Language profile, metacognitive reading strategies, and reading comprehension performance among college students

Abstract This study dealt with the students’ language profile, metacognitive reading strategies, and reading comprehension performance adopting the descriptive-correlational method of the four hundred forty-six randomly selected students enrolled in the colleges of Forestry, Education, Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology in a Philippine State University. Instruments used to gather data were based on an expert validated 20-point comprehension test taken from a short story selection and an adopted 30-point Metacognitive Awareness Reading Inventory (MARI). Findings revealed that Tagalog was the most commonly spoken by the respondents, followed by Iloco and English with moderately high reading comprehension performance and average level in terms of familiarity and attitude towards the Filipino language. The Problem-Solving Strategies (PROB) was the most frequently used, followed by the Global Reading Strategies (GLOB) and the Support Reading Strategies (SUPP). The familiarity with the Filipino language and the use of Problem-solving Metacognitive Reading Strategies were found to have a significant relationship to students’ reading comprehension performance.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Reading comprehension is a careful extraction of meaning and wise selection of information using critical and analytical reflections. The application of extensive metacognitive reading techniques allows students to improve comprehension and understanding of complex texts. Mental disposition is very essential in the development of students' reading with effective problem-solving skills. The role of environment and comprehensible language stimulates readers and improves reading comprehension. The present study is considered important in providing relevant information on the effective use of the first language which was significantly correlated to metacognitive reading strategies and has an impact on college students' reading comprehension performance. It has provided self-assessment, self-reflection and has adopted alternative ways to cope with high-order thinking skills. Metacognitive reading strategies facilitate students' learning independence, acquire new knowledge and information, spend more time building their reading skills through relevant and meaningful classroom activities. It has exposed learners to discover responses, and employ reflective thinking and problem-solving strategies in day-to-day communication.

Introduction
Reading as a mental process is concerned with written symbol recognition and comprehension using the readers' schemata, contextual clues, and other reading skills. Simple and functional literacy is part of tangible skills in acquiring basic knowledge that contributes to personal and social change. According to the National Literacy Trust, simple literacy is the ability to read, write, and perform basic mathematics to succeed in school. While functional literacy was initially defined for UNESCO by William S. Gray as the training of adults to independently meet the reading and writing demands placed on them. It is also referring to the capability of a person to engage himself in activities in which literacy is essential for effective function enabling him to use reading, writing, and calculation for survival and future careers (Luz, 2007). The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization had included metacognitive reading strategies, higher-order thinking skills, and functional literacy in its Education for All Goals as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which was previously adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. It has provided 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an urgent call for all countries to go hand-in-hand with strategies in improving the worldwide educational system. Every member country was instructed to formulate a comprehensive plan of action to reaffirm the global community's commitments to build a global partnership for sustainable development in reducing extreme poverty and improving human lives. Several types of research have been conducted relative to functional literacy, metacognitive reading strategies, and learners' reading skills. De Dios (2015) identified several metacognitive reading strategies that were commonly used for enhancing comprehension among learners like rereading the text, activating prior knowledge, applying contextual clues, meaning inferencing, thinking aloud, summarizing the ideas, locating the keyword, making a prediction, visualizing mental images, using graphic organizers, and evaluating one's understanding. He perceived that metacognitive reading strategies are vital in the development of higher-order thinking skills to attain the functional literacy level of a learner.
In the Philippines, as early as 2005, data from the National Statistics Office and the Functional Literacy Education and Mass Media Survey indicated that there had been a slight difference between the simple and functional literacy rates among 10-64 years old, from 1994 to 2003. The overall simple literacy rate slid down from 93.9% to 93.4%, while the overall functional literacy rate grew from 83.8% to 84.1%. The number of frustrated readers at the elementary level remained higher than that of instructional and independent readers at the same level for the school year 2003-2004(Luz, 2007. The results of the National Achievement Test from 2006 to 2009 ranged from 54.66 to 66.33 Mean Percentage Score (MPS) with a difference of 11.67%. The 66.33 MPS, although an increase from 54.66 in 2006 was still at the near mastery level, while the overall MPS on six reading comprehension skills was only 47.37%. The foregoing data reveals that Filipino has been in the low mastery level. In addition, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) reports in 2018 show that in nearly 80 nations of 15-year-old students' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading, the Philippines ranked number 77 in reading. The low academic performance among Filipino students to the country's Global Competitive Index is threatening. Low proficiency in reading comprehension may adversely affect other disciplines, like math & science. It might also provide a difficult time negotiating with future employment prospects in foreign marketplaces (De Dios, 2015). Lack of basic literacy skills holds a person back to succeed at school and is locked out of the job market. Hence, there is a need to unravel the intergenerational cycle to make life fairer and easier for social mobility. Cayubit (2012) cited that Filipino children have greater chances of success in school if they have sufficient reading skills that could develop higher-order thinking skills and attain functional literacy levels.
To address the very alarming academic conditions previously presented in this paper, the Philippine government had introduced reforms and initiatives to enhance the reading comprehension and understanding of Filipino learners. The inclusion of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) is the government's banner program for education as a salient part of the implementation of the K to 12 Basic Education Program. Its significance is underscored by the passing of Republic Act 10,523, otherwise known as the "Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013." The proclamation of President Benigno C. Aquino III in his ten-point agenda in 2011 has provided a significant improvement and remarkable increase in students' academic performance. It has proved that pupils taught using the mother tongue were significantly superior in proficiency in language and reading tests, arithmetic, and social studies than their counterparts in the control group who were taught in pure English. Other than the reading programs that the Department of Education and Commission of Higher Education had provided, a focus on students' higher-order reading and thinking skills in Filipino in the K-12 Curriculum has also been established. The foregoing discussions inspire the researcher to examine the use of metacognitive reading strategies and determine its impact on reading comprehension towards an improved reading performance among college students. Figure 1 shows the relationship between students' language profile, metacognitive reading strategies, and reading comprehension performance. The language profile includes the spoken language(s), familiarity, and attitude towards the Filipino language. Language profile refers to a communicative repertoire that comprises the experiences, activities, and kind of discourse engagement by an individual. It provides background knowledge and understanding of the language used in day-to-day communication. A narrow type of behavioral profiling, focusing on a definite factor and distributed across language forms is essential to a reflective understanding of language acquisition and use (Freed et al., 2004). A well-established relationship between language proficiency and the selection of appropriate reading strategies is vital in achieving a better reading performance. According to Luz (2007), knowledge and proficiency with the language are the key to better reading skills using appropriate metacognitive reading strategies. Reading is a cognitive process requiring a high mental function as part of the acquisition, interpretation, transformation, and use of knowledge. It encompasses activities to seek attention, perception, understanding, and problem solving using several theories to accomplish the task  Figure 1. Relationship of students' language profile, use of metacognitive reading strategies, and reading comprehension performance in Filipi (APA Dictionary of Psychology). Metacognition refers to the knowledge regulating over a cognitive process of what a reader knows. It includes awareness of rigorous planning, monitoring, summarizing, revising, and evaluating a reading output (Block & Pressley, 2002). Metacognition can be more effectively adopted in reading when readers are aware of what language to be used, can process their thoughts, and understand the patterns behind the text. Meniado (2016) agreed that good readers are better at monitoring their comprehension performance when they are aware of what strategies can be best functional to achieve flexibility and success in reading.

