Improving EFL Students’ Reading Performance through Integrated Metacognitive and Pragmatic Instruction

This study investigates the effectiveness of an integrated metacognitive–pragmatic instructional approach in improving reading comprehension among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Although metacognitive strategy instruction and pragmatic awareness have been widely examined as separate components of EFL reading pedagogy, empirical evidence on their combined instructional impact remains limited, particularly in university contexts. To address this gap, the study employed a quasi-experimental mixed-methods design involving 60 undergraduate EFL students enrolled in a mandatory English course. Participants were assigned to an experimental group (n = 30), which received explicit instruction integrating metacognitive strategies (planning, monitoring, and evaluation) with pragmatic awareness (discourse markers, implicature, author stance, and contextual inference), and a control group (n = 30) that followed a conventional reading syllabus. Quantitative data were collected through pre- and post-reading comprehension tests, while qualitative data were obtained from reflective journals and classroom observations. Results indicated that the experimental group achieved significantly greater gains in reading comprehension than the control group (t(58) = 8.12, p < .001), with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 2.01). Qualitative findings revealed increased metacognitive regulation, greater sensitivity to discourse-level meaning, and more active interpretive reading behavior. These findings suggest that integrating metacognitive regulation with pragmatic awareness provides an effective framework for developing deeper reading comprehension in EFL contexts.