AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN READING ENGLISH OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS AT ULIS a CASE STUDY = sử DỤNG CHIẾN THUẬT SIÊU NHẬN THỨC TRONG KHI đọc TIẾNG ANH của SINH VIÊN KHIẾM THỊ ở TR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN
READING ENGLISH OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED
STUDENTS AT ULIS - A CASE STUDY

Supervisor:

Cao Thúy Hồng (Ph.D)

Student:

Nguyễn Linh Giang

Class:

QH2017.F1.E6

HA NOI - 2021


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN THUẬT SIÊU NHẬN THỨC TRONG
KHI ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN KHIẾM THỊ Ở
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ NGHIÊN CỨU TRƯỜNG HỢP ĐIỂN HÌNH
Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Cao Thúy Hồng (T.S)
Sinh viên: Nguyễn Linh Giang
Lớp: QH2017.F1.E6

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2021


ACCEPTANCE PAGE
I hereby state that I: Nguyen Linh Giang – QH12017.F1.E6, being a candidate for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Mainstream program) accept the requirements of
the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper
deposited in the library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or
reproduction of the paper.

Signature

Date: June 9 2021


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank all people whose help contributed significantly to the
completion of my thesis.

First and foremost, I want to express a heartfelt gratitude to my dedicated
supervisor, Dr. Cao Thuy Hong for her tremendous support, both mentally and
academically. Without her guidance, I would never be able to finish my thesis. She
was always patient, magnanimous and encouraging, helping me believe in myself
when I faced up with many difficulties. She is more than a supervisor to me because
she treated me with tolerance like my mother.
Secondly, I am grateful to Minh Nguyet and Thu Phuong for giving me so
much invaluable advice and materials. Moreover, my sincere thanks go to three
participants and my close friends including Thanh, Ngoc, Loan, Sang, Minh Anh for
their kindness and willingness to help whenever I needed. I also wish to send my
deep appreciation to Nha Uyen for being my lifesaver and inspiration.
Last but not least, I am indebted to my family, especially my mother who
always stood by me and provided every condition to facilitate my process of writing
the thesis.

i


ABSTRACT
No longer is metacognitive strategy an unfamiliar concept but it has never
stopped to attract researchers’ attention. Metacognitive strategies, in short, is
“thinking about thinking” which means the process to plan, monitor and evaluate
one’s performance (Chick & Taylor, 2013). This research aims at finding the
metacognitive strategies employed by visually impaired students and factors
influencing their choice of strategies. By using qualitative approach and case study
design, the researcher attempted to analyze data from interviews and two kinds of
think-aloud protocol. Findings reveal that visually impaired students applied all
metacognitive reading strategies. However they mostly showed a frequency of use in
planning including advanced organizing, selective attention and directed attention.
Moreover, they also used problem-solving strategies to compensate for their

disability. Regarding factors influencing their choice of metacognitive reading
strategies, the researcher discovered six factors comprising nature of the disability,
learning styles, motivation and interest, lexical range, self-efficacy and technological
hindrance. Some implications for visually impaired students, teachers, curriculum
developer and policy developers are also specified.
Keywords: metacognitive reading strategies, visually impaired students

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.................................................................................... v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 1
1.1

Statement of the problems and rationale for the study ...................................... 1

1.2

Research aims and research questions ................................................................. 3

1.3

Scope of the study ................................................................................................... 3

1.4

Significance of the research ................................................................................... 3

1.5

Organzation ............................................................................................................ 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................... 5
2.1

Definition of key concepts ...................................................................................... 5
Visual impairment............................................................................................. 5
Metacognition ................................................................................................... 6
Meta-cognitive strategies .................................................................................. 7
Metacognitive reading strategy ......................................................................... 7

2.2

Use of metacognitive strategy and reading comprehension ............................... 8

2.3

Framework of the study......................................................................................... 9

Research question 1: What are the metacognitive strategies employed by
visually impaired students in reading English? ............................................................... 9
Research question 2: What are the factors that affected their choice of
metacognitive strategies? ............................................................................................... 14
2.4

Research gap ......................................................................................................... 14

