Comprehending the meaning of a written text is essential for studying a foreign language. This research explores the relationships between learners’ learning styles, self-reported metacognitive awareness and their use of graphic organisers in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), as well as how these factors relate to their reading comprehension abilities. A cohort of 151 Iranian university undergraduate students formed a convenience sample of research participants. The research instruments consisted of two English reading comprehension tests and three questionnaires. Firstly, participants were exposed to reading comprehension tests that included two passages with 20 open-ended questions about the texts. The participants were also required to fill in three questionnaires. The first questionnaire asked the participants about their learning styles, while the second posed questions related to the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). The third questionnaire concerned graphic organisers, but before its administration, the participants were provided with material that explained graphic organisers and their utility in improving reading skills. The graphic organiser questionnaire was designed to both inform participants about these tools and assess their usage. Participants subsequently completed another set of 20-item reading comprehension tests. Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between graphic organisers and the students’ English reading comprehension. Those who scored higher on the graphic organiser questions also showed better scores on both reading comprehension tests. The first test was completed before the researcher provided additional information about graphic organisers, and the second reading test was performed after receiving this information.

Additionally, all learning style types exhibited correlations with reading comprehension skills. Despite the assumption that visual learners would excel in using graphic organisers, the regression analysis results indicated that the verbal learning style type explains the variability in the EFL learners’ reading comprehension. However, the finding indicated that metacognitive strategies correlated with reading comprehension and the graphic organiser measure. Amongst EFL learners, support strategies of MARSI were most related to English reading comprehension, followed by global and problem-solving strategies. Regression analyses further indicated that metacognitive reading strategies predicted the variability in the EFL learners’ reading comprehension and explained some of the variability associated with the graphic organiser measure. These results and the analyses of learning styles suggest that graphic organisers may be considered more of a metacognitive strategy than a specific learning style.

These findings suggest further research to ascertain whether learners with different learning styles and equipped with metacognitive strategies can overcome some of the challenges associated with foreign language reading comprehension and whether using metacognitive tools such as graphic organisers may help.