Theory of Reading Strategies and Its Application by EFL Learners

8/10/2019 Theory of Reading Strategies and Its Application by EFL Learners

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Theory of Reading Strategies and its Application by EFL Learners: Reflections on Two Case Studies

Theory of Reading Strategies and its Application by EFL

Learners: Reflections on Two Case Studies

Ya-Li Lai, Yu-Jung Tung, Shu-Ying Luo

Taipei Municipal University of Education

Abstract

A number of studies maintain that English language learners comprehension can be

improved by fostering awareness of reading comprehension strategies. The findings for

this study revealed two EFL adult learners utilization and understanding of reading

strategies during reading. The first case indicates that a prolonged, regular, and constant

reading strategy instruction is needed and more efforts need to be made regarding how to

help struggling readers use more metacognitive strategies to comprehend English texts.

The second case suggests that teachers should choose reading materials that are slightly

above students current English proficiency level in order to stimulate students to adopt

more reading strategies to deal with more challenging English texts. In addition, students

are often unconscious about their utilization of reading strategies; therefore, it is teachers

responsibility to make students visualize the process of their own thinking. Teachers

demonstrations of think-aloud while reading can assist students in better understanding how

to use reading strategies. The findings of this study could potentially become a reference

for in-service teachers in Taiwan or for similar case studies investigating EFL students

understanding and utilization of reading strategies.Keywords:Reading, Strategies, Case Studies

Introduction and Background of the Study

Rationale of the Study

Educators face a serious situation because many second or foreign language

learners are struggling to read well. In the elementary classroom, students may have

different educational backgrounds, language proficiency levels, cultures, and prior

experiences (Ediger, 2001). However, all of them have a need for gaining knowledge

through reading because reading is a fundamental and critical skill for students to achieve

academic success. If students cant read well, the door towards the path of learning will

most often be closed before them.

A number of studies (e.g., Brown, El-Dinary & Pressley, 1996; Fisher, Frey &

Williams, 2002; Wold, 1996) maintain that comprehension strategy instruction has positive

effects on students reading comprehension. Teaching comprehension strategies, both

explicitly and directly to language learners, helps them become more thoughtful and

proficient readers. Booth and Swartz (2004) state the following:All children need effective comprehension strategies to become independent

readers . . . . Comprehension is about thinking and understanding, and is affected

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by each persons knowledge, experience, and purpose for reading a particular text.

Proficient readers are aware of the strategies involved in making the most possible

meaning with print; they make predications, make inferences, see images in their

minds, draw conclusions, and revise hypotheses about the text. (p. 22)

For second (ESL) or foreign language (EFL) learners, reading is an even morecomplicated process because they usually dont have enough language background and

knowledge that they can bring to the task of acquiring literacy as do first language learners.

Therefore, reading comprehension strategies must be taught directly with modeling to

reveal how reading tasks can be accomplished by a proficient reader. A well-planned

comprehension strategy for instruction that involves directly teaching reading strategies is

especially recommended for second or foreign language readers (Ediger, 2001).

Numerous studies on learning strategies maintain that teaching strategies can

facilitate students reading comprehension (Cohen, 1998; Chamot, 1999). Researchers alsobelieve that using strategies well can foster and lead to students autonomous learning,

especially for students who performed less well on academic fields. Caverly, Nicholson,

and Radcliffe (2004) indicate that developmental students showed significant improvement

in a teacher-made reading comprehension test and a standardized reading test, as well as a

significant growth was found using cognitive, metacognitive, and affective strategies in

their study. Moreover, Caverly et al.s study (2004) revealed that developmental readers

who received strategic reading instruction over four years outperformed the control group

on a standardized test, suggesting that these developmental readers can transfer strategic

reading skills to a future curriculum course. Consistent with Caverly et al.s (2004) study,

Radcliffe et al.s study revealed that students who received strategic reading instruction

outperformed the control group on the abilities of textbook reading. Furthermore, several

research done in Asian context indicated that the training in reading strategies could

enhance reading proficiency (Song, 2003; Shang, 2007).

