國小學童閱讀理解策略運用之個案研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文. 指導教授：余明忠博士 Advisor：Dr. Ming-chung Yu. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. 國小學童閱讀理解策略運用之個案研究. A Study of a Sixth Grader’s Manipulation of English Reading Strategies. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 研究生：延允怡撰 Name： Yeun-yi Yan 中華民國 104 年 7 月 July, 2015.

(2) A STUDY OF A SIXTH GRADER’S MANIPULATION OF ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES. A Master Thesis. 立. 治 to 政Presented 大 Department of English. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. National Chengchi University. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. i n U. CInhPartial Fulfillment engchi. v. of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. by Yeun-yi Yan July, 2015.

(3) To Dr. Ming-chung Yu 獻給我的恩師余明忠博士. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(4) Acknowledgements. I would like to give my special thanks to my advisor, Dr. Yu, whose patience and insightful opinions helped me overcome all the difficulties on the way of completing the thesis. It is a great honor to have him as my advisor. Also I want to thank all those who had taught me during those years, Dr. Yeh, Dr. Mo, Dr. Chao, Dr, Mo, Dr. Sheu and Dr. Sellari. Their encouragement and kindness will never be forgotten. I am sincerely grateful for the advice given by Dr. Chen and Dr. Huang, the. 政治大. committee members of the oral defense. Their precious opinions assisted me in refining this thesis.. 立. Many thanks to the people who have helped me get through those learning years at. ‧ 國. 學. NCCU. Although some of them have been promoted to other places, I will remember. ‧. their generosity and friendship.. sit. y. Nat. I would also like to express my gratitude to my student Joel and his parents.. io. er. Without their support, it would not be possible for me to finish this thesis. In addition, I would like to share this completion of my thesis with my students. al. n. v i n who graduated last summer. Their me the strength to get through the C hbright smile gave U engchi ups and downs along the way.. Finally, I want to give my deepest love to my dearest dog for his loyal company. He passed away one and a half years ago, but he will always live in my heart.. iv.

(5) Table of Contents. Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv Chinese Abstract ........................................................................................................... viii English Abstract ............................................................................................................... x Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 Background and Motivation ...................................................................................... 1 Research Purposes ..................................................................................................... 4. 治政大 Chapter Two: Literature Review.................................................................................... 7 立 Research Questions .................................................................................................... 4. Reading and Comprehension ..................................................................................... 7. ‧ 國. 學. Reading Comprehension Strategies ......................................................................... 10. ‧. Categories of Reading Strategies ..................................................................... 10. sit. y. Nat. English Proficiency and Reading Strategies .................................................... 12. io. er. Age and Reading Strategies ............................................................................. 14 Gender and Reading Strategies ........................................................................ 16. al. n. v i n Reading Texts and Comprehension 17 C h ......................................................................... engchi U Cooperative, Collaborative, & Peer Assisted Learning ........................................... 22 Reading Strategies Instruction ................................................................................. 26 Chapter Three: Methodology ....................................................................................... 31 Criteria of Selecting the Participant ......................................................................... 31 The Participant ......................................................................................................... 32 The Context ............................................................................................................. 33 Data Collection Methods ......................................................................................... 34 Reading Materials .................................................................................................... 39 v.

(6) Reading Strategies & Instruction ............................................................................. 41 Data Collection Procedure ....................................................................................... 41 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 43 Chapter Four: Results ................................................................................................... 47 Research Question One............................................................................................ 47 Strategy Use on Story Reading ........................................................................ 47 Story #1 .................................................................................................... 47 Story #2 .................................................................................................... 50. 治政大 Story #4 .................................................................................................... 55 立 Story #3 .................................................................................................... 52. Strategy Use on Expository Reading ............................................................... 57. ‧ 國. 學. Expository #1 ........................................................................................... 57. ‧. Expository #2 ........................................................................................... 59. sit. y. Nat. Expository #3 ........................................................................................... 60. io. er. Expository #4 ........................................................................................... 63 Strategy Use on Descriptive Reading .............................................................. 64. al. n. v i n Descriptive #1 .......................................................................................... 64 Ch engchi U. Descriptive #2 .......................................................................................... 66 Descriptive #3 .......................................................................................... 68 Descriptive #4 .......................................................................................... 69 Summary of Research Question One ....................................................................... 72 Research Question Two ........................................................................................... 73 Strategy Use in Peer Reading Situation ........................................................... 73 Strategy Use in Individual Reading Situation.................................................. 76 Summary of Research Question Two ...................................................................... 79 vi.

