Explicit Instruction of Reading Strategies at Senior High

School in Taiwan

Advisor: Dr. Raung-fu Chung

Graduate: Ju-chuan Chen

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Background and Motivation

Problems of the Study

Purposes of the Study

Research Questions

Background and Motivation

Reading is one of the most important skills for

ESL/EFL learners to master.

Different strategy use may distinguish good readers from poor readers.

Strategy instruction help poor readers to achieve

effective and efficient reading as proficient readers do.

There have been a lot of research studies examining the use of reading strategies

among EFL students in Taiwan (Chang, 1998;

Cheng, 2000; Hsu, 2000; Joe, 1995; Shih, 1992; Yi,

1994; Yuan & Nash, 1992).

Mostcollege

LittleSenior high

school

Problems of the Study

Not effective in promoting students’ reading ability through the instruction of reading strategies.

Readers who can not use strategies flexibly to

achieve effective and efficient reading.

Purposes of the Study

The effects of the explicit instruction of reading strategies on senior high school students’ reading comprehension.

Students’ perceptions of reading strategies and their attitudes toward English reading.

Whether the strategy instruction is effective in improving students’ comprehension for different types of questions, and whether the strategy instruction is beneficial to them.

Research Questions

What are the subjects’ perceptions of the instructed strategies before and after the treatment, and what is their reaction toward the learning of each strategy?

Does the strategy instruction change the subjects’ attitudes toward English reading?

Does the strategy instruction improve the subjects’ reading comprehension?

Which of the groups, higher, intermediate or lower proficiency group, would benefit most from the strategy instruction?

Which types of reading comprehension questions (main idea questions, detail questions, inference questions, and word- guessing questions) would be influenced by the strategy instruction?

What are the subjects’ responses to the explicit strategy instruction?

CHAPTER TWOREVIEW OF LITERATURE

Strategy Instruction and Reading Comprehension

Paris, Cross & Lipson’s (1984) Students’ knowledge about reading strategies improved significantly after they received the comprehension reading curriculum that focused on teaching comprehension processes and content strategies.

Song, 1998; Shih, 1992; Carrell et al., 1989; Kern, 1989; Barnett, 1988

Reading strategy training did help improve students’ reading comprehension.

The Role of Reading Strategies

Song, 1998; Kern 1989 Lower proficiency subjects responded more favorably to strategy instruction than did intermediate and higher proficiency subjects.

Explicit Comprehension Instruction

Hansen & Pearson’s (1983) More proficient readers did not seem to benefit much from the strategy instruction because they had developed adequate strategies on their own.

Steven’s (1988) There were significant effects of strategy training on students’ ability to identify the main idea.

Song’s (1998) Students improved their ability to grasp main idea and to make inference after the strategy training.

Hansen & Pearson’s (1983) Students’ answers to both literal and inferential questions improved through the inference training.

Kern’s (1989) Strategy instruction improved students’ ability to infer the meanings of unfamiliar words from

context.

Oxford (1992) Strategy training could help students make effective use of multiple strategies.

Steven’s (1988) Many students were not proficient in

recognizing the main idea or theme of passages.

Model of Reading

Types Definition

The Schema Theory The role of background knowledge in language comprehension.

Bottom-up Models Letters → Letter clusters → Words → Phrases → Sentences → Longer text → Meaning

Top-down Models Cycles of sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming.

Interactive Models Involves both the bottom-up and top-down approaches of information processing.

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

Subjects Instruments

Procedures

Data Analysis

Subjects

89 third-year students came from two classes and from Hsiao-Kang Senior High School in Kaohsiung City.

Five subjects were absent sometimes, so they were excluded from the data for the statistical analysis.

They were categorized into three levels of English proficiency, including higher, intermediate, and lower proficiency group.

The researcher herself was the instructor in the treatment.

Instruments Materials for the training of the selected strategies

Materials for the Practice of the Instructed Strategies

The pre- and post-treatment reading comprehension tests

The questionnaires used before and after the treatment.

Materials for the Strategy Instruction Active: Skills for Reading

Skimming for the main idea

Identifying main ideas Reading Power

Writing out topic and main idea

Making predictions Baumann’s (1986) lesson plans

Writing out main idea outline Project Achievement

Making inferences

Guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words

Materials for the Practice of the Instructed Strategies The selected texts in the subjects’ English textbook (Senior

High

School English Textbook, Book 5) College entrance examination papers

Reading Comprehension Test

The English textbooks provided for the third-year senior high students in Taiwan is seven (Fry, 1991, cited in Hung, 2001).

The researcher chose two passages at level seven.

A little beyond the subjects’ current proficiency level may help stimulate students to use more strategies, thus three eight-level passages were chosen.