According to Oxfords (1990) explicit instruction model, several major features such

as the explicit explanations, teacher modeling, scaffolding and self-regulated use of

strategies are provided by the teacher to enhance students reading comprehension. Lapp,

Fisher, and Grant (2008) also suggest the need for teachers to share guided reading through

a gradual plan, which enabled students to be able to independently monitor their own

reading comprehension.

English language learners in an EFL context, such as Taiwan, do not have much

exposure to foreign language use. Therefore, reading English texts plays a vital role for

Taiwanese students to improve their English skills as a whole. Some students in Taiwan

have the misconception that reading well means to recognize every word and figure out its

meaning from the printed text, hence they look for every unfamiliar word up, and translate

sentences word-by-word. With this misconception, struggling foreign language readers,often make little sense of what they have been reading, or they choose to ignore

meaning-making completely and give up in frustration (Booth & Swartz, 2004, p. 22).

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Research maintains that reading is actually a complex mental and cognitive process that

requires more than just deriving meaning from the text. It may involve the readers both

bottom-up process of analyzing textual information word by word and top-down processing

of using prior knowledge to comprehend the text (OMalley & Chamot, 1990). Teachers

of English language learners (ELLs) in Taiwan should seek out more effective ways to helpstudents use strategies to comprehend a text. OMalley et al. (1990) also claim that there

is a need for teachers to provide students with self-report strategies use so that students can

understand and apply them into the language tasks.

The Think-aloud Approach

Researchers studying reading strategies have used the think-aloud protocol in their

study, in which subjects verbalize their thoughts while involving in a cognitive activity to

probe how language learners process text while reading (Parera, 2006; Feng & Mokhtari,

1998; Abraham & Vann, 1987). Meanwhile, the think-aloud approach has also been used

as an instructional strategy in classrooms to demonstrate how skilled readers construct

meaning from text (Smith, 2006; Walker, 2005; Migyanka, Policastro & Lui, 2006; Oster,

2001; Wilhelm, 2001). During think-alouds, teachers present how they interact with text

by verbalizing what they are thinking while reading.

Numerous studies have evidenced that the think-aloud approach plays an essential

role in enhancing English as a first or second language learners reading comprehension

abilities, especially for struggling readers. Smith (2006) devised a productive technique,

ThinkAloud Mysteries, similar to the think-aloud approach, for teaching comprehensionstrategies to struggling readers in elementary or even middle school. In addition to

think-aloud methods, Walker (2005) utilized self-evaluation sheets to make think-aloud

processes more explicit among middle school students who had a passive stance on reading

for several summers in a reading center. Migyanka et al. (2006) also enriched three

primary grade students utilization of reading comprehension strategies by using think-aloud

methods.

The think-aloud approach is not only a practical research tool to investigate

language learners reading strategies but also an effective instructional technique to benefit

students reading comprehension. One noteworthy problem with think-alouds is that few

studies directly examined the relationship between text-difficulty and think-alouds.

Caldwell and Leslie (2003) emphasized that, the link between thinking aloud and

comprehension improvement may be affected by variable other than the strategy itself.

Hence, the effects of text difficulty when conducting the think-aloud approach are also

discussed in the second case study below.

Definition of Terms

Comprehension strategy instruction. Comprehension strategy instruction is amethod of direct and explicit teaching of comprehension strategies in order to help students

become more proficient readers with the ability to apply a set of effective and

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research-proven reading strategies to increase their understanding and thinking and to

monitor and repair their own comprehension. In comprehension strategy instruction,

teachers explicitly teach comprehension strategies and reading skills through mental

modeling, scaffolding, thinking aloud, and application. By learning comprehension

strategies, most readers know how to use certain skills and approaches to make a text morecomprehensible, meaningful, and memorable. In the historical context, comprehension

strategy instruction is referred to as reading comprehension strategies instruction or a

shorter term is comprehension instruction or strategy instruction.

EFL. EFL is the abbreviation for English as a foreign language.

ELLs. ELLs is the abbreviation for English language learners.

