Modeling the Effect of Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies, and L1 Reading Ability on Reading Comprehension in an EFL Context through Structural Equation Modeling

The recent developments in social sciences consider our understanding of the phenomena as meager and emphasize the chaos we may face in understanding the relationships among the variables of studies in language teaching (Larsen-Freeman, & Long, 2014). This study is an attempt to develop a model of EFL reading comprehension based on the pertinent factors reported in the literature. Thus, a default model of EFL reading comprehension encompassing first language reading comprehension and cognitive and metacognitive strategies together with their subcomponents was developed. To validate the model, the data gathered through convenient sampling from 280 male and female senior and junior students of Azad University of Shiraz were analyzed by AMOS. First, the model was checked by AMOS to see if the software can identify it. Then, the strength of each parameter was calculated and the non-significant parameters were discarded from the model. Finally, goodness-of-fit indices, comparative indices, and parsimonious indices were compared in the default and the revised model, all of which showed an improvement in the fitness of the revised model. A remarkable result was that the parameter from metacognitive strategies to EFL reading comprehension was discarded in the revised model, but the parameters from cognitive strategies to EFL and first language reading comprehension were maintained. This suggests that metacognition exerts its influence over EFL reading comprehension via cognitive strategies. The revised model can be useful for materials developers, teachers and examiners to have a better understanding of the variables contributing to EFL reading comprehension.