(7) Chapter Five: Discussion .............................................................................................. 81 Research Question One: Strategy Use on Different Types/Topics of Readings ...... 81 Research Question Two ........................................................................................... 90 Strategy Use in Peer Reading Situation ........................................................... 90 Strategy Use in Individual Reading Situation.................................................. 94 Chapter Six: Conclusion ............................................................................................... 97 Summary of Major Findings .................................................................................... 97 Pedagogical Implications ......................................................................................... 99. 治政大 Suggestions for Future Research ........................................................................... 100 立 Limitations of the Study ........................................................................................ 100. English References ....................................................................................................... 102. ‧ 國. 學. Chinese References ...................................................................................................... 116. ‧. Appendix....................................................................................................................... 117. sit. y. Nat. A. Strategies Learned During Instruction .............................................................. 117. io. er. B. Lesson Plan Example of Strategy Instruction ................................................... 120 C.1 Example Reading Text .................................................................................... 122. al. n. v i n C.2 Example Reading Text 123 C.................................................................................... hengchi U D.1 Reading Strategies Survey .............................................................................. 124 D.2 Categories of Reading Strategies .................................................................... 126 E. Self-Efficacy Questionnaire .............................................................................. 127 F. Interview Questions ........................................................................................... 128 G. Excerpt of Reading Comprehension Test .......................................................... 130 H. English Ability Indicators in the 9 Year-Academic-Curriculum ....................... 131. vii.

(8) 國立政治大學英國語文學系碩士在職專班碩士論文摘要論文名稱: 國小學童閱讀理解策略運用之個案研究指導教授: 余明忠博士研究生: 延允怡論文提要內容: 本個案研究探討個案在閱讀不同文體及主題的文章時策略之運用；另一方面觀察他與同儕一起閱讀的情境中和個人閱讀的情況下策略使用的情形，同時討論英語. 政治大觀察及分析的閱讀策略含總體性、問題解決性及支持性等。資料分析工具包括教師立. 能力、年齡和其閱讀策略運用的關係。文章體材包括故事、說明文和描寫文三類。. ‧ 國. 學. 觀察及筆記、訪談及閱讀策略問卷，輔以自我效能問卷、標準測驗等。先前國內較少以國小學生為對象進行英語閱讀策略運用的個案研究，希望本研究結論可以提供. ‧. 學生自我成長和相關領域教學者在設計閱讀策略教學時的參考。. sit. y. Nat. 研究結果顯示，閱讀策略教學能拓展學習者對增進閱讀理解力之策略的認識；. io. er. 對各種不同文體的文章，個案最常使用的是總體性策略，最少使用支持性策略；策. al. v i n Ch 當個案和能力相當的同儕一起學習時，常表現出更強的學習動機，也樂意嘗試較多 engchi U n. 略的使用主要和學習者對文章內容的興趣、生活經驗、閱讀習慣、學習工具有關；. 的策略。但在個人閱讀的情況下，個案顯露出獨立閱讀者的特質，也讀得更快。從結果也顯示以科技輔助教學並結合聽說寫等能力的學習活動，更能激發學生的學習意願。建議未來可囊括較多異質性學習者來進行實驗；給予學生自己選擇文本的機會；也可更有計畫地設計分組方式來檢測學生最佳的閱讀策略使用情境。. 關鍵字 : 閱讀策略、閱讀策略教學、文體素材、與同儕閱讀、個人閱讀 viii.