ESL. ESL is the abbreviation for English as a second language.

Reading comprehension strategies. Reading comprehension strategies are an

intentional plan that readers use to help themselves make sense of their reading. Strategiesare flexible and can be adapted to meet the demands of the reading task. Good readers use

lots of strategies to help themselves make sense of text (Tovani, 2000, p. 5). The precise

number of comprehension strategies in reading research is unknowable (Cramer, 2004).

Method

Case Study 1: Strategies Used by a Struggling EFL Reader

Subject

Wang, the participant of this study, was an EFL college student aged 22 with alow-level of English proficiency. Wang has learned English since he was in fifth grade

and has learned English for more than ten years. However, he showed little interests in

English and was defined as a poor English learner and reader by his English teacher. In

the first two years at college, he got about 60~65 scores in English performance tests.

Instruments

The instruments in the data collection of case study one include pre- and post-

reading comprehension test, reading strategy instruction, and the think-aloud approach.

The reading comprehension tests were used to elicit the subjects use of reading strategiesthrough the think-aloud approach. Reading strategy instruction was conducted by the

researcher and lasted for three weeks. The reading strategy instruction integrated the

following three categories of strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, and testing strategies, to

enhance the students English reading comprehension. In addition, the reading sections of

the Far East General English Proficiency Test were selected as the teaching material. The

objective of this course was to explain and model a series of strategies through the

researchers lecturing.

Results and DiscussionBefore Reading Strategy Instruction

In order to examine Wangs existing strategy use before the reading strategy

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instruction, he was asked to take a reading comprehension test with time limit, and the test

was composed of two articles (length from 80~85 words), followed by some multiple

choice questions. These two articles were excerpted from the Far East General English

Proficiency Test (beginning level),which was a little beyond Wangs current level.

The result of Wangs strategy use before reading strategy instruction indicated thatWang, as a struggling adult EFL learner, had basically some awareness of strategies and was

able to use them when reading English texts. In the test, he used more cognitive strategies

than testing and metacognitive strategies. Cognitive strategies, which accounted for 77.77

% (almost 78%) of his strategies use, involved word-by-word translation, meaningful

translation, underlying keywords, guessing meaning from the context, word association, and

inferring, while metacognitive and testing strategies, accounted for 2.78 % (almost 3%) and

19.45 % respectively, involved self-correction, eliminating unrelated answers and looking

for main points in details (see Table 1 and Figure 1).Table 1 Frequency count of reading strategies through thinking aloud (pretest)

Strategy types Strategies Times Percent Strategies used in

answering questions

1. word-by-word translation (literal) 6 16.67 % 1 (2), 4 (2), 17(1), 13(1)

2. meaningful translation 4 11.11 % 1 (1), 2 (2), 4(1)

3. underline keywords to highlight the

importance

7 19.44 % 3 (1), 4 (1), 6 (1), 10(1),

11(1), 15(1), 18(1),

4. Guessing meaning from the context 7 19.44 % 1 (1), 2 (1), 4 (1), 6 (1),

8 (1), 13(1), 18 (1)

5. Word association 3 8.33 % 1 (1), 2 (1), 10(1)6. Inferring meaning from text clues 1 2.78 % 7 (1)

Cognitive

strategies

subtotal 28 77.77 %

7. self-correction 1 2.78 % 18 (1)Metacognitive

Strategies subtotal 1 2.78 %

8. eliminating unrelated answers 5 13.89 % 6 (2), 12(1), 18 (2)

9. look for main points in details 2 5.56 % 7 (1), 18(1)Testing


total 36 100%

Figure 1 Percent of Frequency count of reading strategies through thinking aloud

Strategies usage (Pretest)

78%

3%

19%

CognitiveMetacognitiveTesting

After Reading Strategy Instruction

After three weeks reading strategy instruction, Wang was asked to take another test

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from the Far East General English Proficiency Testfrom the section of the same level and

his use of reading strategies during the test was also elicited by the think-aloud approach.

