English abstract
The present study aims at investigating the frequency and variety of reading strategies
used by Omani 10th grade students, their level of reading motivation and the relationship between them. The population of this study consisted of all Omani tenth grade students in Muscat Governorate. The sample consisted of 10% of the whole population. It included 879 male and female students during the academic year 2004-2005. Female students were 490 and male students were 389.
Two questionnaires were used in this study. The first questionnaire was used to measure the frequency of strategies used in reading English texts among Omani students. It consisted of two major categories: cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies each of which contained 15 items. The second questionnaire was adapted from Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) developed by Wigfield & Guthrie (1995). However, slight changes were made to suit Omani students learning English as a foreign language.
The following are the main findings of this study:
o Tenth grade Omani EFL students use cognitive and metacognitive strategies
* frequently. The findings indicate a positive correlation between cognitive and metacognitive strategies. There was a statistically significant difference between females and males on using cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Female students scored higher means in both strategies. There were significant differences between high and average achievers on one ewere hand and low achievers on the other hand in both cognitive and metacognitivestrategies. However, no significant differences were found between the high achievers and moderate achievers in both cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Tenth grade Omani EFL students perceived the importance of reading in English and girls had more reading motivation than boys.
High achievers are more motivated to read than moderate achievers and low achievers. There was a significant and positive correlation between cognitive strategies and reading motivation. There was also a significant and positive correlation between metacognitive strategies and reading motivation.
In light of these findings, there are some recommendations for EFL students, EFL some teachers, and EFL material designers and some recommendations for further research.