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 16
3.1

Research participants and sampling .................................................................. 16

3.2

Qualitative research approach ............................................................................ 17

3.3

Case-study research design ................................................................................. 18

3.4

Data collection methods and procedure ............................................................. 18

iii


Data collection instruments ............................................................................ 18
3.5

Data analysis procedure and methods................................................................ 22
Thematic Analysis .......................................................................................... 22
Procedure of data analysis .............................................................................. 23

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................... 26
4.1
Question 1: What are the metacognitive strategies employed by visually
impaired students in reading English? .......................................................................... 26
Case 1: Moon - The advanced organizer ........................................................ 26
Case 2: Susan - an average planner ................................................................ 30
Case 3: Lily - an inconsistent monitor ............................................................ 32
Cross-case analysis and discussion ................................................................. 34
4.2

What are the factors that affected their choice of metacognitive strategies? . 35
Nature of the disability ................................................................................... 39
Learning styles ................................................................................................ 40
Motivation and interest ................................................................................... 41
Lexical range................................................................................................... 43
Self-efficacy .................................................................................................... 44
Technological hindrance ................................................................................. 45

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 48
5.1

Summary of key findings ..................................................................................... 48

5.2

Implication ............................................................................................................ 48
For students ..................................................................................................... 49
For teachers ..................................................................................................... 49
For curriculum developers and policy developers .......................................... 50

5.3

Limitations of the study ....................................................................................... 50

5.4

Suggestions for future research .......................................................................... 51

REFERENCES.................................................................................................................... 52
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................... 59
APPENDIX 1 – CONSENT LETTER .............................................................................. 59
APPENDIX 2 – STUDENT INTERVIEW PROTOCOL ................................................ 61
APPENDIX 3 – READING COMPREHENSION TEST ................................................ 64

iv


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 2.1. Category of visual impairment ................................................................... 6
Table 2.2. O’Malley and Chamot L2 learning strategy framework .......................... 10
Table 2.3. A framework of the first research question.............................................. 12
Table 3.1. The profiles of three participants ............................................................. 17
Table 3.2. Description of the reading comprehension test ........................................ 20
Table 3.3. 6 phases of thematic analysis procedure (Braun & Clarke, 2006)........... 23
Table 3.4. O’Malley and Chamot’s classification of ................................................ 24
Table 3.5. Examples of coding process ..................................................................... 25
Table 4.1. Key factors affecting choice of metacognitive strategies ........................ 36
Figure 2.1. Factors affecting students’ metacognitive learning strategies ................ 14
Figure 3.1. Data collection procedure ....................................................................... 22

v


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CAE: Certificate in Advanced English
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ESL: English as a Second Language
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
JAWS: Job Access With Speech
L2: Second Language
TAP: Think-aloud protocol
ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies
VSTEP: Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency
WHO: World Health Organization

vi


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter aims at stating the rationales behind the researcher’s decision to
conduct the study, proposing the aim and two research questions. Moreover, the
scope and the contribution of the study are mentioned. Finally, the organization of
the research is summarized at the end of the chapter.
1.1 Statement of the problems and rationale for the study
There has been an international shift from the pursuit of the best teaching
method to focus on how successful teachers and learners actually achieve their goals
in second language teaching (Schreurs & Dumbraveanu, 2013). It is in line with the
change from teacher-centeredness to learner-centeredness, which considers learners
as the core of teaching-learning process. A variety of previous studies have stated that
one of the most pivotal factors that impact learners’ performance is their choice of

learning strategies (Rubin, 1975; Oxford, 1990 & Nunan 1991).
When it comes to reading, the burgeoning demand for understanding the
strategies that learners used to improve their reading comprehension and factors that
underpins their use of these strategies have been widely discussed (Sarỗoban, 2002;
Ozek & Civelek, 2006; Li, 2010). Students who are aware of their cognitive behaviors
and are in control of their strategy use throughout all stages of the reading process
have been found to attain better performance than those without such thinking
(Hoang, 2019). In other words, the role of metacognitive reading strategies - those
strategies designed to increase a readers’ knowledge of awareness and control, to
improve their reading comprehension, and to evaluate whether their attempts at
comprehension have been successful (Usman, Zulfadli & Absida, 2017) - in
facilitating students’ reading comprehension is somewhat undeniable.

