What is the role of metacognition in reading comprehension?
Metacognition is a term created by John Flavell in 1979. Metacognition refers to thinking about one’s thinking, and to the active control of one’s thinking. In the context of reading, it refers to thinking about and controlling one’s reading. Metacognition is an advanced cognitive process; however, there is ample evidence that young children plan, monitor, revise, and regulate their reading. The role of metacognition in reading comprehension may be described at two levels. At the macro-level (the level of text organization), readers rely upon the author’s organization of the text (headings, paragraph length, main ideas, and summaries) to get a sense of how to interpret the text. At the micro-level (the level of the sentence), readers endeavour to understand individual words and idea units in the context of their use, and to make sense of phrases and sentences in order to connect the text information with their relevant background knowledge. These connections require readers to attend t
