MOROCCAN EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ RELIANCE ON GOAL-SETTING AND BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN PROCESSING ENGLISH (L3) WRITTEN TEXTS: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY

Mohammed Msaddek

Abstract


The present study investigates the extent to which EFL university learners engage in metacognitive planning strategies for conducting the multifaceted process of reading in an effectual, self-regulated manner. Addressing this set objective, this exploratory study, which is part and parcel of my unpublished dissertation (defended in 2015) dealing with the interplay between metacognition and EFL reading, targeted 113 Moroccan English department students (Group 1: N=50; Group 2: N=63) pursuing their English Language Studies at the first-semester level. The data were elicited from the respondents employing two advanced-level EFL reading comprehension texts (i.e., narrative, expository) and a retrospective questionnaire. The attained results indicate that the targeted EFL groups (Group 1 & Group 2) did have recourse to their background knowledge as an efficient platform for generating an effective sense of the assigned written discourse without setting explicit, self-directed goals prior to processing the textual content. Thus, some pertinent recommendations falling within the parameters of pedagogy and research as well as a few limitations are presented.

 

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background knowledge, goal-setting, metacognition, planning strategies, textual reading

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v11i3.5230

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