Research design
This study utilized the descriptive correlational research design to determine the students' language profile, use of metacognitive reading strategies, and reading comprehension performance of the 446 randomly selected students enrolled in the colleges of Forestry, Education, Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology in a Philippine State University. A descriptive correlational design uses quantitative methods to describe, record, interpret and analyze any existing conditions. This method is suitable for describing the impact of students' use of reading strategies to achieve high reading comprehension performance in school.

Research instrument
A 20-point comprehension test taken from a short story selection and the Metacognitive Awareness Reading Inventory (MARI) containing 30-point reading strategies were utilized to gather pertinent data. The comprehension tests were written in Filipino while the metacognitive reading inventory was written in English with academic translation in Filipino to ensure full understanding by the students. The comprehension test was self-made and has undergone validation by the reading experts while the metacognitive awareness reading strategies inventory was adopted from Mokhtari and Reichard (2002).

Data collection and analysis
The comprehension test was personally administered by the researcher to the students in 30 minutes, followed by the metacognitive awareness reading inventory with 20 minutes allotted time. The data were analyzed using the frequency counts and percentages for students' language profiles and the distribution of the respondents in reading comprehension performance. The mean and standard deviation were employed to determine the commonly used metacognitive reading strategies and the level of reading comprehension performance, and the correlation coefficients like Pearson's r were used to determine the relationships among students' language profile, metacognitive reading strategies, and reading comprehension performance.