1


However, most of current research on metacognitive reading strategies at the
moment have been conducted on normal students. Research on reading strategies in
general and metacognitive reading strategies particularly of visually impaired students
are almost undetectable. With their typical disability, it is almost certain that the way
visually impaired students read would differ significantly from that of normal students
(Setiawan, Adnyani & Suprianti, 2020). The way they think about reading, organize,
and evaluate their reading (i.e., metacognitive strategies) would be different too
(Kartikasari & Lestiono, 2017). In order to support visually impaired students with
their reading comprehension, understanding about visually impaired students’ choice
of metacognitive reading strategies as well as factors that impact their choice of
strategies is of great importance.
University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) has enrolled
disabled students since 2014 and become one of a few universities in Vietnam that
accept students with disabilities in general and ones with visual impairments in

particular. ULIS’s development philosophy is “Creating opportunities together”,
which aims at granting chances and assistance for all students, regardless of their
distinct characteristics (Do, n.d). Towards an inclusive learning environment, the
researcher realized the importance of paying attention to a prominent problem that
they concern about, which was reading skill.
From the observation of the researcher, who has the opportunity to study and
befriend a classmate with visual impairment for four years, those students are facing
numerous hindrances in reading English since the normal curricula and materials are
designed for mainstream students. In order to read and understand learning materials
and tests, they have to use a special software on Laptop to assist them which is Job
Access With Speech (JAWS). It can affect their process of reading considerably.
Visually impaired students have to adapt to the environment by changing their reading

2


routines compared to other students in some certain ways. The researcher chose the
topic “An investigation into the use of metacognitive strategies in reading English
of visually impaired students at ULIS - a case study” with a view to calling more
attention to this small number of students and exploring their use of metacognitive
reading strategies.
1.2 Research aims and research questions
The research aims to identify the types of metacognitive strategies that visually
impaired students used in reading English as well as factors that affected their choices
of strategies. Specifically, it seeks answers to the following research questions:
-

What are the metacognitive strategies employed by visually impaired students
in reading English?

-

What are the factors that affected their choice of metacognitive strategies?

1.3 Scope of the study
Due to its limited scope and time, this research only focused on metacognitive
strategies, other aspects of metacognition such as metacognitive knowledge were not
included. Furthermore, only meta-cognitive strategies in reading comprehension were
investigated; meta-cognitive strategies that visually impaired students used in other
skills such as listening, writing and speaking were not within the scope of this study
either.
1.4 Significance of the research
Currently, research drawing attention to visually impaired students mainly
includes how they acquire a second language (Tran & Pho, 2020; Attachoo &
Sitthitikul, 2021) and how teachers can teach them effectively (Donley, 2002;
Başaran, 2012). However, studies that looked at meta-cognitive strategies used by
visually impaired students in reading English as a foreign language have been scarce.

3


Therefore, this study would bring useful insights into an area which so far has been
under-investigated. Findings from the study would have important implications for
both visually impaired students and their teachers. Visually impaired students would
be more informed of meta-cognitive strategies that may work for them. Teachers of
these students may also use findings from this research to inform their instructions
(i.e., choice of reading materials, design of classroom activities, as well as ensuring
fair assessment of these students’ reading ability). Moreover, this study would inform
a more inclusive approach to teaching English in general and reading comprehension
in particular to visually impaired students. Sightless students own some distinct

features that need paying particular attention to when they study with other
mainstream students. Those can be referred to in the implications of this research.
1.5 Organzation
The rest of the paper comprises the following chapters.
Chapter 2: Literature Review – reviews relevant literature done previous to
this research, including the definitions of key terms and the framework of the study.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology – introduces the case study research
design, the setting and participants of the study, followed by the data collection and
data analysis procedure.
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion – presents the results of each case,
cross-case analysis and discussion for research question 1. For research question 2,
results of each finding and discussion will be displayed simultaneously.
Chapter 5: Conclusions – summarises important findings, provides the
implications for students, teachers, curriculum developers and policy developers.
Some limitations of the study will be mentioned as well as suggestions for future
studies will be proposed.

