Adult Disabled Readers' Metacognitive Awareness about Reading Tasks and Strategies

Adult good and poor readers' metacognitive awareness of task and strategy variables that influence reading was assessed in an interview study. Twenty-eight adult good readers and 28 adult poor readers answered questions about the effects of task parameters and cognitive strategies involved in reading. Although adult poor readers were sensitive to task parameters such as motivation, interest and prior knowledge they were less sensitive to the structure of paragraphs or stories than adult good readers. The most dramatic finding was that, in general, adult poor readers are not aware of strategy variables or their role in facilitating comprehension. Adult poor readers' metacognitive awareness about reading appears to be more like that of beginning readers as compared to that of sixth graders (Myers & Paris, 1978). Adult disabled readers perceive reading as a decoding process rather than as a meaning construction or comprehension task. The results of the present study demonstrate that adult disabled readers have a limited understanding of reading as a cognitive process.