Defining reading strategies
Reading is a skill that is vital in recognizing and understanding the text to increase the student's success in the classroom. Reading strategies are referring to the selection of various approaches students can use in any given text. According to Reading Horizon, reading strategies are extensive terms to describe the explicit actions that help readers translate text to meaning. The study of Halim et al. (2020) pointed-out important issues on how reading strategies affect students' reading performance using appropriate techniques. By employing peer tutoring using the native language, struggling students to read were exposed to more opportunities to improve in reading. Some of the commonly used reading strategies are activating essential information, clarifying to make meaning, using context clues, drawing conclusions, evaluating a text, inferring of prior knowledge, predicting output, rereading to make sense, restating important details, setting a purpose, visualizing using mental images, skimming, and scanning. Relative to the previously stated facts, Banditvilai (2020) explored related reading strategies among Grade 7 students using skimming, scanning, questioning, and making predictions. The findings revealed that students have favorable attitudes towards the said strategies and have a positive effect on their reading comprehension performance. Kucukuglo (2012) stated that identifying the right reading strategy may benefit struggling readers to realize significant progress making their academic experiences useful to achieve success in school. Integrating reading strategies in the curriculum has provided a significant improvement in students' reading comprehension.

Students' language profile
Of the 23 languages, Tagalog, Ilocano, and English were the most commonly spoken by the respondents. There were 402 or 90.135% who could speak Tagalog, 359 or 80.493% for Iloco and 311 or 69.731% for English. There were 68 or 15.247% who could speak other languages. On students' attitude towards a language, the majority (292) or 65.471% exhibited a positive attitude, precisely 133 or 29.820% were undecided (neither did they have a positive nor a negative attitude towards the Filipino language), while 21 or 4.709% manifested a negative attitude. On students' familiarity with a language, it is noted that the majority (273) or 61.212% were on the average level, 162 or 36.322% claimed to have complete familiarity, while a total of 11 or 2.466% had little familiarity with the Filipino language.

Students' reading comprehension performance
As reflected in the table below, the majority (244-54.70%) of the respondents attained a "high" comprehension level, more than one-third of them (168-37.67%) achieved "moderately high" while the rest were ranging from "average" to "moderately low." The overall comprehension score is 16.36 with "Moderately High" as the overall comprehension level. Table 1 shows the students' reading comprehension performance.

Relationship of language profile and reading comprehension performance
Among the three language profiles, only the familiarity with the Filipino language has established a positive relationship with the students' comprehension performance with a correlation value of 0.100 and a significance value of 0.049. Table 2 provides the relationship between language profile and students' reading comprehension performance.

Relationship of language profile and metacognitive reading strategies
The attitude towards the Filipino language was the only profile significantly related to Problem-Solving Metacognitive Reading Strategies with the r-value of −0.146 and significance value of 0.048. The rest of the language profiles were found to have no significant relationship with any of the metacognitive reading strategies. Table 3 shows the relationship between language profile and metacognitive reading strategies.

Relationship of problem-solving reading strategies and reading comprehension performance
Of the three metacognitive reading strategies, the Problem-Solving (PROB) ranked as the most frequently used with the grand mean score of 3.53, the standard deviation of 1.02, and described as "moderately high." Among the most commonly used Problem-Solving Reading Strategies were rereading to increase understanding, getting back on track when losing concentration, and reading slowly but carefully to understand the meaning of the text. On the other hand, strategies like thinking about fitting the content of the text in the purpose of reading, adjusting the reading speed according to the type of the text, and guessing the meaning of unknown words by separating different parts of a sentence were among the three indicators who garnered the lowest mean scores. About the relationship of Problem-solving Reading Strategies (PROB) and reading comprehension performance, five of the indicators have recorded a positive relationship. The student's practice of adjusting the reading speed according to pacing to comprehend better had a correlation coefficient of 0.103 and a significance value of 0.038. The said strategy is called speed reading where the process of absorbing and rapidly recognizing words, phrases, or sentences' meaning is involved. The strategy of guessing the meaning of unknown words by separating different parts of a sentence also displayed a positive relationship to reading comprehension performance with a correlation coefficient of 0.124 and with a significance value of 0.013. In some cases when students encounter problems in reading, most strategies they apply were to pay closer attention to difficult information, picture or visualize the information conveyed by the text, and reread several times to understand the meaning of the text. These strategies have recorded a significant relationship to reading comprehension performance with correlation coefficients of 0.150, 0.147, and 0.130 respectively, and with corresponding significance values of less than 0.05. Table 4 reflects the indicators for Problem-solving Reading Strategies and their relationship to reading comprehension performance.

