Effects of explicit instruction in cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies on Iranian EFL students’ reading performance and strategy transfer Reza Aghaie • Lawrence Jun Zhang Received: 6 June 2011 / Accepted: 19 December 2011 / Published online: 6 January 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract This study explored the impact of explicit teaching of reading strategies on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students’ reading performance in Iran. The study employed a questionnaire adapted from Chamot and O’Malley’s (1994) cognitive and metacognitive strategies framework. To test the effects of explicit teaching of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies on reading performance and strategy transfer, the study has a quasi-experimental design involving a contrast group and a treatment group, with whom an intervention program was implemented. The treatment group achieved significantly better results than the contrast group after four months of strategy-based instruction. Results of paired-sample t-tests and independent t-tests and effect size showed that reading comprehension and reading strategy use improved with strategy instruction. Moreover, SPANOVA analyses showed that the participants in the treatment group per- formed better than those in the contrast group in reading comprehension and reading strategy transfer. Results also showed that strategy instruction contributed to autonomous reading behaviors. Recommendations for further research are discussed. Keywords Cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies Á Explicit strategy instruction Á Foreign language reading Á Transfer of reading strategies Á Iranian EFL learners Introduction In recent years, there has been a shift of emphasis from the identification and clas- sification of learning strategies to their application in the language classroom (Anderson 2005; Cohen and Macaro 2007; Gong et al. 2011; Zhang and Zhang 2011). According to Cohen (2003), explicit training in the use of a broad array of strategies for learning R. Aghaie School of Foreign Languages, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran L. J. Zhang (&) School of Arts, Languages & Literacies, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland, 74 Epsom Avenue, Auckland 1023, New Zealand e-mail: lj.zhang@auckland.ac.nz; larry.jzhang@gmail.com 123 Instr Sci (2012) 40:1063–1081 DOI 10.1007/s11251-011-9202-5