SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT, DIGITAL LITERACY, AND READING COMPREHENSION AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF META COGNITIVE AWARENESS

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between social media engagement, digital literacy, and reading comprehension among secondary school students in Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State with focus on the mediating role of metacognitive awareness, which is a concern about the waning reading comprehension among secondary school students and the impact of digital media on students’ academic reading behaviors. A descriptive survey research design was used in the study. The population consisted of all the senior secondary school students (SS1- SS3) of public secondary schools in Oye-Ekiti local government area of Ekiti State. The sampling technique used was Taro Yamane sampling technique and multistage sampling procedure with a sample of 310 students. The data collection tool used was a structured questionnaire, Social Media Engagement, Digital Literacy, Metacognitive Awareness and Reading Comprehension Questionnaire (SMEDMRCQ), which has a reliability coefficient of 0.80 obtained by Cronbach Alpha. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics, such as multiple regression and mediation analysis (Baron and Kenny approach). The results revealed that passive social media use predicted negatively with reading comprehension while active social media use as content maker and informational searching predicted positively with reading comprehension. Reading comprehension was significantly and positively predicted by digital literacy. Moreover, there were a partial mediation of the effect of digital literacy on reading comprehension and the effect of social media use on reading comprehension by metacognition awareness. The digital behaviours and cognitive regulation processes were concluded to affect reading comprehension. The study suggested that the teachers need to encourage students to use social media actively, enhance the implementation of digital literacy education, and utilize metacognitive strategies in reading activities to achieve better results of reading comprehension.

social media engagement, digital literacy, reading comprehension, metacognitive awareness, secondary school students, mediation analysis, Oye-Ekiti