Relationship of global reading strategies and reading comprehension performance
The Global Reading Strategy (GLOB) was the second most commonly used reading strategy by the students with a grand mean score of 3.35, the standard deviation of 1.04, and described as "average level." Students think about what they know to help them understand what they read; previewing the text before reading it, and setting a purpose in mind when reading were among the most frequently used strategies in this group. Among the least Global Metacognitive Reading Strategies utilized by the students were using tables, figures, and pictures in the text to increase their understanding; trying to guess what the material conveys, and skimming the text first by noting characteristics like length and organization. In terms of the relationship between Global Reading Strategies (GLOB) and reading comprehension performance, three indicators recorded positive impact like double-checking the reader's understanding when coming across with conflicting information showed a positive correlation of 0.105 with a significance value of 0.035. Other indicators that recorded positive relationship were setting a purpose in mind when reading with a correlation coefficient of 0.223; and thinking about what the readers already know to help them understand what they read with a correlation coefficient of 0.190, with both having a significance value of <0.001. Table 5 shows the indicators for Global Reading Strategies and their relationship to reading comprehension performance.

Relationship of support reading strategies and reading comprehension performance
The Support Reading Strategies (SUPP) was the third strategy with a grand mean score of 3.32, the standard deviation of 1.09, and described as "average level." Among the most commonly used reading indicators were underlining or circling information in the text to help the reader remember the information, going back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas, and paraphrasing or restating ideas to better understand what has been read. Among the three least strategies used by the students were taking notes while reading to help them understand what they read, summarizing what they read to reflect on important information in the text, and when text becomes difficult, reading aloud to help them understand what they read. On the relationship between Support Reading Strategy (SUPP) and reading comprehension performance, 2 out of 9 indicators demonstrated a positive impact. The practice of going back and forth during reading a text to find the relationship of the ideas showed a positive relationship to students' reading comprehension performance with a correlation coefficient of 0.104 and with a significance value of 0.037. The practice of underlining or encircling information in the text also demonstrated a positive impact on students' reading comprehension performance with a correlation coefficient of 0.110 and with a significance value of 0.027. Table 6 displays the indicators for Support Reading Strategies and their relationship to reading comprehension performance.

Spoken language(s)
A spoken language refers to a language produced by articulate sounds, as opposed to a written text (InfoBloom). In this study, the spoken language(s) refers to the oral language used by the respondents in day-to-day communication. Of the 23 languages, Tagalog, Ilocano, and English were the most commonly spoken by the respondents. Tagalog clarified its role as one of the leading major languages and it is widely used in different regions in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Census of 2000, there were around 21.5 million people who claimed Tagalog as their first language and 50 million people who could speak and understand Tagalog as their second language (Dynamic Language). Tagalog as the lingua franca is used as the basis for the development of Filipino, the national language of the Philippines. It is likewise the basis of all other languages spoken by approximately 20 million people found in Central and Southern Luzon, and Manila-the capital of the Philippines. While Iloco, according to Soria (2001)  On the other hand, English spoken by around 14 million people, is known as the language of commerce, law, and is one of the primary languages of instruction in education (Cabigon, 2015). The Social Weather Stations survey in 2008 revealed that 76% of Filipino people understood English because it is mainly used in schools, government, and the business world among others. English has become an official language of the Philippines under the 1935 constitution, added alongside Spanish as approved under the 1987 constitution. However, Spanish has waned in the Philippines due to a limited number of Filipino people who could speak and understand the language. Filipino and English became co-official languages of the country since English was said to be the second language by the people. The implementation of the Mother-tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in the Philippines has increased the language proficiency of some students, both in the elementary and the high school level. The use of local language as a medium of instruction shows significant progress in teaching and reveals decreases in drop-outs. Pamittan (2019) disclosed that students learned more effectively when they developed proficiency in the first language. He recommended the use of the first language to improve the performance of students. Cummins (2001) supported the previous findings that a strong predictor of students' second language development was the use of their mother tongue. Students with a solid foundation in their mother tongue can comprehend better in reading and develop stronger literacy in school.

Attitude towards a language
Language attitudes are evaluative reactions reflective of sequential cognitive processes like social categorization and stereotyping (McKenzie, 2010). It is primarily centered on the speaker's attitudes on standard and nonstandard language varieties. This study put more effort into using the language in all aspects of life as the majority of the respondents demonstrated a positive attitude towards the language. The Filipino language is a Tagalog-based National Language and a primary means of day-to-day communication by the respondents. It could be said that Tagalog has established closer personal attachments and social characteristics among speakers thereby developing positive attitudes and views on cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions towards the language. Language attitudes are ideas, opinions, or feelings about the language which are often the bases for learning a language. Choy and Troudi (2006) stated that the feelings and emotions substantially affect the learner's perceptions and attitudes, personal motivation, and interest in learning a particular language. Language learning is also affected by cognitive factors referring to intelligence, language talent, and the speaker's age. Li and Pan (2009) found out that learners who demonstrated a high level of integrative motivation spent more time learning and adopting the target language much faster as opposed to subjects who had a substantially low level of integrative motivation. Garrett (2010) draws upon research the language attitudes and the implications they have for language utilization, for social advantage or disadvantage, and personal identity. Results revealed that language attitudes and ideologies pervade daily lives. Social status is sometimes judged by the way a person communicates. According to Kovac and Zdilar (2017), the knowledge of the local language leads to a better social and cultural status, more successful socialization, and benefits one's professional career.