4


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews key concepts that help understand about the topic
including visual impairment, metacognition and metacognitive strategies in reading.
Moreover, previous studies about the use of metacognitive reading strategies will also
be inspected.
2.1 Definition of key concepts
Visual impairment
2.1.1.1 Definition
According to World Health Organization (WHO) in 2007, “‘Low vision’ is
defined as visual acuity of less than 6/18 but equal to or better than 3/60, or a

corresponding visual field loss to less than 20°, in the better eye with the best possible
correction. ‘Blindness’ is defined as visual acuity of less than 3/60, or a corresponding
visual field loss to less than 10°, in the better eye with the best possible correction. ‘Visual
impairment’ includes both low vision and blindness.”

In education, visual impairment and blindness are two conditions leading to
special education needs, “an impairment in vision which, even after correction,
adversely affects educational performance” (Castellano, 2015, p.15, as cited in
Hoang, 2020). He also mentioned the use of alternative skills and tools to compensate
or supplement eyesight with a view to acquiring information or performing tasks. To
put it simply, a person is visually impaired if without special aid, he or she cannot
read printed text normally.
2.1.1.2 Types of visual impairment
The International Classification of Diseases 11 (2020) divided visually
impairment into four levels including:

5


(1) Mild vision impairment
(2) Moderate visual impairment
(3) Severe visual impairment
(4) Blindness
There is a similar category of vision impairment (Manal, 2012, as cited in
Hoang, 2020) which is presented below.
Table 2.1. Category of visual impairment
Type

Description

Partially sighted

have difficulties in seeing and reading information and
require special assistance with learning and reading

Low vision

be impossible to read at normal distances, have to use
supportive tools to read and see in the environment

Legally blind

have a vision less than 20/200 and a limited range of
vision, cannot see things clearly whether it is near or far

Totally blind

have no vision, be unable to process images and learn
through non visual resources, including Braille

Metacognition
Since there are numerous studies about metacognition and metacognitive
strategies, their definitions are also widely discussed. This term was first invented by
Flavell in the middle of 1970s. He considered metacognition as a promising area to
discover, it is “where the action is” (p.906). Kuhn (2000) summarised his definition
in stating that metacognition reflects, monitors or regulates first-order cognition”
(p.178). According to Byrd, Carter, and Waddoups (2001), it is accounted as selfawareness of mental processes. Metacognition has another way of conclusion which
is thinking about cognitive behaviors, a higher level of cognition. (Anderson, 2002).

6

Meta-cognitive strategies
From the perspective of a native English speaker, Purpura (1999) found that
metacognitive strategies impact significantly, positively and directly on cognitive
strategy use, providing clear evidence that the use of metacognitive strategy has an
executive function over cognitive strategy use in task completion. Moreover, studies
on the use of meta-cognitive strategies among EFL learners in various countries (e.g.,
in South Africa, Dreyer & Oxford, 1996; and in Turkey, Oxford, Judd, & Giesen,
1998) have homogenously suggested that metacognitive strategies are often strong
predictors of second language proficiency. To be specific, Ahmadi, Ismail and
Abdullah (2013) affirmed that metacognitive strategies are strategies that help
students regulate or monitor cognitive strategies. They are the notions of thinking
about thinking, and are defined as, planned, intentional, goal directed, and futureoriented mental processing that can be used to accomplish cognitive tasks (Ahmadi,
et al, 2013). In the overall learning process, metacognitive strategies are employed for
managing it well (Goctu, 2017).
Metacognitive reading strategy
According to Aebersold and Field (1997), reading strategies are “the mental
activities that the readers use in order to construct meaning from a text” (p. 14). The
definition of metacognitive reading strategy in foreign language learning has been
emphasized by many researchers. O’Malley and Chamot (1990) defined
metacognitive strategies as strategies which students use to plan, monitor, and
evaluate their learning goals and processes.judd Besides, Oxford (1990) considers
metacognitive strategies as indirect ones because they facilitate language learning
without direct involvement of the target language. In fact, readers in dealing with a
real text encounter different problems and understanding the reasons behind their use
is of great importance. From a metacognitive perspective of Pressley and Afflerbach

