This article sets out to assess the impact of the descriptive trend in the field of cognitive and metacognitive strategies and L2 reading comprehension. It does so with the intention of determining what the descriptive trend has contributed and what aspects of the field remain underserved. This assessment is carried out by tracing the roots of cognitive approaches in this field, identifying the components of descriptive research, and looking at representative samples and their contributions. The results of this analysis show that the kind of descriptive research that is most prevalent in the field has perhaps reached a saturation point, that it now offers only limited utility to teachers of reading comprehension, and that some excesses in the field may in fact be detrimental to the population that it looks to serve. The possible impact of these findings and suggestions for alternative avenues of future research that can complement the advances that have been made are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

第二层阅读理解的认知方法和描述范围

本文着手评估描述趋势在认知和元认知策略以及第二语言阅读理解领域的影响。这样做的目的是确定描述性趋势所起的作用以及该领域的哪些方面仍未得到足够的服务。这项评估是通过追踪该领域认知方法的根源，确定描述性研究的组成部分并查看代表性样本及其贡献来进行的。分析结果表明，该领域中最普遍的描述性研究可能已经达到饱和点，现在它仅对阅读理解教师提供了有限的效用，并且实际上该领域的一些过度行为可能是对它所服务的人群有害。