Abstract:
The purposes of this study were ( 1) to investigate what metacognitive reading
Strategies the third year students majoring in Business English use in reading business
Texts; (2) to invertigate the difficulties that these students encountered When reading
Business text; (3) to investigate the differences in the use of metacognitive strategies
Between high reading proficiency students (HRPSs) and low reading proficiency students
(LRPSs).
The sample were 36 third year students majoring in Business English at Buriram
Rajabhat University purposively seleted and divided in to two groups: 12 HRPSs and 15
LRPSs. The research instruments for data collection included: (1) MARSIS survey
Questionnaire, (2) TOEIC reading test, and (3) semi-structured interviews. The statistics
for data analysis included mean, standard deviation, and independent sample t test. The
significant difference was set at the level of .05.
The quantitative results showed that Business English University students used all
Three groups of metacognitive reading strategies at moderate levels. More specifically,
Problem solving reading strategies were reported as the most frequently used strategies;
Support reading strategies were the next most used strategies, and global reading strategies
The least employed. The HRPSs used problem solving reading strategies the most,
Followed by support reading strategies and global reading strategies; whereas, the LRPSs
Employed problem solving reading strategies the most, followed by global reading
Strategies and support reading Strategies, respectively. The order of use of the
Metacognitive reading strategy groups used by the HRPSs and LRPSs was similar.
However, the t-test results found that there were statistically similar in all of the three
Subsections reported to be used by the HRPSs and LRPSs.
The qualitative analysis of the results indicated that participating students of
different academic levels were of metacognitive reading strategies when engaged in
reading business texts. Key reading strategies used by these students included adjusting
reading speed and selecting strategies for different purposes, using prior knowledge,
inferring text, focusing on typographical features, and summarizing texts. When
encountering challenges in reading comprehension, the interviewed students said they
used context clues, re-read, and depended on supportive resources.This study provided
singnificant evidence that metacognitive strategies are important to students in their reading
business texts. They should use it both in reading and overcoming the problems in reading
English business texts.
Finally, pedagogical implication were suggested, such as L12 reading teachers
Might incorporate methods to teach theses metacognitive reading strategies directly and
explicitly to native speakers of students and also employ other instruments for assessing
studentsreading strategy use. Implication for further study, such as employing multiple
measurement, selecting a variety of reading business texts or unfamiliar business topic
texts with different levels of difficulty, and examining students from different contexts.