Familiarity with a language
It can be noted from this study that the majority of the respondents have an average level in terms of familiarity with the Filipino language, a Tagalog-based language declared under the 1987  of familiarity with the Filipino language. Their full exposure to the language as a subject at all levels and as a medium of instruction in some areas in school has familiarized students with the language. In addition, the Filipino language has also been used in the community in day-to-day communication, a very concrete reason why the respondents have become very much familiar with the language. According to Chastain (1988), familiarity with the language can expound readers' ideas about the text. It would be very easy for the readers to apply multiple reading techniques if they were familiar with the language, thus comprehension would be easier to achieve. He added that familiarity with the language in reading will derive meaning and it involves mental processes and language proficiency. Readers process the text in smaller to larger conceptual units of language, lexical access, activation of prior knowledge, and monitoring comprehension (Walter, 2007). Moreover, Al-Shumaimeri (2006) proved that language familiarity had established a significant relationship with students' language ability and comprehension performance. He suggested that language instruction may focus on enhancing the reading skills and language ability of students through the utilization of various reading materials with the appropriate linguistic challenge. He further stressed that educators may give special attention to reviewing related factors when designing and implementing reading courses.

Students' reading comprehension performance
This study revealed that students recorded a moderately high overall comprehension level. The results implied that reading comprehension is complex and it requires multiple task abilities to cope with its complexity when applying appropriate reading processes. The ultimate goal of reading is comprehension-the ability to derive meaning from the text. It is not just a collection of knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers apply to text but also its practical life applications. It requires metacognitive skills, vocabulary, background knowledge, and verbal reasoning ability. These processes were divided into two equally difficult main types: lower-level and higher-level processes (Grabe & Stoller, 2002). The lower-level abilities include word recognition, graphophonic, and others, while the higher-level abilities include syntactic, semantic, and other processes. To be able to comprehend what is read, a person needs to be familiar with the text structure, the topic, reading strategies, and their uses in processing the material and word recognition (Pang, 2008). Comprehension is more than a linguistic skill; it is also a general cognitive skill (Walter, 2007). According to Sadeghi (2007), there is a need to lay a foundation, map new information to develop mental structure and shift to build a new substructure. He looked at reading comprehension as related to either internal or external factors. Internal factors are related to the reader, cognitive abilities and strategies, background knowledge, and affective characteristics. External factors were identified as text modality, text characteristics, time, and place of reading. Koda (2007) explained that there are diverse ways of conceptualizing how reading comprehension could be measured. Different formats of tests and assessments would measure different aspects of comprehension. Testing will be discussed but the measurement of reading comprehension is a challenging task. Chen et al. (2009) added that the factors considered under metacognitive reading were phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension. In other words, the reading process, awareness, and monitoring are what seem to be metacognitive.

Relationship of language profile and reading comprehension performance
In terms of the relationship between language profile and reading comprehension performance of the respondents, it can be noted further that students who have complete familiarity with the language would have a greater tendency to understand the ideas and gain high and excellent reading performance. The previous findings were supported by Meniado (2016) who used English in his comprehension test to his high school students. He found the reasons for garnering low scores from the type of his respondents who were still at the beginning level of learning the English language. He concluded that mastering linguistic knowledge in English can be more important at their particular level than using metacognitive strategies in comprehending lengthy academic texts. The effects of the use of metacognitive reading strategies on reading comprehension vary depending on the reader's existing linguistic knowledge; hence, there is no uniform pattern of findings. Agustiani (2017) cited that content familiarity can greatly influence the reading comprehension performance of the students. Al-Shumaimeri (2006) investigated the effects of content familiarity and language ability on the comprehension performance of low, and highability Saudi students of EFL. He discovered that content familiarity and language ability had significant effects on the students' comprehension performance. He indicated that familiarity had facilitated reading comprehension and that language ability had a significant effect on the comprehension performance of students at different levels.