(9) Abstract The purposes of this research were to explore a young reader’s manipulation of reading strategies while reading different types/topics of texts and to determine the differences between his strategy use in a peer reading situation and that in an individual reading situation. How the student’s English proficiency and age influenced his strategy use is also discussed. Three categories of reading strategies were observed: global reading strategies, problem-solving strategies, and support strategies. Data were collected through the teacher’s observations and notes, interviews, the participant’s. 治政 The results revealed that the participant’s strategy大 use was related to his interests 立. strategy questionnaires, and tests.. toward the reading text, his background knowledge, reading habits, learning tools, and. ‧ 國. 學. reading situations. Global strategies were used the most often, while support strategies. ‧. were used the least. The participant demonstrated a higher willingness to manipulate. sit. y. Nat. more strategies when he worked with someone of equal English ability; however, he was. io. er. more of an autonomous reader and read faster in an individual reading situation. In addition, learning with technology highly motivated the participant to try out different. n. al. strategies.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. For future studies, the involvement of diverse backgrounds and student personalities to increase the credibility of the results is recommended. It is also worth a try to give children the freedom to choose what they would like to read. Moreover, grouping can be more carefully designed to examine the optimal environment in which students’ strategy use can be exerted to the full.. Keywords: reading strategies, reading strategy instruction, reading texts, reading with peers, individual reading ix.

(10) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background and Motivation The expression “Reading opens the door to the world of knowledge” is heard very often (Lin, 2009, p. 52). By reading people can experience different cultures and expand their knowledge. Reading ability has long been considered an indicator of a country's competitiveness (Huang & Lin, 2009). Low reading ability foreshadows high rates of unemployment, crime, drug abuse, and many other social problems. In this digital age,. 治政大 Jian, & Zeng, 2005; Schmidt, 2010). 立. being able to access information quickly and effectively becomes a prerequisite (Chen,. Evidence shows that reading ability is highly valued in many countries. For. ‧ 國. 學. example, in Finland, the density of libraries is the highest in the world; in South Korea,. ‧. students have been reading for 10 minutes every morning since 2004; in Canada, reading. sit. y. Nat. has been integrated as an extracurricular activity for students and the government. io. er. encourages parents to read with their children after work (Chen & Shieh, 2012). In Taiwan, the Ministry of Education (MOE) makes every endeavor to advocate reading. al. n. v i n activities, such as organizing workshops C h on effectiveUinstruction strategies for in-service engchi. teachers, holding national reading contests, and funding school libraries for book. purchases. Despite these investments of time and money, not everyone has demonstrated improvements in reading ability. Many struggling readers are still found in different levels of schools. For students learning English as a foreign language (EFL), time of exposure to English in everyday life is limited; hence, providing students with sufficient reading materials and teaching them how to use reading strategies are essential. Young readers tend to become frustrated and stop reading when they do not comprehend what they are reading (Carrell, 1998). This breakdown might be due to readers’ lacking adequate 1.

(11) knowledge in aspects like vocabulary, culture or experience. Occasionally, readers can pronounce isolated words perfectly, but they cannot comprehend the main concepts of the material they are reading. In such cases, it is not “real” reading (Lan, 2010). When students encounter such problems, an appropriate reading strategy instruction might assist them in overcoming this reading difficulty. With the strategy training, students’ ability of manipulating reading strategies and their reading comprehension are supposed to be fostered and enhanced (Padrón, 1992; Palinscar & Brown, 1984). Rosenblatt (1938) mentioned that each person has a unique method to read a text.. 治政大 subject in school, it is different texts (Carrell, 1987). Since English is a compulsory 立 Various strategies should be manipulated flexibly to achieve efficient reading for. natural that most reading behavior occurs in a classroom environment. Many schools. ‧ 國. 學. have integrated reading strategy instructions into their curricula (Brown, 2007). When. ‧. reading in a classroom, students are often asked to either work with classmates or work. sit. y. Nat. individually. Whether the reading activities are interesting, meaningful and challenging. io. er. or not often lead to the learner’s continuous reading or withdrawal. In other words, students' engagement in reading activities plays an important role in their learning. al. n. v i n motivation and language development. C h Teachers needUto create diverse reading activities engchi. which can fit any situation. According to Vygotsky's theory of zone of proximal. development (1978) and other related studies (Norton & Toohey, 2001; Rodger & Johnson, 1994), a learner's performance can be enhanced through interaction with people in the environment. Thus, to observe students’ strategy employment in reading with peers and in individual reading situations may give teachers useful ideas in designing reading strategy instruction. Besides the reading environment, children's strategy use might be influenced by the contents of reading texts as well. English textbooks used at school tend to focus on the practice of limited, certain sentence patterns. This kind of practice seems to lack 2.