In the post-test, the most common strategies used remained cognitive strategies,

which accounted for 73.91 % (almost 74%) of his strategy use. Strategies added to the

previous list after the strategy instruction were chunking context with vocabulary words andchunking context with discourse markers. Chunking context with vocabulary words

means that the student used the words he knew to understand the context. For example, in

the sentence When you go to the bank to open an account, the bank teller will ask you to

fill out an application form, Wang didnt know the meaning of account and application

form, but he used his already known words such as bank, open, fill and inferred that the

context might be . Another similar strategyhe used to comprehend the relationship between sentences was chunking context with

discourse markers, because Wang was told that making a good use of discourse markers(e.g., however, because, so, but) could help him comprehend the text better even with

limited vocabulary size.

Compared the results to Wangs strategy use before reading strategy instruction, the

number of meaningful translation increased, and the number of word-by-word or literal

translation decreased in the post-test. This indicated that after receiving the strategy

instruction, Wang began to integrate all information in the texts, figure out the meaning, and

get the gist of the text. In the post-test, the new added strategies such as chunking context

with vocabulary words, chunking context with discourse markers, time-monitoring

strategies, and skimming for questions first were strategies taught explicitly by the

researcher during the strategy instruction (see Table 2 and Figure 2).

Table 2 Frequency count of reading strategies through thinking aloud (posttest)

Strategy types Strategies Times Percent Strategies used in

answering questions

1. word-by-word translation 4 8.7 % 1 (1), 9 (1), 11 (1), 12 (1)

2. meaningful translation 8 17.39 % 1 (1), 2 (1), 3 (1), 4 (1), 12

(1), 13 (1), 17 (1), 18 (1)

3. underline keywords to

highlight the importance

6 13.04 % 1 (2), 3 (1), 11 (2), 13 (1)

4. Guessing words from the

context.

2 4.35 % 3 (1), 12 (1)

5. Word association 5 10.87 % 1 (2), 2 (1), 11 (1), 16 (1),

6. Inferring meaning from text

clues

2 4.35 % 7 (1), 18 (1)

7. Chunking context with

vocabulary words

4 8.7 % 1 (1), 2 (2), 4 (1)

Cognitive

strategies

8. Chunking context with

discourse markers.

3 6.52 % 3 (1), 4 (1), 11 (1)

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subtotal 34 73.91 %

9. self-correction 1 2.17 % 6 (1)

10. Time-monitoring 1 2.17 % 9 (1)

Meta-

cognitive


11. eliminating unrelated

answers

4 8.7 % 6 (1), 8 (1), 17 (1), 18 (1)

12. look for main points in

details

1 2.17 % 7 (1)

13. skimming questions first 5 10.87 % 6 (1), 7 (1), 8 (1), 17 (1), 18

(1)

Testing

Strategies

subtotal 10 21.74 %

total 46 100

Figure 2 Percent of Frequency count of reading strategies through thinking aloud

74%

4%

22%

Cognitive

Metacognitive

Testing

Case Study 2: Strategies Used by a Proficient EFL Reader

Participant

Ling, the participant, has been learning English over thirteen years since her first

year in the junior high school. She is 24 years old and holds a bachelors degree of

English Language and Literature from a university in northern Taiwan. Ling was fond of

learning English and appreciated American or British culture through watching English

movies or browsing English picture books in the library. Her English proficiency has

achieved the high-intermediate level in the GEPT. In the interview, Ling mentioned that

her purpose of learning English before was for preparing for English tests while after

graduation she felt a strong need to use and improve her English.

Instruments

The instruments used in the data collection of case study two include an interview

guide for pre- and post interview and two English articles for the think-aloud tasks. For

the interviews, the researcher invented 22 questions altogether to serve as interview

questions when conducting semi-structured interviews. The materials used in the

think-aloud tasks consisted of expository passages varying in different levels (less/more

difficult) in English. Two English articles were selected from theReaders Digest. The

first article was less difficult that contained 156 words while the slightly difficult one

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contained 194 words. Both reading materials were authentic and the first article was close

to the level of a high-intermediate English learner while the second one was more advanced.

