research bears on the inquiry of non-English majors'metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. In this part, a detailed description ofstudents' status quo of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies will bepresented. What's more, their general reading comprehension ability level will beclassified into three levels according to the final reading comprehension test results interms of the extent to which their responses to each questions are coincide with thepreset answers. As it is shown in Table 3-1，144 valid students attend the reading comprehensiontest，however，the reading comprehension ability is not as good as the researcherexpected. The average level of individual reading comprehension ability test score is7,6528, which is quite low compared to the requirement of passing score of 60 percentaccuracy (20*60%). The scores range from a low of 2 to a high of 16. It signifies thefact that these students who have learned college English for almost 3 semestersremains unqualified for the CET4 in reading comprehension aspect. Their readingcomprehension ability needs improving.
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Conclusions
Reading is an essential language skill for students to enhance language proficiencyand increase knowledge storage. However, efficient reading involves great efforts ofthe readers. The whole reading process entails the initiation of the readers previousknowledge, the employment of certain strategies and the afterward evaluation as wellas the reflections. This research mainly explored the metacognitive awareness ofreading strategies of non-English majors. Students of different reading proficiency areof different tendency to use certain strategies in various reading stage. Theseindividual differences arouse the determination to deepen the students' awareness ofwhen, where and how to use strategies. Findings achieved in this research will besummarized. Lnplicaticns for teachers in the English reading instruction and forstudents in learning via reading are put forward. Limitations of this study will also bepresented. Some advices for the further study will be discussed in this chapter.
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Reference (omitted)