**1. Introduction**

The term metacognition emerged in the 1970s and is attributed to the well-known cognitive psychologist John Flavel [1–6]. Metacognition has been recognized as one of the most crucial areas in the field of cognition. Although the term is difficult to define and assess, it refers specifically to people's ability to control their own thinking by thinking about their thinking (see [4, 7–13]).

Within the context of reading comprehension metacognition refers to individuals' ability to apply their knowledge and different cognitive strategies to maximize their comprehension (see [1, 4, 5]). One of the earliest studies on metacognition related to reading addressed memory and metamemory, which refers to individuals' knowledge and awareness of their memory's content and processes [8]; early work in reading explained that reading comprehension can be fostered through metacognitive awareness (see [14]; c.f., [15, 16]). This chapter discusses this term with respect to reading comprehension, prior knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge, specifically with individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH).

### **2. History of reading comprehension in relation to metacognition**

Experts such as behaviorist Thorndike, and other scientists, such as Binet, Piaget, and Vygotsky have discussed metacognition using various terms. Thorndike examined metacognition's relation to reading comprehension by explaining that younger children, such as those in sixth grade may be unable to understand the text that they read automatically. Instead, they must learn to monitor their comprehension. In his work *Reading as Reasoning*, he reported that vocabulary knowledge plays a significant role in comprehending written texts [14]. Recently, Albalhereth et al. [4] argued that children without sufficient vocabulary knowledge face a great challenge in making sense of a text's meaning; they claimed that DHH children may fail to understand a text's meaning, even if they are attempting to use different metacognitive strategies, such as understanding the meaning by comprehending each individual sentence.

Alfred Binet also contributed to the field of metacognition and reading comprehension, particularly with respect to the efforts that readers make to comprehend reading materials (cited in [14]; c.f., [17]). Binet's work addressed the metacognitive strategies that are categorized as evaluating or after-reading strategies. These strategies, such as judging and critiquing texts, were discussed in Albalhareth et al.'s [4] work. The authors indicated that these strategies require a high level of skill, and they reported that DHH individuals who are poor readers use these strategies the least.

Additionally, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget discussed the earlier scholars who also provided compelling evidence of metacognition. Piaget was among those who were interested in the schema, which refers to the cognitive process in which readers retrieve existing information and recall it to help them make sense of new texts they read [18]. Schema is the ability to integrate and add new information to the existing information they have (see [19]). Piaget explained that children may not be able to fully understand a text because they monitor their comprehension poorly. For example, Piaget [20] reported that many young children perform poorly when asked questions about a story to which they have listened. Alsamari and Albalhareth [4] explained that this is even more difficult for DHH children because when a story's content is conveyed through sign language or speech, receivers must memorize it. Yet, when the content is written out, the readers are able to reread the text and have more time to make sense of the information (see [21]; c.f., [22]).

In one of Vygotsky's studies in the 1930s, he explained that social interactions with more knowledgeable individuals increased less knowledgeable individuals' metacognitive strategies [23]. Similarly, Albalhareth et al. [4] investigated the way that peer tutoring and class discussion can increase DHH students' reading comprehension. They argued that the thinking together strategy, which is a type of reading or monitoring strategy, helps students to understand the text by sharing their ideas with others and explaining their understanding of the texts to their peers.

As previously mentioned, two areas that contribute to reading comprehension are vocabulary and prior knowledge [4, 24]. For DHH students, early acquisition of sign language is important for language, literacy, and academic outcomes [25]. Prior knowledge includes three areas: vocabulary knowledge, contextual knowledge, and structural knowledge. As stated previously, readers must have a sufficient vocabulary to comprehend the text. Furthermore, readers must possess some awareness of the particular content that they are reading; for instance, if the content is about physics, the readers must have some knowledge of this area to understand the text. Finally, readers must have some knowledge of the content's structure, which includes the text's grammar and syntax. Readers must be familiar with the grammar

*Metacognitive Strategies with Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) Individuals and Ways to Assess… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113379*

to be able to make sense of the passage that they read. Albalhareth et al. [4] reported an instructional practice that teachers of DHH students use in which they read the passage in English and then translate it into American Sign Language (ASL). This is referred to as "Read in English and translate into ASL". This pedagogical method helps teachers to make a complex reading passage easy to understand. Further, it increases DHH students' familiarity with the vocabulary and enhances their schema knowledge. As will be covered in the following section, previous studies have also demonstrated the importance of increasing individuals' vocabulary knowledge to enable them to use appropriate metacognitive strategies that help them to comprehend the texts (c.f., [5, 24, 26]).
