Abstract
The present study is based on a ten-month extensive reading program for all the first-year students at a senior high school. The students' awareness of reading strategies as a kind of metacognitive activity was examined through two investigations involving the use of cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. In the first investigation, the first-year students, who attended the extensive reading program, were compared with second-year students at the same school, who had not been exposed to extensive reading. In the second investigation, which was conducted in the following year, the students who attended another extensive reading program as an elective course in their second year as well were compared with those who did not take the course. From the results of these investigations, we can infer that learners acquired some reading strategies in the earlier stages of the extensive reading experience and became aware of others in the later stages. Further, the learners showed confidence in the use of global strategies and awareness of progress in the use of these strategies. The present study suggests that the metacognition of reading strategies is related to learners' reading ability and their experience of extensive reading. It also suggests that confidence in the use of reading strategies might be more related to learners' experience of extensive reading than to their reading ability.