(12) challenge for advanced learners. Moreover, the fixed pattern of sentences contradicts young learners’ fun-loving characteristic. Therefore supplying appropriate extra reading materials to learners is recommended. Based on Krashen’s i+1 input theory (1985), learning materials with slightly higher level of difficulty than a learner’s current level of ability are considered to be beneficial for his language development. Nevertheless, in order to achieve fluent reading, the difficulty level of reading materials should not be too high for children to handle. Young readers need a sense of achievement to encourage themselves to improve further (Silbertein, 1993). For children growing up in the. 政治大. technology age, online reading materials and digital learning resources should also be adopted (Sipe, 2002).. 立. The importance of reading is indubitable. For young EFL learners, reading English. ‧ 國. 學. could be very challenging. As young readers have shorter attention spans (Brown, 2007),. ‧. the strategies they use are assumed to be different from those used by older or more. sit. y. Nat. experienced readers (Ehrman, Leaver, & Oxford, 2003; Hsiao & Oxford, 2002; Vann &. io. er. Abraham, 1990). Strategies used by proficient readers are often referred to as models for less proficient readers (Nisbet, Tindall, & Arroyo, 2005; Wurr, 2003). Teachers have the. al. n. v i n responsibility to help their students that proficient readers use C h acquire the strategies engchi U. (Duke & Pearson, 2002). Therefore, an appropriate reading strategy instruction should be integrated into the language curriculum. The instruction program should address. students’ affective needs and give them opportunities for social contact. A proper learning environment and sufficient reading materials are equally important (Carrell, 1998). In Taiwan, many studies have been conducted to investigate junior high school students’ or above-leveled students’ use of reading strategies (Cai, 2004; Lai, Tung, & Luo, 2008; Li & Wang, 2010; Su, 2004); nonetheless, the research on the use of reading strategies at the elementary level remains insufficient. 3.

(13) Furthermore, earlier works concerning reading strategies have mostly been quantitative research studies that were completed within short durations (Cai, 2004; McNeil, 2011). The participants in these studies were often divided into control groups and experiment groups (Cai, 2004; Lu & Huang, 2006). Little qualitative research has investigated the differences between young readers’ use of reading strategies in a peer reading situation and that in an individual reading situation. In addition, reading materials in earlier studies were often chosen specifically for academic purpose and were restricted to a certain type. However, in real life, children. 治政大 among different types of further study on elementary students’ use of reading strategies 立. inevitably have contact with different kinds of reading texts. Therefore, it is worth. Research Purposes. 學. ‧ 國. reading materials.. ‧. The study aimed to explore young learners’ manipulation of reading strategies. sit. y. Nat. among different types/topics of texts. Another purpose of the research was to find out. io. er. successful readers’ manipulation of strategies in individual reading and in peer reading situations. It is expected that not only the average readers can learn from the successful. al. n. v i n readers’ experience on how to C use reading strategies efficiently, but also teachers in hengchi U. related fields can benefit from the findings when it comes to the strategy instruction design. Research Questions Since reading is a complicated and dynamic process, researchers need to observe students’ reading behavior closely and constantly over a period of time in order to get a thorough understanding of their strategy use (Nunan, 1992). However, it is not easy to obtain an in-depth result if a research contains several participants. Therefore, a single case study was adopted for this research. Two research questions are presented as follows: 4.

(14) 1) What reading strategies are used by the participant when he reads different types/topics of texts after the reading strategy instruction? 2) How does the participant’s strategy use in peer reading situations differ from that in individual reading situations?. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 5. i n U. v.

(15) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 6. i n U. v.

