The reading competence in a foreign language (FL): a metacognitive perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to propose methodological guidelines aimed at developing the reading competence among foreign language students from a metacognitive perspective. In order to fulfill this objective four fundamental areas were explored: reading compertence, models and stages of the reading process, cognition and metacognition, as well as metacognitive strategies. The proposal focuses on recognizing, controlling, regulating and directing the reader’s learning process therefore it emphasizes on building the competence for discriminating and selecting appropriate strategies that enable readers to efficiently process the reading content and to carefully plan, select, monitor and assess the use of strategies. One of the main conclusions is that the implementation of the set of methodological guidelines will represent a concrete action that will contribute to increase the reader’s awareness regarding the stages involved in reading, the adoption of a critical attitude towards L2 written discourse processing, and the application of metacognitive control so as to foster learner’s autonomy.