Reading, a literacy skill, is of great importance to all educational systems. Even in tertiary education, many EFL learners have trouble in reading academic texts in English, as they are often found to be using ineffective reading strategies. A review of relevant literature provides insights into a range of issues relating to the teaching of reading and the development of effective EFL reading strategies including metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. The present study investigated how frequently EFL learners studying in higher education institutions think they use selected EFL reading strategies. The study used MARSI, the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, a think-aloud instrument, on a sample of 74 tertiary level EFL learners for eliciting the subjects’ self-reports on their use of selected reading strategies on a Likert scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high). The findings reported that there is a high use of all the three types of reading strategies by Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Level EFL students in Oman. This study shows that there are no significant differences in the use of different types of reading strategies among learners of various levels.

Reading, a literacy skill, is of great importance to all educational systems. Even in tertiary education, many EFL learners have trouble in reading academic texts in English, as they are often found to be using ineffective reading strategies. A review of relevant literature provides insights into...