7

(1995), a good reader is a person who employs these strategies in text wherever
necessary and tries to make full use of them.
2.2 Use of metacognitive strategy and reading comprehension
It can be seen that metacognitive strategies captured the attention of numerous
researchers, therefore many studies have been carried out to examine the correlation
between the use of metacognitive reading strategies and reading comprehension by
learners.
Research on that relationship has progressed through several different stages.
During the early stages, research focused on the investigation of the relationship
between metacognition and reading comprehension from the developmental
perspective. Brown (1980), Baker and Brown (1984) were among the first influential
researchers in this field. They concluded that young students were ignorant of the
effectiveness of metacognitive strategies. They were unaware of when they started
comprehending or what influenced their process. They also lacked self-evaluation for
not knowing how to fix the problems.
Mokhtari and Reichard (2004) later on also raised a question whether
remarkable differences exist between native and second language readers in their
metacognitive awareness and perceived use of specific strategies while they were
reading academic materials in English. To make it more specific, this study examined
350 college students, including 141 American and 209 Moroccan students. They were
provided with a survey designed to measure their metacognitive awareness of reading
strategies. The results revealed that despite the fact that two groups studied in
significantly different socio-cultural environments, they reported considerably similar
patterns of strategy awareness and use while reading for academic purposes. Both
groups demonstrated a moderate to high awareness level of reading strategies.
Concerning the types of strategies reported by the subjects, Moroccan students

8

reported using certain types of strategies (i.e. problem-solving strategies) more often
than their American counterparts.
Concerning the most used strategies among students learning English as a
foreign language (EFL) and those learning English as a second language (ESL),
Karbalaei (2010) suggested that reading slowly and carefully or re-reading for better
understanding was most popular while other strategies such as summarizing,
underlining, or note-taking were not so well applied.
2.3 Framework of the study
Research question 1: What are the metacognitive strategies employed by
visually impaired students in reading English?
According

to

Oxford

(1990),

metacognitive

strategies

in

reading

comprehension are proposed as follows:
a) clarifying the purposes of reading;
b) identifying the important aspects of a message;

c) monitoring ongoing activities to determine whether comprehension is occurring;
d) engaging in self questioning to determine whether goals were being achieved, and
e) taking corrective action when failures in comprehension were detected.
In O’Mally and Chamot’s framework (1990), language learning strategies are
divided into three main categories: (1) metacognitive strategies; (2) cognitive
strategies; and (3) social/affective strategies. The table below shows how O’Mally
and Chamot divide metacognitive strategies into smaller strategies.

9


Table 2.1. O’Malley and Chamot L2 learning strategy framework
Learning Strategy

Definition

MA. Metacognitive

Thinking about the learning process, planning information,
monitoring the learning task and evaluating how well one
has started.

Planning

Advance organizers

Previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material to
be learned, often by skimming the text for the organizing
principle.

Directed attention

Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task
and to ignore the irrelevant distracters.

Functional planning

Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components
necessary for an upcoming task.

10


Selective attention

Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input,
often by scanning for key words, concepts and/or linguistic
markers.

Self-management

Understanding the conditions that help one’s learning and
arranging for the presence of those conditions.

Monitoring

Self-monitoring

Checking one’s comprehension during listening or reading
or checking the accuracy and/or appropriateness of one’s

oral or written production while it is taking place.

Evaluating

Self-evaluation

Checking the outcomes of one’s own language against a
standard after it has been completed.

