This paper attempts to address as far as possible the realities of prevalent "silence" among Malaysian learners. Acknowledging the fact that such "silence" has been
an acceptable norm, it is recommended that the "silence" may at least partially be broken through a reading class that incorporates elements of critical pedagogy in
the form of a metacognitive strategy instruction session. It is proposed that Socialmotivational Metacognitive Strategy instruction, abbreviated as SMMSI be offered
as an alternative pedagogic practice for the ESL reading classroom. The SMMSI model hopes to train learners to become active co-participants in the classroom and critical meaning makers