Both topics in the two articles selected were related to the subjects daily life to control the

effect of ones prior knowledge

ProceduresIn Step one, the researcher interviewed Ling to understand her English learning

background, motivation to learn English, and perceptions on the use of reading strategies.

In Step two, the researcher demonstrated how to do the think-aloud task when reading a text

True Colors, selected from the Studio Classroom. After the researcher had done the

think-aloud task for the first paragraph in the article, the participant was asked to practice

thinking-aloud while reading the second paragraph. In Step three, two English articles,

Take Control in the Supermarket and Keep Out Keyloggers were used for formal data

collection. Ling was required to read those two passages with think-aloud. During thereading time, the researcher noted the questions and used an MP3 player to record the

think-aloud protocols. In Step four, an oral post-interview was conducted, in which the

researcher asked Ling about her perceptions on these two reading materials and how she

used reading strategies during reading. The recorded data of the subjects think-aloud in

reading two English articles were both transcribed verbatim.

Results and Discussion

In the study of case two, the objective is to investigate the differences of reading

strategies perceived by Ling in the pre-interview and actually used by her during reading.The transcripts from the recorded data of the subjects think-aloud were analyzed and

categorized into fifteen kinds of reading strategies. In addition, Lings perceived reading

strategies that were identified in the pre-interview data were categorized into ten kinds of

reading strategies, in which five strategies overlapped with those identified in the

think-aloud.

The Subjects Perceived Reading Strategies

In the pre-interview, Ling mentioned ten types of reading strategies in her reading

experiences. Her ten reading strategies were classified into three categories: memorystrategy, cognitive strategy and metacognitive strategy.

Examples for the perceived reading strategies by the subject excerpted from the data

during the pre-interview were as follows: for using imagery, Ling mentioned that she

usually imaged settings that were related to the topics of the reading texts while reading.

For representing sounds in memory, Ling memorized English vocabulary by sounding out

the word. For the repeating strategy, Ling reread a certain English paragraph when she

couldnt comprehend the passage. For the taking notes strategy, Ling usually took notes

while listening to lectures during English courses in school. For the highlighting strategy,

Ling expressed that she usually underlined the keywords in English texts to capture the

main ideas of the texts. For the self-evaluating strategy, Ling would practice grammar

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exercises in her textbooks or workbooks to evaluate her understanding of English

grammatical rules.

Reading Strategies Actually Used by the Subject

In two think-aloud tasks, fifteen strategies actually used by the subject were

identified. These reading strategies were categorized into four categories: memory

strategy, cognitive strategy, metacognitive strategy and social-affective strategy.

The following examples for the reading strategies utilized by Ling were excerpted

from the recorded data. For associating/elaborating strategy, Ling said, Youll head

straight for the checkout when it starts to get heavy. In this case, Ling associated the reading text with her daily life. For using imagery,Ling said, Keyloggers For repeating strategy, Ling said, . For translating strategy, Ling translated,

Pick up a basket. . For reasoning deductively, Ling mentioned, Websiteshosting spyware such as malicious keyloggers has also increased from 260 to 2157 in the

past year. For self-monitoring, Lingguessed, Websense, revealed that more than half of companies surveyed reported spyware

infestation. For the strategy of listening to your

body, () These examples reveal parts of the subjects

reading strategies in the two reading tasks from two think-alouds.

Comparisons of Reading Strategies Perceived and

Actually Used by the Subject

Table 3 illustrates the differences of reading strategies perceived and actually used

by the subject. Apparently, the types of perceived reading strategies in sum are five less

than reading strategies used in the think-aloud tasks. In memory strategy category, the

perceived reading strategies didnt include associating/elaborating while reading strategies

in the two think-aloud tasks didnt include representing sounds in memory. The strategy

using imagery was both perceived and used by Ling. In cognitive strategy category,

reasoning deductively, analyzing expressions, translating and using linguistic clues were not

included in the perceived reading strategies, while practicing naturalistically, using sources

for receiving and sending messages and taking notes were not used in the two think-aloud

tasks. Perceived and actually used strategies included four same types of reading

strategies in cognitive strategy category: repeating, getting the idea quickly, highlighting

and using other clues. In the metacognitive strategy category, the perceived reading

strategy didnt contain self-monitoring while the reading strategies during the two

think-alouds didnt indicate self-evaluating. As for the social-affective strategy category,none of the perceived reading strategies belonged to this category while the reading

strategies during the think-aloud tasks contained four more reading strategies: taking risks

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wisely, listening to your body, asking for clarifying/verification and asking for correction.

