Metacognitive Reading Strategy and Reading Comprehension in Students With Autism Who Are English-Language Learners

Guided by Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s constructivist theories, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a metacognitive reading strategy on the reading comprehension skills of students with ASD ( autism spectrum disorder) in their school English course. The application of a scaffolding method was implemented by purposefully placing questions throughout the presented English reading text for the participants to comprehend. A single-participant design to evaluate the effectiveness of the metacognitive reading strategy was used in supporting the reading comprehension skills of EFL (English as a foreign language) students with autism. Two students who had the diagnosis of high functioning autism participated in the study. They were studying at 8th grade while they were included in regular school curriculum. These students showed increases in their reading comprehension skills after the intervention. They actively engaged in the learning process by not only listening to the presented content, but also answering the questions. The study had implications for autistic students’ social change in that it allows them greater opportunity to benefit from curriculum and instruction over time.

Keywords:

metacognitive reading strategies , constructivism , EFL(English as a foreign language , reading comprehension skills , ASD(autism spectrum disorder)