Postgraduate English Students’ Reading Comprehension and Content Retention across Major: Links to Metacognitive Strategy Use

Reading comprehension (RC) is of paramount importance for English learners at the postgraduate level who are expected to engage with complex technical texts, critically analyze scholarly articles, conduct extensive research, and effectively share their findings through writing. The purpose of the current ex-post-facto descriptive study was to assess Postgraduate English students’ RC in relation to their awareness of metacognitive reading strategies and the content retention (CR) of technical course content across major. To this end a purposive sample of ۷۱ English language teaching (ELT) and literature (EL) students were selected to participate in the study. The research data were gleaned through a standardized RC test, the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies inventory (MARSI), and four process-oriented essay type syllabus-based tests along with two final exams that were administered to both groups. The statistical analyses of the research data indicated significant positive but weak relationship between RC and CR in both groups and significant, positive, and strong relationship between the EL students’ RC and MARSs. The findings will be discussed in relation to the factors that can impact retention of postgraduate course content.

کلیدواژه ها:

Content Retention ، Metacognitive strategies ، Postgraduate English Students ، reading comprehension