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This study explores the relationship between metacognitive awareness and 2 aspects of vocabulary knowledge (i.e., declarative versus skill) in “more explicit” and “less explicit” language learning groups. Also, it investigates whether declarative aspect, operationalized in vocabulary size, and skill aspect, operationalized in the productive use of vocabulary, differ in the more explicit and less explicit language learning groups.  To these ends, 80 Iranian EFL learners, majoring in English Translation at Shahrekord and Esfahan Payam-e-Noor Universities were selected through Oxford Placement Test. Schraw’s (1994) Metacognitive Awareness Test was used to measure the participants’ degree of the explicit knowledge Nation’s (1990) Vocabulary Levels Test and Laufer and Nation’s (1999) Productive Vocabulary Levels Test were also used to measure their skill and declarative knowledge, respectively. Correlational statistics indicated a significant and positive correlation between metacognitive awareness and declarative knowledge, but a significant and negative correlation between metacognitive awareness and skill aspect of vocabulary.  Moreover, t tests indicated that the more explicit group was better in the declarative aspect whereas the less explicit one was better in the skill aspect of vocabulary knowledge. The findings shed light on the cognitive dimension of vocabulary learning.

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Fluent reading is a multifaceted ability that integrates several linguistic and non-linguistic processes. Accordingly, recognizing the critical components of fluent reading is highly significant in planning and implementing effective reading programs. This study was undertaken to evaluate the predictive power of syntactic knowledge, vocabulary breadth, and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies in the reading fluency of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, a sample of 149 Iranian EFL language learners took the Vocabulary Levels Test, Survey of Reading Strategies Questionnaire (SORS), a TOEFL PBT, and a fluency test. The linear regression results indicated that vocabulary breadth was the first predictor of readers' performance on reading fluency, followed by metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. At the same time, syntactic knowledge was not entered into the regression model. Moreover, the findings confirmed the contribution of both linguistic and non-linguistic processes to reading fluency. Having a clear picture of fluency components can be advantageous to teaching reading comprehension and test score predictability.