INTEGRATING COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THEIR COMPLEMENTARY ROLES IN NARRATIVE READING LITERACY

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of integrated cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies on eleventh-grade students’ narrative reading literacy at MAN 1 Trenggalek. The research question guiding the study was: Is there a significant difference in narrative reading literacy between students taught with integrated cognitive and metacognitive strategies and those receiving conventional instruction? A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design was employed. Sixty eleventh-grade students were assigned to an experimental group (n = 30) that received strategy-based instruction and a control group (n = 30) that received traditional teaching. Data were collected using a 20-item multiple-choice narrative reading test and analyzed through independent samples t-test and N-Gain. Results revealed a statistically significant difference between the groups (t = 5.090, df = 58, p = 0.000 < 0.05), with the experimental group outperforming the control group. The experimental group’s N-Gain score of 62.56% fell into the medium category, indicating meaningful improvement. These findings support the complementary roles of cognitive strategies (e.g., skimming, scanning, inferencing, summarizing) and metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, evaluation) in enhancing narrative reading literacy. Pedagogically, the results suggest that English teachers in Islamic senior high schools should systematically integrate both types of strategies to improve students’ comprehension of narrative texts.