Self-Efficacy and Metacognitive Strategy Use in Reading Comprehension: EFL Learners’ Perspectives

A review of the literature on second language learning indicates scanty skill-specific research related to efficacy beliefs and metacognitive strategy use, particularly in students’ English reading skills. This study, thus, investigated the influence of metacognitive strategies use and self-efficacy beliefs on EFL reading comprehension of 150 learners enrolled in three randomly-selected government high schools in Ethiopia. The study findings revealed that the participants used metacognitive reading strategies and self-efficacy at a moderate level, and problem-solving strategies were the most frequently utilized strategies when compared to global and support reading strategies. In addition, a significant positive relationship was unveiled among all the variables. Moreover, the analysis showed that metacognitive reading strategy use and efficacy belief jointly account for significant variance in students’ reading comprehension performance with self-efficacy being the stronger predictor. However, gender disparity was not detected in strategy use and self-efficacy beliefs. Results are discussed vis-à-vis implications and future research. © 2023, De La Salle University.