and one of the main tools for independent language learning (Carrell & Grabe, 2002), reading has occupied a prominent place within language classrooms since the very onset of systematic language teaching and learning dating back to 4,000 years ago (Fotos, 2005). However, the conception of one's competence to read in the target language has been redefined over the course of time. Once perceived as mere decoders of images imprinted on a page (Carrell, Devine, & Eskey, 1988), readers have taken a more active role and efficient readers are now deemed constructively responsive readers (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995), "strategic meaning-makers" (Lawrence, 2007, p. 55), and self-regulated readers (Nash-Ditzel, 2010). Reading started being viewed as a psycholinguistic game (Goodman, 1967) in which meaning is deciphered by relying on the text, context, and background knowledge (Pritchard, 1990) in the process of fluent and strategic reading (N. J. Anderson, 2003a), with the former usually seen as the aim of the instruction, and the latter as a means of gaining it. It soon became evident that a thorough understanding of the text is not gained automatically, especially in the case of second and foreign language learners, but it entails using controlled deliberate acts, that is, reading strategies (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008). Through extensive research it has been demonstrated that planning, monitoring, and evaluating the whole process of reading differentiates skilled from unskilled readers (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001), contributing greatly to a considerable increase in their reading proficiency. Thus, the awareness of those acts, which correlates with the use of metacognitive strategies (MS), is believed to eventually lead to an efficient learning process (N.