Relationship of language profile and metacognitive reading strategies
Regarding the relationship of language profile and metacognitive reading strategies, the results revealed that a positive attitude towards a language has a significant impact on the utilization of appropriate metacognitive reading strategies in solving complicated issues found in the text. The positive attitude towards a language assumes that comprehension is not just an act of speech or a resort to a system of rules but may also imply taking up a spot towards a language itself. Ahmed (2015) conducted a study investigating the attitudes of the learners in Malaysia by utilizing qualitative analysis displayed that the attitude towards learning an English language and using the language in different domains is highly positive. However, the results also showed that most of the students have fear and negative feelings regarding classroom instructions. The reasons behind having varied attitudes towards learning the English language were inadequate teaching methodologies. On the other hand, Garrett (2010) investigated the vital role of attitudes in learning a foreign language. He found out that applying appropriate strategies in reading begins from learning the nature of the language first. Choy and Troudi (2006) have similar findings when they mentioned that the increased level of personal motivation and interest in learning a particular foreign language would most certainly yield better learning results. Attitudes towards a language significantly influence the learning process and outcomes. Language attitudes can be selfmotivation which may result in better learning achievement (Todor & Degi, 2016).

Relationship of problem-solving reading strategies and reading comprehension performance
The ultimate purpose of Problem-solving strategies is to help the reader achieve understanding.
Readers are expected to use information from within and beyond the text to help them make meaning out of the text. Students may increasingly use a wide range of strategies in addressing some problems while reading. According to Meniado (2016), the Problem-Solving Strategies (PROB) is the most frequently used in reading academic texts. Khoshsima and Samani (2015) agreed to the previous idea as they investigated the ESP freshman learners with a 30-item test in reading. Findings revealed that Problem-solving Metacognitive Reading Strategies (PROB) topped the ranking. In addition, Dari and Naviabahari (2018) also explored the reading strategy used by the freshman students and its relation to academic performance. Findings also revealed that participants prefer to use the Problem-solving Reading Strategies (PROB) which was significantly correlated to their academic performance. Rajab et al. (2017) specified that students at the undergraduate level frequently used the Problem-Solving Reading Strategies more than the other reading strategies. He further suggested that language practitioners may consider training students in adapting diverse strategies effectively when reading. According to Ryan (2011), readers with abstract style and with high interest in reading use a variety of strategies significantly more often. Over the years, students do not apply appropriate strategies to problem-solving in some manner that they adjust themselves to actual situations Estacio (2013), Ilustre (2011), andVan Kraayenoord andGoos (2003) clarified the issue that the optimism and high motivation of the students to read associated with some reading mechanisms will reinforce learning.
Reading is the product of an incredibly complex blending of knowledge, strategies, and understanding. According to Mokhtari and Thompson (2006), students with problems in comprehension tend to struggle more with word order, difficulties in correcting sentences, and errors in basic grammar. Knowledge of grammar, syntax, and language structure aids student comprehension by providing ease with it (Cain & Oakhill, 2007). Hence, Dr. Kelly Powell-Smith says that there is a need to identify which language skills are critical to the development of reading comprehension among students to untangle the variety of reasons why a student might struggle. According to Bell (2001), reading speed is the number of words read of a person in a written text either printed or electronic in a specific period. Several factors determine reading speed like the reader's purpose, level of expertise, and the nature of the text. Reading at a good pace is a sign that the student can adopt in sounding out words accurately, but it does not need to sacrifice comprehension. Grabe and Stoller (2002) said that children need to "hold on to" the words they are reading to see how they connect to make meaning. It is believed that the longer a word is read, the harder it is to relate the words in a sentence, paragraph, or story. The study of Bell (2001) to adult Yemen students employing intensive and extensive reading in learners' reading comprehension reported that reading achieved both significantly faster speed and higher scores on measures of comprehension. The level of the reader's comprehension is determined by his speed, his previous knowledge about the topic, the breadth of his vocabulary skills, the degree of familiarity with the language and the subject matter.
Furthermore, Soria (2001) stated that while a reader may be confronted with unfamiliar words in context and not aware of the most essential word meaning in the text may sacrifice comprehension. A reader may be trapped by a lack of vocabulary which can endanger him from understanding what the text is all about. According to Çetinavcı (2013), guessing the meaning of a word from context is one of the most chosen vocabulary learning techniques among second language learners. Strange words in a rich context were guessed more effectively than unknown words found in a poor context. The results only proved that students have the natural tendency to apply solutions to a problem to survive. In reading according to Farrell (2001), most individuals have personal strategies as ways to understand what they read. Reading strategies are often taught by teachers and utilized by students as ways of improving reading comprehension. Yang (2006) determined that the procession and utilization of comprehension monitoring strategies provide readers with larger help in the comprehension of text. There is a greater tendency that students to absorb the real meaning of what they read when they use the right strategy depending on the level of their understanding. Al-Sobhani (2013) and Yuksel and Yuksel (2012) posed the same findings having students in Yemen and Turkey as their respondents. The results revealed that students used Problem-Solving Reading Strategies at a "high level" and have drawn a significant relationship between the students' use of metacognitive reading strategies and reading comprehension performance. It could be inferred that if readers employed metacognitive reading strategies when reading academic texts, they would perform and comprehend better.