(16) CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Previous research concerning reading and strategies are reviewed. Five sections in this chapter are as follows: earlier research on reading and comprehension, studies about classification of reading comprehension strategies and the relationship between reading strategies and language proficiency, age and gender, the interaction between reading comprehension and reading materials, research of collaborative and. 治政大 Reading and Comprehension 立. cooperative learning, and studies on reading strategy instruction.. Reading is a complex process, which is affected by readers’ reading abilities,. ‧ 國. 學. background knowledge, purpose of reading, processing strategies and text types.. ‧. Reading is a communicative activity because of its interactive nature. The interaction. sit. y. Nat. between the text and the interlocutor creates the meaning of a text (Silberstein, 1993).. io. er. From a psycholinguistic point of view, reading can be identified as a cognitive process through four approaches: bottom-up processing, top-down processing, interactive. al. n. v i n approach and compensatory approach Bernhardt, 2005; Carrell, Pharis, C h (Anderson, 1999; engchi U & Liberto, 1989; LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). Some researchers believed that L1 reading. and L2 reading share some aspects in common, and those aspects in reading process are universal (Goodman, 1982). Another viewpoint concerning reading is schema-driven theory, which perceives reading as an interactive meaning construction process between readers, writers and texts. Some researchers believed nonlinguistic factors such as a reader’s perception toward L1 and L2 readings, motivation, attitude, and personality should all be included in explaining the process of reading (Goodman, 1982; Wurr, 2003). Reading should be meaning based. Readers read to achieve particular goals like 7.

(17) looking for information, passing an exam, communicating with others or just pursuing pleasure (Hudson, 2007). While reading, learners constantly make inferences about things, events and people in the text to construct meaning (Silberstein, 1993). Reading is a dynamic process, not a static product. Uncertainty gradually reduces when readers progress through a text (Smith, 1971). An important feature of reading is its role in social interaction, same as listening, speaking and writing; therefore, it should be integrated with the three language skills (Wallace, 1992). The social interactive feature in the process of reading can be viewed from two. 治政 purpose of reading, social expectation and situational 大 context (Wallace, 1992). Effective 立. perspectives, social and individual. Reading behavior is associated with the reader’s. reading means flexible and appropriate response to reading material and this is guided. ‧ 國. 學. by the reader’s purpose. Effective readers constantly tune out irrelevant information in. ‧. the reading texts and they are willing to reflect on what they read (Lunzer & Gardner,. sit. y. Nat. 1979; Smith & Goodman, 1971). Reading was once considered as a passive or receptive. io. researchers (Goodman, 1967; Smith & Goodman, 1971).. al. er. activity, but it was discussed and viewed as an active problem solving process by some. n. v i n There are two main parts C of reading: word recognition and comprehension. People hengchi U. start reading by learning how to recognize phonemes, read aloud through phonics, and. spell out the words. Then they continue to construct sentences from the words, connect sentences into paragraphs, and make meanings out of the texts to reach comprehension (Lan, 2010). According to Grabe (1991), reading was considered an interaction between two cognitive skills: Lower level skills, which are the reader’s rapid recognition of words; and higher level skills such as a reader’s comprehension and interpretation of the words. Teachers often ask students to read aloud, but it is worth noting that reading comprehension could be impeded by a learner’s struggle to pronounce unfamiliar words. While learners strive to make a connection between letters and sounds, this struggle 8.

