A Closer Look at Gender and Strategy Use in L2 Reading

This study examines gender differences in cognitive and metacognitive strategy use in the context of an English as a foreign language reading comprehension test. Three hundred eighty‐four Thai university students took a multiple‐choice reading comprehension test, then completed a questionnaire on their strategy use. Gender differences were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance. Males and females did not differ in their reading comprehension performance and their use of cognitive strategies. Unexpectedly, males reported significantly higher use of metacognitive strategies than females. Within the same achievement groups (highly successful, moderately successful, and unsuccessful), however, there were no gender differences in either reading performance or use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The article discusses the implications for future gender‐based research.