Relationship of global reading strategies and reading comprehension performance
Regarding the relationship of Global Reading Strategies (GLOB) and the reading comprehension performance of the students, it is noted that relating the previous knowledge about the topic would certainly help them manage what appropriate strategies would be best applied in reading. Planning means setting a goal, assessing knowledge before reading, filling in gaps, and selecting the right text to read which are crucial in achieving understanding beyond literal and factual knowledge. Goal-setting is a promising strategy to motivate students to read because they know ahead of time what essential information they need to find in the text. According to Morisano et al. (2010), one of the major factors in establishing motivation is to ensure students take ownership in their learning. Goal-setting focused more on self-motivation to master a concept. Grasping and implementing the essential ideas perceived additional levels of relating meaning within a larger intellectual sphere (Ryan, 2011). Planned reading activities help students take their time to absorb the meaning of key elements in the text. It ensures more focus and engagement while reading, reinforces comprehension, and relates the previous knowledge about the text before reading (Van Kraayenoord & Goos, 2003). On the other hand, tables, graphs, charts, diagrams, and other forms of visual materials can also help readers provide a clearer picture of trends in the data. They convey hidden and non-literal meaning and aid learning especially if the material is too long and wordy. However, poorly designed visual material can confuse the reader and may provide negative consequences. Interpreting illustrative material requires an in-depth analysis which in many instances, students largely ignore (McMaster, 2011). Text organization is a systematic arrangement of facts and information to help readers track and understand the concept presented. This strategy helps students identify the key ideas and important details in a text (Heyne, 2020).
Failure to recognize the verbal and visual cues that signal textual structures and organization can cause students to struggle with comprehension (Walter, 2007). Reviewing and validating information while reading may help the reader understand the message better than just doing a pure reading. Validating information while reading is creating an intelligible mental representation of a written text. Van Noort et al. (2017) noted that the first step to explaining the probable role of reading comprehension is monitoring and validating information. Eslick et al. (2011) cited that readers must validate unauthorized information to gain accuracy that can generate authentic and legitimate knowledge that may be reactivated to ensure genuineness and recency (Gueraud et al., 2018). Hence, accuracy can be successfully achieved when readers establish the connections of text relevance, background knowledge, and the acquisition of new information. On the other hand, activating prior knowledge is used to make the reader's mind relevant to carry on the written word to make reading more personal and to help them remember and understand what they have read (Walter, 2007). Some experts believe that relating prior knowledge is the most practical and experiential aspect of reading (Pang, 2008). Reading is a complex activity that provides meaningful interaction between the text and the reader. The ultimate purpose of reading is to strengthen and activate the reader's prior knowledge and experiences to attain maximum learning outcomes (Luz, 2007).
Metacognitive reading strategies are devices for solving problems met during reading while readers are deeply engaged with the text. Reading offers opportunities to learn several language mechanisms such as vocabulary, grammar, and other devices that can be effectively used for comprehension-a complex multidimensional method in interpreting symbols and meaning that the learner draws on previous schemes. Metacognitive reading strategies are useful instruments if readers are aware of their applications. Its main contribution to language learners' reading comprehension is to reactivate their conscious attention to become autonomous in accomplishing their goals (Miller, 2017). Robillos (2019) studied the impact of global metacognitive strategy instruction on Thai English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and their metacognitive awareness. The findings provided significant support for the metacognitive strategy instructions to be included as a beneficial pedagogical method to improve students' comprehension in the EFL classroom. It is a clear indication that metacognitive reading strategies help students understand the meaning of the text when employing appropriate strategies. Meniado (2016) tested the Global, Problem-solving, and Support reading strategies on self-efficacy in reading tasks and reading performance. Results showed that global reading strategies are a significant predictor of reading self-efficacy, comprehension, and academic performance, while the problem-solving strategies were a significant predictor of reading task value.