Questionnaires

I. Students’ Attitudes toward English Reading

II. Students’ Perceptions of Reading Strategies

III. Students’ Responses toward the Explicit Strategy Instruction

Students’ Attitudes toward English Reading

Learning interests toward English reading Self-initiative learning toward English reading Opinions toward English reading Perceptions of their English reading ability → Five-point scale

Students’ Perceptions of Reading Strategies

Each questionnaire included six items, with five yes-no questions and one open-ended question.

Students’ Responses toward the Explicit Strategy Instruction

Part I: Four areas Students’ acquisition of the instructed strategies Students’ application of the instructed strategies in tests Students’ reaction to the strategy instruction Students’ feedback on the strategy instruction→ Five-point scale

Part II: Students’ liking of the instructed strategies and their comments on the benefits

obtained from the strategy instruction.

Procedures Conducting the pilot study and revising and adjusting the pilot questionnaire Asking students to take the pre-treatment test and answer the pre-treatment questionnaire

Instructing the five selected reading strategies for ten weeks and asking students to answer the series questionnaires

after the instruction of each strategy

Guiding students to practice the instructed reading strategies for two weeks

Students’ independent practice of their acquired reading strategies

Asking students to take the post-treatment test and answer the post-treatment questionnaires Data analysis

Data Analysis

The data collected was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively.

SPSS

Pre-test and post-test: Paired-samples T test

The comparison of students’ attitudes toward English reading: Paired-samples T test and chi-square test.

The subjects’ comments on the strategy instruction were analyzed qualitatively.

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Students’ Perceptions of Reading Strategies

Students’ Attitudes Toward English Reading

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Comprehension

Students’ Responses to the Strategy Instruction.

Item 1 (I have an idea of the strategy before the treatment) Item 2 (I know how to use the strategy before the treatment)

Item 2 (I know how to use the strategy before the treatment) Item 3 (I do not know how to use the strategy until the treatment)

Students’ Perceptions of Reading Strategies

RQ1: What are the subjects’ perceptions of the instructed

strategies before and after the treatment, and what

is their reaction toward the learning of each

strategy?

Most of the subjects do not have a clear idea of the instructed strategies before the treatment, especially that of how to use them.

The explicit strategy instruction is effective in enhancing students’ knowledge and use of reading strategies.

Students’ Attitudes Toward English Reading

RQ2: Does the strategy instruction change the subjects’ attitudes toward English reading?

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Comprehension

RQ3: Does the strategy instruction improve the subjects’ reading comprehension?

The strategy instruction helps improve the subjects’ reading comprehension.

RQ4: Which of the groups, higher, intermediate or lower proficiency group, would benefit most from the strategy instruction?

Higher proficiency subjects did benefit from the treatment, but not as much as the intermediate and lower proficiency subjects.

Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Types of Reading Comprehension Questions

RQ5: Which types of reading comprehension questions (main idea questions, detail questions, inference questions, and word-guessing questions) would be influenced by the strategy instruction?

<Possible Reasons for guessing words- meaning>

• Depend heavily on the dictionary

Students’ Responses to the Strategy Instruction

RQ6: What are the subjects’ responses to the explicit strategy instruction?

Students’ Acquisition of the Instructed Strategies

•The explicit strategy instruction helped facilitate the subjects’ acquisition of these strategies.

• Training students to write out topics and implied main ideas.

Students’ Application of the Instructed Strategies in Reading Comprehension Tests

Useful• Skimming for the main idea• Making inferences• Guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words from contextNot Useful• Making predictions • Identifying topics and main ideas

<Possible Reasons>• Types of questions in most reading comprehension test• Multiple choice question

Students’ Reaction to the Strategy Instruction

Students’ Feedback on the Strategy Instruction

Students’ Liking of the Instructed Strategies

Students’ Comments on the Strategy Instruction

CHAPTER FIVECONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Conclusions

Enhance EFL high school students’ reading ability, especially the students with lower English proficiency.

Improve students’ comprehension of main idea, detail and inference questions.

Most of the students increased their interests in English reading and had more confidence in using strategies to achieve effective reading.

Positive responses to the learning of reading strategies.

Pedagogical Implications

Adopt the explicit approach of strategy instruction to help students improve their reading ability.

Incorporate strategy training into their regular

English class to help students develop their long-term use of reading strategies.

Cultivate interest and motivation for English reading.

Students should be trained to be an active role to

construct meaning by the flexible use of both top-down and bottom-up strategies (reading

for meaning).

EFL teachers should design pre-, while, and post-

reading activities to involve students in the learning of high-level strategies as well as assessing them both textually explicit and implicit questions.

Thank you !