Latest Update on Title, ROs and RQs

Work in Progress 5

The latest update regarding my research title, research objectives and research questions are as follows:

Title: Effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies in Enhancing Reading Comprehension

Research Objectives

The study will specifically be conducted to fulfill the following objectives: 

1. To study the metacognitive strategies for reading that are used most by the learners.
2. To investigate the effectiveness of metacognitive strategies in enhancing learners’ reading comprehension. 

Research Questions 

Based on the research objectives stated, the research will attempt to answer these three questions: 

1. What are the metacognitive strategies that are used most by the learners in reading? 
2. Is there any different in terms of performance on reading comprehension between the two groups?

Data Analysis

Reflection 5

Data analysis is never an easy topic for me, ever since I first learned it when doing my degree. However, despite saying that, I am not bad with SPSS. I know how to use SPSS quite well. My problem would be in analyzing the result. I am not so sure on how to interpret the result, like whether a relationship is significant or not, or whether something actually affects the other.  

Also, I do have issues in deciding whether I am choosing the right test for the right purpose. Of course, after listening to your lecture as well as preparing the summary, I have refreshed my memory on that (from my degree years). Definitely I will still to read more before I can decide on my data analysis procedure.

As for now, I am following quite well. I understand the difference between ordinal, nominal, interval and ratio as how I would need to know if I were to key-in the data into SPSS and I understand the use of standard deviation and mean (which is quite familiar to me since I am teaching Language Tests in School to Diploma in TESL students). Standard deviation basically describes the variability of the scores or the spread of the data. The bigger the SD, the more the variability and the further they might be from the mean.

The practice definitely helps, though I was a bit confused on how to decide which class did better. From my readings, it would have probably been easier to decide if we were told whether the distribution was normal or not, I think. Because if the SD is bigger, it means that the scores could be further from the mean, however, it could also mean that the scores are further towards the lower scores, right? At least that is what I understand. Not sure if that will help either, though. However, the practice does help.

All in all, the summary helps a lot even though at times, when my workload from work is too much to handle, the summary is too tedious to complete. But I have to admit and I understand that the idea behind it is to get us to read. At one point, it does work.

Instrument for Research

Work in Progress 4

As stated in the previous post, I am planning to do a research on the Effectiveness of Metacognitive Strategies in Enhancing Reading Comprehension. For this particular research, I have found an existing instrument to be adapted or probably adopted for my research.

I believe that this instrument is suitable to check the participants' practice of metacognitive strategies in reading, while the participants' improvement will be measured by looking at their performance after the intervention has taken place.

The instrument chosen was created by Kouider Mokhtari and Carla Reichard (2002). 

They named the inventory as Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Version 1.0. Link is as stated below.

Link: Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) Version 1.0

Reliability and Validity

Reflection 4(ii)

Reliability and validity is a very interesting concept to me as I am teaching Language Test to my Diploma in TESL students. From my understanding and of course, from the lesson in class, this is what I understand about reliability and validity.

Reliability is more on the consistency of the result. Say, if I were to give out the questionnaire today, would the result be the same if I were to give the questionnaire tomorrow.

Validity on the other hand, is on whether I am testing the right thing; or the extend to which the test measures what it intends to measure. Say, if I were to measure someone's reading ability, the test given must be specific on reading. If a test on writing were given for this particular purpose, the this is not valid.

That is why, for my research, I would prefer to use an existing instrument. This is because, existing instruments would usually have a higher level of reliability and validity, thus making the result more accurate and significant. 

Research Designs

Reflection 4(i)

The previous lesson was on research methodologies. On the very basis, I do understand how each research methodologies function and the different purpose of the methodologies, thanks to the Introduction to Research course during our degree years.

If I were asked whether I am more comfortable doing a quantitative research or qualitative research, I would say that I am definitely more comfortable doing a quantitative research. I am saying this for two reasons:

1. I am a more technical person in the sense that I want facts and figures more than my own observation.
2. My research for my degree was quantitative in nature and I am quite familiar on how to discuss my findings when it is quantitative rather than qualitative. Even though I am a TESL student, I tend to like numbers better, for some reason.

As for the methodology, definitely my attention was more on my planned research which will be using the experimental research. I am a bit worried on how I am going to carry out the research due to several factors:

1. I am afraid that I might not teach the subject that I am researching on, and thus I will have issues in executing the intervention (strategy training).
2. I have never done a research using experimental methodology, therefore, I am still figuring out on how to avoid having other factors influencing my results - extraneous variable. I have yet to figure out on how to control that.