近年來隨著英文自主學習的風潮，探討學生在閱讀專業領域英文文章過程中後設認知之運用已漸漸受到英語教學學界的重視。惟文獻中絕大多數的研究採用量性研究方法，透過質性研究方法之相關研究猶如鳳毛麟角，以至於大部份研究結果僅僅收集英語學習者在受訪當下對自己的英文閱讀習慣的印象，而無法具體呈現其後設認知在其閱讀當下如何運作。鑑於此文獻缺漏我進行了一項類似 Li and Munby (1996) 的質性研究，以實地觀察、記錄、訪談的方式來檢視一名在美國建築系研究所就讀碩士班的台灣學生在閱讀建築英文文章過程中如何運用本身的後設認知。兩個月的研究期間，我試圖回答兩個主要問題： 1. 這位研究生對閱讀其專業領域英文文章具備哪些後設認知的知識？2.他是否使用他的後設認知知識來規範自己的專業領域英文閱讀行為？如果是的話，他如何規範之？本文首先簡要地闡述後設認知理論和回顧後設認知在英文閱讀的相關研究。繼文獻探討之後是研究方法的敘述，包括對於這位研究生的學術背景描述和資料匯整暨分析方法之說明。研究結果及對教學和研究之建議在本文也將逐一報告和討論。

Recognizing the growing need for ESL reading practitioners and researchers to explore the students’ metacognitive knowledge and regulation, I conducted a study similar to Li & Munby’s (1996) but with a participant of a different nature - a Chinese graduate in architecture and with intermediate English proficiency. For two months, I had been trying to answer two major questions: 1. What metacognitive knowledge does an ESL student equip himself with to process academic texts in English? 2. Does an ESL student use his metacognitive knowledge to regulate his reading practice? If so, how? This paper starts with my reception of the metacognition theory and a brief review of metacognition in the ESL reading research. The literature review leads to the descriptions of my research methodology, including the research participant and the data-collecting methods. Next, I present what I have found and discuss these findings. The paper will end with a conclusive remark of pedagogical and research implications.