(18) interrupts the process of constructing meaning from the text (Hudson. 2007). To understand a reading text, people need more than linguistic competence. Knowledge of the world, the context information and extra-linguistic information are all required (Krashen, 1982). Some researchers believe that comprehension consists of three levels: the literal understanding level, the interpretive level, and the evaluative level (Hurry & Parker, 2007; Fisher, 2008). Readers must make use of all kinds of possible language clues to construct meanings from the written texts. Each individual’s way of approaching a text is unique (Rosenblatt, 1938). This kind. 治政大the texts (Wallace, 1992). ways because they bring their own schemata to explain 立. of background is called schema. People may interpret same reading texts in different. Schema theory proposes that comprehending a text is an interactive process between the. ‧ 國. 學. reader’s background knowledge and the text (Grabe, 1991). Schemata are hierarchically. ‧. organized, from most general at the top to most specific at the bottom. As these. sit. y. Nat. bottom-level schemata converge into higher levels, more general schemata become. io. er. activated. Top-down processing, however, occurs as the system makes general predictions based on higher level general schemata and then searches the input for. al. n. v i n information to fit into these partially C h satisfied, higherUorder schemata. The engchi. comprehension process goes back and forth between top-down and bottom-up approaches to achieve real comprehension (Soto & Delgado, 2003). Both bottom-up process and top-down process occur at all levels simultaneously (Carrell, 1983; Silberstein, 1993). Readers must know how to think about and make decisions about a text, and then use logic and reasoning to understand a text. Linguistic elements of reading, psycholinguistic factors like readers’ cognitive process and social cultural factors are all important to understand first and second/foreign language reading (Hudson, 2007; Pardo, 2004). Studies showed that readers’ second or foreign reading ability is greatly influenced by their proficiency in 9.

(19) that language (Madhumathi & Ghosh, 2012). Once learners pass a certain threshold of foreign language ability, they will read well in the foreign language. For languages with similar orthographies like English and Spanish, learners’ language learning can be facilitated by their original good language skills. Reading Comprehension Strategies Strategies are the intentional attempts learners employed to achieve a certain goal (Gambrell, 1996). Learners make use of strategies consciously or unconsciously when they learn a language or use a language. People employ specific strategies to solve a. 治政大 (Garner, 1987). They are undertaken by active readers to remedy cognitive failures 立. given problem (Brown, 2007). Reading strategies are deliberate, planned activities. chosen actions which activate effective reading at any level of reading process.. ‧ 國. 學. Strategies vary considerably within each individual according to the situation, the. ‧. nature of reading text and the reader’s purposes (Wallace, 1992). Effective. sit. y. Nat. comprehension strategies mean consciously monitor reading process through. io. er. self-questioning, inferring and evaluating to figure out the main ideas and purposes of reading texts. Strategies are chosen to facilitate and evaluate comprehension. There are. al. n. v i n no step-by-step strategies to follow a reading text. Strategies C h when people approach engchi U could be manipulated flexibly as long as they can help readers reach better. comprehension. Categories of Reading Strategies Some researchers divided reading strategies into macro strategies and micro strategies (Cole, 2006; Gallini, 1993). Effective readers are believed to use both of the strategies. Macro level strategies are those related with texts and among texts, while micro level strategies deal with unrecognized words readers see in a text. Another theory explored reading from cognitive psychology's point of view. It claimed that reading strategies include cognitive and metacognitve strategies. Flavel 10.

(20) (1979) advocated that metacognition includes two aspects: knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition. Knowledge of cognition consists of knowledge of person, knowledge of task and knowledge of strategies, which are interchangeably used with declarative knowledge (knowing what), procedural knowledge (knowing how) and conditional knowledge (knowing why). Regulation of cognition refers to planning, monitoring, testing, revising and evaluating the strategies employed by the reader during reading (Paris, Cross, & Lipson, 1984; Carrell, 1998). Compared to metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies are more like direct manipulation on reading material. 治政大be put into technical-aid moves, Bouvet (2002) claimed that reading strategies can 立. itself (Fisher & Frey, 2007).. clarification and simplification moves, coherence-detecting moves and monitoring. ‧ 國. 學. moves. Cohen (1990) classified strategies into support strategies, paraphrase strategies,. ‧. strategies to supervising and strategies for establishing coherence in text.. sit. y. Nat. Two early models of information processing called bottom-up (or text-driven) and. io. er. top-down (or knowledge-based, conceptually driven). Bottom-up is perceived as low-level process emphasizing identifying words and constructing meaning at the word. al. n. v i n or phrase level. Top-down explains and activates schemata to C h meaning at the text-level engchi U support comprehension (Carrell, 1983). From 1990, reading comprehension has been. perceived as a complex interaction among the reader, text, setting, background knowledge and the reader’s decision making. A reading model called interaction emerged, which indicates that reading strategies come back and forth between bottom-up and top-down, depending on different learners and variables in the context (Cohen & Macaro, 2007). Goodman (2003) continued Pearson's research (1991) which mentioned seven critical reading strategies: activating prior knowledge, deciding which is important in the text, integrating information in the text, inferring during and after reading, reflecting on 11.