Framework of Oxford’s and O’Malley and Chamot contain almost all the
same categories, such as having a clear purpose in mind about the key concepts of
the reading text, keeping track of what is going on, self-questioning when a problem
arises and self-evaluating after finishing reading. However, O’Malley and Chamot

11


sorted the framework more particularly and gave a more vivid explanation about
each subcategory.
To answer the first research question, the researcher chose to adapt the
framework of O’Malley and Chamot (1990) as they divided metacognitive strategies
which are equivalent to three stages of the reading process: Planning - Pre-reading
and While-Reading, Monitoring - While-reading and Evaluating - Post-reading.
They help the researcher find it easy to follow in the think-aloud protocol later.
However, the researcher did not choose all items in that framework but eliminated
some irrelevant ones to reading skills including “Functional planning” and “Selfmanagement”. These two skills were two broad and did not reflect directly the
reading process. Therefore, the framework used for research question 1 is presented
below.
Table 2.2. A framework of the first research question
Learning Strategy

Definition

Metacognitive

Thinking

about

the

reading strategies

information, monitoring the learning task and evaluating
how well one has started.

Planning

12

learning

process,

planning


Advance organizers

Previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material to

be learned, often by skimming the text for the organizing
principle.

Directed attention

Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task
and to ignore the irrelevant distracters.

Selective attention

Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input,
often by scanning for key words, concepts and/or
linguistic markers.

Monitoring

Self-monitoring

Checking one’s comprehension during listening or
reading or checking the accuracy and/or appropriateness
of one’s oral or written production while it is taking place.

Evaluating

Self-evaluation

Checking the outcomes of one’s own language against a
standard after it has been completed.

13

Research question 2: What are the factors that affected their choice of
metacognitive strategies?
To find the answers to question 2, the researcher adopted the framework of
Owusu and Cobbold (2020) as this is the most suitable framework aiming at factors
directly affecting choice of metacognitive learning strategies.
Figure 2.1. Factors affecting students’ metacognitive learning strategies

In the framework, there are four main factors influencing students’ choice of
metacognitive learning strategies which are “teaching method, learning style,
motivation and student-status”. They are separate factors but have a relation with each
other. As can be seen in the figure, teaching method influences students’ learning
style, their learning style has an impact on motivation and motivation affects studentstatus.
2.4 Research gap
As could be observed above, studies about metacognitive strategies on normal
students have been investigated numerously. However, studies that targeted the use
of metacognitive reading strategies by visually impaired students are considerably

14


fewer than those of normal students. Those that are applicable to Vietnamese context
are even harder to be found.
Due to their lack of exposure to reading, it is likely that the strategies that these
students employ would also be different from that of normal students. This research
thus would provide a much-needed insights into visually impaired students’ choice of
meta-cognitive reading strategies. Findings from the study would have important
implications for visually impaired students, their teachers, as well as policy makers
and curriculum developers.

Moreover, that metacognitive reading strategies affect reading comprehension
(Eilers & Pinkley, 2006; Nergis, 2013; Yang & Zhang, 2002) and reading
achievement (Berkowitz & Cicchelli, 2004; Ling (2011) have been remarkably
proved. However, in reverse order, factors impact the choice of metacognitive reading
strategies are uncertain to be asserted. Few studies pointed out that the two-way
relationship could be true.

15


CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher provides the description and justification of the
research design as well as participants and sampling. Next, the data collection and
data analysis procedure are presented.
3.1 Research participants and sampling
The researcher used convenience sampling because it was the easiest and
fastest way to approach the target population. Moreover, convenience sampling is
often used for case study research (Cohen, Manion & Morrison (2007). Participants
chosen are three students studying at the same faculty that the researcher is learning,
which created a belief among the researcher and participants. Moreover, this is the
sensitive population and they may shy away from people having no connections,
which was also stated by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007). Three participants
were also ones who inspired the researcher to conduct the study, therefore they were
the most suitable participants that the researcher aimed at. All students are females
and have visual impairments since their early age. This population satisfies the criteria
of the research, which are having the targeted physical characteristic and being willing
to join in in-depth interviews and think-aloud protocol to cooperate with the
researcher. Since there are only three students having visual impairments in the
faculty, they are all selected to participate in the research.
All participants are students of the same faculty majoring in English. They

experienced two first years of studying English as a foreign language with focus on
four skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. After that, they continued to learn
theoretical knowledge about English language teaching in order that they could apply
it in English teaching career. The university required them to achieve a C1 certificate
in their language proficiency. Regarding reading ability, they are also expected to be
able to read all materials fluently from academic materials to comprehension tests.

16