Both perceived reading strategies and strategies actually used in the two think-aloud tasks

indicated that Ling tended to use more cognitive strategies. The findings suggest that

proficient English learners may unconsciously use more reading strategies than they are

aware of while reading English texts.

Table 3

Differences of Reading Strategies Perceived and Actually Used by the Subject

Category Strategy Perceived Reading

Strategies (n=10)

Reading Strategies used in the

Two think-aloud Tasks (n=15)

Associating /elaborating

Using imagery

Memory Strategy

Representing sounds in memory

Repeating

Practicing naturalistically

Getting the idea quickly

Using resources for receiving and

sending messages

Reasoning deductively

Analyzing expressions

Translating

Taking notes

Highlighting

Using linguistic clues

Cognitive strategy

Using other clues

Self-monitoring Metacognitive

Strategy Self-evaluating

Taking risks wisely

Listening to your body

Asking for clarifying/verification

Social-affective

strategy

Asking for correction

P.S. The symbol in the column indicates the utilization of the reading strategy.

The Least and the Most Reading Strategies Utilized by the Subject

As we can see from table 4, Ling utilized overall eighty-three times of reading

strategies in two think-aloud tasks. The most frequent used reading strategy category was

cognitive strategy, which contained forty-four times in the two think-aloud tasks. On the

other hand, the least frequent used reading strategy category was metacognitive strategy,

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which contained only ten times of the reading strategy use in the think-aloud tasks. The

most frequent reading strategy used was translating while the least ones were highlighting

and asking for correction. The findings demonstrate that the subject tended to use more

translating to assist her in making meaning from English texts and further interacting with

the texts.

Table 4

Frequency Use of Reading Strategies in Two Think-aloud Tasks by the Subject

Category Strategy Article 1(Frequency of

Use) Less Difficult

Article 2 (Frequency of

Use) More Difficult

Total Frequency Use in

Each Strategy

Associating /elaborating 7 6 13Memory Strategy

Using imagery 1 1 2

subtotal8 7 15

Repeating 1 3 4

Getting the idea quickly 3 1 4

Reasoning deductively 1 3 4

Analyzing expressions 0 4 4

Translating 9 5 14Highlighting 1 0 1

Using linguistic clues 4 2 6

Cognitive strategy

Using other clues 2 5 7

subtotal

21 23 44

Metacognitive

Strategy

Self-monitoring 5 5 10

subtotal

5 5 10

Taking risks wisely 2 3 5

Listening to your body 0 2 2

Asking for

clarifying/verification

2 4 6

Social-affective

strategy

Asking for correction 0 1 1

Subtotal

4 10 14

Total

38 45 83

The symbol represents the most strategies used

The Effects of Text Difficulty That Influence the Subjects

Use of Reading Strategies

Table 4 illustrates that in two think-aloud tasks, the overall frequency use in readingarticle two (forty-five times) outnumbered that in reading article one (thirty-eight times).

The findings indicate that Ling utilized more reading strategies while reading the more

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difficult and challenging article. This result suggests that proficient English readers may

be inclined to utilize more reading strategies while reading English materials that are

slightly difficult above their current English proficiency level. The thinking-aloud time

while reading article two lasted for seven minutes, which was much longer than that of

reading article one, four minutes and thirty-seven seconds. The results suggest that moredifficult reading materials are both linguistically and cognitively demanding than less

difficult ones and the former might elicit more strategy use from the reader. Regarding the

post-interview about the subjects perceptions on the two English reading materials, Ling

felt that article two was more intriguing than article one. Even though Ling was not sure

of some computer technical words in article two, she found that this slightly difficult

English text provided her practical computer information that she didnt know before.

