الفهرس 
Study Problem and its ContextOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The summary of the study including the problem of the study, purpose, participants, questions, and the results.
a. Problem
The problem of this study can be identified in the poor performance of EFL reading comprehension skills and metacognitive awareness of EFL prospective teachers enrolled in the Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University. This problem was proved by the results of the pilot study conducted by the researcher. Thus, in an attempt to face such a problem, the present study aimed at investigating the cognitive learning-centered approach to enhance reading comprehension skills and metacognitive awareness for EFL prospective teachers.
b. Purpose
The main purpose of the present study was to enhance EFL reading comprehension skills and metacognitive awareness for EFL prospective teachers using the cognitive learning-centered approach.
c. Particpants
Participants of the study included 40 EFL prospective teachers enrolled at the Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University during the Academic year 2022/2023 ( the second semester).
d. Questions
The present study attempts to answer the following main question:
What is the effect of utilizing the cognitive learning-centered approach on enhancing reading comprehension skills and metacognitive awareness for EFL prospective at the Faculties of Specific Education?
This main question could be sub-divided into the following questions:
1) What are the EFL reading comprehension skills suitable for EFL prospective teachers at the Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University ?
2) What are the metacognitive awareness skills suitable for EFL prospective teachers at the Faculty of Specific Education, Zagazig University ?
3) To what extent do the EFL prospective teachers master the EFL reading comprehension skills ?
4) To what extent do the EFL prospective teachers have metacognitive awareness?
5) How could the cognitive learning-centered approach be used to enhance the EFL reading comprehension skills for EFL prospective teachers ?
6) How could the cognitive learning-centered approach be used to enhance metacognitive awareness for EFL prospective teachers ?
e. Results
The statistical results showed that there were statistically significant differences between the means of scores of the treatment group in their performance of each post-test compared to the pre administrations, favoring the post-administrations . The means of scores of the treatment group in each test is high. Hence, the significant difference, shown in the post-administration of each test, is due to exposing this group to cognitive learning-centered approach. Providing students with a variety of activities through this strategy , changing the method of teaching, dividing the roles among students to improve their reading comprehension skills and cognitive learning-centered approach gave them the opportunity to interact with each other and to react to the material presented to them.
5.2. Conclusion
Based on results of the present study, it could be concluded that cognitive learning-centered approach has been proved to have a positive effect on developing EFL reading comprehension skills and metacognitive awareness. Teaching reading comprehension by using cognitive learning-centered approach has enhanced participants’ metacognitive awareness and the ability to identify different types of reading comprehension skills
The participants became more active in learning reading comprehension. They were actively participating in the activities throughout the treatment. Furthermore, they showed their contribution to the overall teaching and learning process. They were giving their opinions all the time regarding the use of the cognitive learning-centered approach and asking for information they didn’t know. They also enjoying participating in the cognitive learning-centered approach sessions.
Reading comprehension is a challenging skill to be learned, improved and assessed. EFL learners encounter some challenges regarding improving their reading comprehension skills such as insufficient time for practice their reading , limited vocabulary, cultural differences, speed delivery, speakers’ different accent, lack of body language, etc. More attention should be given to address such challenges. EFL teachers need to provide their students with ample opportunities for practicing their reading comprehension skills. They should consider utilizing more interesting, realistic and engaging study material and teaching activates suiting their students’ academic level, interests and preferences.
Metacognitive awareness is part of the goal of learning to help the learner become an efficient and effective learner. Developing metacognitive awareness is important to help them become more conscious of how they learn, as a result, they can identify the most effective strategies of doing so. Metacognitive learning strategies help student-readers achieve optimum comprehension and cognitive learning outcomes.
Cognitive learning is an important approach to enhance higher-order thinking skills in EFL classrooms as there is a close link between reading comprehension and optimal thinking. Cognitive learning is based on mental processes that essentially develop comprehension, intellectual scaffolding, construction of knowledge, and simultaneous. Cognitive learning takes place in the use of mental representation where conceptual and verbal representation are postulated to be dependent on students’ prior knowledge which can be based on the schematic representation of experience.