Relationship of support reading strategies and reading comprehension performance
Based on the results of the present study, it can be further disclosed that students prefer to do focused and concentrated reading to attain full comprehension. Doing extra writing while reading is a form of distraction and diverts attention or concentration. The results indicated that highlighting to draw attention to salient cues in a text helps the students remember relevant information. Underlining, encircling, reviewing, rereading, restating or paraphrasing are some of the common techniques used by the students to highlight important information. Students recall keywords, phrases, vocabulary, and sentences that can be used in summarizing ideas in the end part of the reading (Ahmadi et al., 2013). Oftentimes, readers have to deal with a large amount of content, especially for long reading articles. It is very helpful to discuss how to discern the main ideas, the key points, or fundamental concepts in reading to avoid putting much attention in identifying meaning in a crowded or congested text organization. The article entitled "Reading with Metacognition" presented possible reasons why many struggling readers are unable to think while reading because the act of decoding and sounding out words takes up too much concentration. It says that decoding effort can crowd out even literal comprehension, hence, highlighting can help readers mark up and remember striking information earlier encountered. However, many students who would not get the level of reading automaticity needed to free-up mind space for reading comprehension with metacognition. Thinking about one's thinking, otherwise known as metacognition is underpinning other reading strategies with comprehension. It says that proficient readers frequently monitor their thoughts to enhance their understanding.
Note-taking and summarizing are forms of powerful communication or verbal exchanging key points into concisely recording that can be recalled and reviewed anytime. They provide several benefits more than just taking a record of what was presented in a lecture or class activity but also teaching students to organize meaningful ideas. Many students lack the skills in note-taking due to the advent of advanced technology. They simply demand notes and depend too much on the technology that they lost the skill and never get developed. The negative impressions of some students to write have pressed long debates in education circles. Students believed that the digital transcribing tools have freed them from writing, can spend more time discussing meaningful issues, and do more beneficial things with their class time (Yehudah & Alkalai, 2018). On the other hand, going back to the previous text concretizes ideas while reading. This is sometimes called "good recall" where the reader needs to recollect the ideas by relating them to their previous knowledge to gain a better understanding of the text. According to Pressley (1977), readers can take advantage of illustrations, facts, or essential information found in the text or create their mental images when reading the text. Meniado (2016) mentioned that among the possible ways to unravel the difficulties are chunking or separating the main parts of the words to identify the correct meaning, adjusting the pacing of reading, paying more attention to what was being read, trying to picture or visualize the information of what was read, and rereading the text several times to certainly understand the text. Rereading is a commonly used technique for studying the text, especially if the information is unfamiliar or extremely technical. Several researchers have examined rereading as a learning strategy and they found out that this is a sophisticated study technique (Barnett & Seefeldt, 1989).
"Marking the Text" is an ideal reading strategy that asks students to critically think and decide. Highlighting information helps students identify and examine information relevant to the purpose of reading. Heyne, et. al. (2020) believed that highlighting is an effective way to draw attention to central information. He used the instructed highlighting and correlated it substantially with reading competence. The findings showed negligible relations with the self-reported use of learning strategies. Highlighting represents features of focused reading and offers an innovative approach for technology-based evaluation of reading competence. Yehudah and Alkalai (2018) who utilized qualitative and quantitative analyses on highlighting patterns discovered accuracy that requires inferential processing did not affect reading performance on literal questions. The said findings bring into question the practicality of text-highlighting as an effective approach for learning from digital text. Regulating to think about improving learners' reading performance is the main concern of metacognition ( Ahmadi et al., 2013). It helps students monitor cognitive progress, goal direction, and future-oriented mental processes that can be used to accomplish meaningful intellectual tasks (Salataci & Akyel, 2002). Support Metacognitive Reading Strategies (SUPP) aimed at aiding struggling students in reading. Many researchers discovered SUPP metacognitive strategies as effective means in overcoming reading difficulties by many struggling students in reading (Aziz et al., 2019). Several researchers explored the application of the three subgroups of metacognitive reading strategies and they arrived with similar findings that Problem-solving strategies have always been the most frequently used by the students, followed by Global strategies and Support strategies as the least (Meniado, 2016;Khoshsima & Samani, 2015;Dari & Naviabahari, 2018;Rajab et al. (2017)).

Conclusion
Based on the foregoing discussions, it can be concluded that out of the 23 languages, Tagalog was commonly spoken by the respondents, followed by Iloco and English with moderately high reading comprehension performance and average level in terms of familiarity and attitude towards the Filipino language. Of the three metacognitive reading strategies, the Problem-Solving Reading Strategies (PROB) were the most frequently used by the students followed by the Global Reading Strategies (GLOB) and the Support Reading Strategies (SUPP). The familiarity with the Filipino language and the use of Problem-solving Metacognitive Reading Strategies were found to have a significant relationship to students' reading comprehension performance. Hence, the use of metacognitive reading strategies would expose discoveries on learners' responses, as they are also helped with how reflective thinking and problem-solving strategies are employed in different classroom situations. Metacognitive reading strategies facilitate students' learning independence, acquire new knowledge, skills, and information, spend more time building up high order thinking skills and improve their reading comprehension and academic performance. The findings of the present study would be very helpful for policymakers, curriculum developers, language educators, and mentors to review and enrich the curriculum through the inclusion of diverse metacognitive reading strategies in classroom instructions.