The Efficacy of Metalinguistic Awareness and English Language Teaching Quality on Learners’ Reading Skill Development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36312/f4a9jq20Keywords:
Metalinguistic awareness, ELT quality, EFL learners, Reading development, Multilingual educationAbstract
Metalinguistic awareness has been recognized as an important cognitive-linguistic capacity that enables learners to consciously analyze and manipulate language structures during foreign language learning. However, limited studies have examined how metalinguistic awareness interacts with English language teaching quality within multilingual EFL contexts. This study aimed to investigate how metalinguistic awareness and English language teaching quality contribute to learners’ English reading development. A qualitative research design was employed involving 29 EFL learners from Indonesia and Morocco. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations and analyzed using thematic analysis involving data condensation, data display, and conclusion verification. The findings revealed that metalinguistic awareness supported reading development by enabling learners to analyze vocabulary, recognize morphological patterns, interpret sentence structures, and construct meaning from texts. English language teaching quality strengthened this process through explicit explanation, cognitive questioning, feedback, and opportunities for linguistic reflection. Comparative findings showed that Indonesian learners relied mainly on Indonesian and local languages, while Moroccan learners utilized Arabic, Amazigh, and French as linguistic resources for English learning. The study concludes that reading development in EFL contexts is shaped by the interaction between learners’ internal linguistic awareness, instructional quality, and multilingual environments. The findings imply that EFL instruction should integrate metalinguistic activities with context-sensitive pedagogical practices to promote deeper language learning.
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