Ling thought that it was quite boring to read article one since she already had the common

sense discussed in the text. The findings concerning text difficulty evidence thatinformation gap and background knowledge in English materials play a vital role in

stimulating proficient English readers to interact more with texts to explore unknown

information.

Conclusion and Reflections on the Two Case Studies

In conclusion, the reflections on the first case of this study are, first, the reading

strategy instruction did help the struggling reader Wang to use reading strategies better;

however, the short period of reading strategies training (i.e., three weeks instruction) was

not long enough to offer the student much input and help him internalize the strategy use.For teaching implications, a prolonged, regular, and constant reading strategy instruction

will be needed; comprehension strategy instruction requires a long-term engagement from

both teachers and students. For the consideration of long-term strategy use, it is also

necessary to investigate the delayed recall of strategy use of the subject. Second, this

study also suggests the importance of an effective reading strategy instruction, that is, the

tenets of Roehler and Duffys (1984) Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI) need to be

promoted in classrooms (Grabe & Stolles, 2001; Pressley, 2002): teachers need to coach

students to use strategies as needed. Mini-lessons can sometimes be given where teachersteach when and where it is appropriate to use certain strategies, how and why these

strategies are used. Students should be reminded of and discuss frequently the proper use

of strategies. Comprehension strategy instruction must include applying the reading

strategies to multiple texts and different content subjects. Third, although the increasing

strategy use after the strategy instruction suggests that Wang was trying hard to comprehend,

it is obvious that he reported few metacognitive strategies no matter in pre- or post reading

comprehension test. Metacognitive strategies involve thinking, planning and monitoring

ones own learning process, and it has been considered as a kind of strategy often utilized

by advanced learners during reading. A number of studies on strategies suggest that

metacongivtive strategies can help poor learners reading comprehension (Wong, 1987).

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Therefore, the suggestion is to explore how to help poor learners like Wang use more

metacognitive strategies to comprehend the English texts.

For the second case, drawing on findings and discussions of this study, there are

some implications for teaching reading strategies to EFL students at high-intermediate

English proficiency level like Ling. First, teachers should select reading materials thatcontain information gap in order to motivate students to utilize more reading strategies

when interacting with texts. In addition, teachers can choose reading materials that are

slightly above the students current English proficiency level as Krashens (1982) term i +

1, so as to stimulate students to adopt more reading strategies to deal with challenging

English texts. Third, students like Ling are often unconscious about how they would

actually utilize reading strategies. It is the teachers responsibility to make students

visualize the process of their own thinking while reading English texts by adopting

think-aloud activities. Teachers demonstrations of think-aloud while reading can assiststudents in better understanding how to use reading strategies.

Last but not the least, this study suggests that some research-based principles and

guidelines regarding effective teaching methods of strategies need to be provided for

improving students reading comprehension (Center for the Improvement of Early Reading

Instruction [CIERA], 2004; Graves, Juel, & Graves, 2004; Keene & Zimmermann, 1997;

Pressley, 2004): students should be encouraged to coordinate and synthesize the use of

various strategies; good reading comprehension instruction should involve appropriate

teaching materials such as various types of texts, genres (e.g., narrative, expository, poetic),

and school subjects (e.g., social studies, science, literature). In this study, Ling mentioned

in the interview that none of her English teachers ever taught students English learning

strategies directly and explicitly. She said, If I had been taught English learning strategies

at that time, I would have saved a lot of effort and time in learning English. She hoped

that English teachers could teach learning strategies to students in order to help them learn a

new language more efficiently and creatively. There is a Chinese proverb that says, A

student is like a piece of blank paper on which teachers leave a mark. Teaching EFL

students in Taiwan how to master comprehension strategies to overcome the English

reading difficulties and become life long and avid readers would be one of the best marks

teachers and educators could leave on students in their lives.

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Theory of Reading Strategies and Its Application by EFL Learners