Investigating metacognitive awareness level of EFL students in using reading strategies

English language is generally called as Lingua Franca, which is learned as a second language or foreign language in most of the world. In our country, students officially begin learning English in the 2nd grade of primary school. From the 2nd grade to the 12th grade, English is taught as foreign language. After their high school education, students, also, continue learning English as a selective or compulsory course during their university education. Upon speaking with other colleagues, the researcher has decided on conducting a study on metacognitive awareness of learners in reading. The participants of the study were 260 randomly chosen preparatory class students a state university locating in the eastern part of Turkey. For the purpose of assessing their metacognitive awareness levels and reading strategies, the participants were applied MARSI scale (Metacognitive Awareness on Reading Strategies Inventory) developed by Mokhtari and Reichard (2002). Additionally, interviews were carried out with 31 randomly selected participants to see their supposedly reading difficulties and some beliefs in English language. One-way ANOVA and Independent Sample T-test were applied to the inventory. There appeared a statistically significant difference in terms of gender on behalf of females. That is, their metacognitive awareness and frequency of use of reading strategies were more than males. However, there was no difference between participants in terms of department. Moreover, it was observed that the students use Global Reading Strategies, which is one of subcategories of the scale, more commonly. Consequently, it was concluded that while gender played a significant role on students' metacognitive reading strategy use, department did not so. Besides, it was found out that students used some strategies more than the other during their reading development processes.