DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL ACADEMIC READING SKILLS OF PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS THROUGH METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY INSTRUCTION WITHIN CBI

Abstract

The article maintains that metacognitive reading strategies constitute the missing "process layer" in content-based instruction (CBI) for students who are not studying philology and suggests a model in which these strategies are incorporated into ESP reading for first-year psychology students. Research concerning ESP reading indicates that giving students explicit instruction in metacognition enhances their comprehension (Ajideh et al., 2018), although learners who are given only the subject matter usually do not manage to develop an understanding of the genre on their own (Shirav, 2023). Moreover, survey data reveal that ESP learners tend to rely too much on repair strategies and do not make adequate use of global planning and evaluating strategies (Khoshsima & Amiri Samani, 2015).

The article introduces the CBI-Metacognitive Reading (CBI-MR) model, which connects genuine psychology texts such as textbook chapters, research abstracts and empirical reports with a three-phase strategy cycle of planning, monitoring and evaluating, via the CALLA instructional sequence.

The article states that CBI is most effective in developing professional academic reading when discipline-specific content is combined with clear and repeated training in how to read that content and it suggests some practical implications for the design of ESP syllabi, for the development of teaching materials and for preparing teachers in Uzbek higher education.