(21) readers own comprehension, correcting misunderstanding and self-questioning. Goodman added two strategies, building up vocabulary and cultivating fluency, to complete the comprehension strategies. A highly addressed strategy system is Oxford’s study (1990). Oxford classified strategies into six categories: affective, social, metacognitive, general cognitive, memory-related and compensatory strategies. Grabe (1991) pointed out that readers’ knowledge of cognition and the ability to monitor their comprehending processes can help them adjust the strategies they use and achieve successful reading.. 治政大 manipulation. Two other and Sheorey (2002) and used it to examine readers’ strategy 立. In this study, the researcher revised a strategy questionnaire developed by Mokhtari. questionnaires were also referred to. A more detailed description is in chapter three. The. ‧ 國. 學. reasons why the researcher adopted these questionnaires are the simplicity and the clear. ‧. categorization characteristics of them. It should be easier for a young reader to. sit. y. Nat. understand the meaning of each strategy. Three subcategories of strategies are included. io. al. v i n English C Proficiency and Reading Strategies hengchi U n. strategies.. er. in the questionnaire. They are global strategies, problem-solving strategies and support. Previous studies showed that learners at different proficiency levels use different strategies, and the strategies used by learners at early stages of a foreign language development may be different from those used by more proficient learners (Green & Oxford, 1995; Hsiao & Oxford, 2002; Vann & Abraham, 1990). One of the earliest studies investigating the relationship between strategy use and proficiency revealed that three strategies, practicing, inferring and monitoring strategies are responsible for high school students’ achievement in reading, listening and grammar tests (Bialystok & Fröhlich, 1978). Another research revealed that students’ use of metacognitive strategy was significantly correlated with their TOEFL scores (Nisbet et al., 2005); however, data 12.

(22) revealed from other research showed the relationship between language proficiency and strategy use was not clear (Oxford, 1996). Wurr (2003) found that good readers tend to use more contextual clues to comprehend difficult parts in texts. They are more tolerant of ambiguity and they focus on meaning-making instead of decoding or translating separate words or sentences. Successful readers are able to contextualize and operate strategies, so they know how to apply and orchestrate strategies successfully (Carrell, 1998). Skilled readers reflect on how they plan, monitor, evaluate and make use of information available to them when. 治政大 readers by Pressley and Afflerbach (1995). 立. they read. Those efficient readers are depicted as strategic or constructively responsive. Good readers are said to use more strategies than poor readers; furthermore, better. ‧ 國. 學. self-regulated reading behaviors are much easier to be observed in good readers. This. ‧. ability to self-regulate one’s own learning has a direct effect on deep-level processing. sit. y. Nat. (Finkbeiner, 2006). Successful learners are said to be more capable of using elaboration. io. er. strategies to strengthen their deep-level processing ability. Elaboration strategies are methods of engaging learners in creating stronger connections with the reading texts and. al. n. v i n thus the information learned would for deep understanding. C h go to long-term memory engchi U. Successful readers use so-called main meaning strategies in reading. For instance, they. read and translate in broad phrases, they skip unknown words and infer meaning from context, and they seldom look up words in dictionary. In contrast to good readers’ strategy use, poor readers tend to view all words as equal when accessing the contribution of words to the total phrase meaning and they forget the meaning of sentences once the sentences are decoded (Brantmeier, 2002; Cohen & Macaro, 2007). Several studies found that proficient readers tend to employ more top-down or context-related strategies like making inferences and relating what they read to prior knowledge. Poor readers, on the other hand, tend to use more bottom-up or 13.

(23) lexical-related strategies such as translating words into first language and looking up unknown words in a dictionary (Lai, 2013; O’Malley & Chamot, 1990; Sadoski, 1999). The results from those studies found that limited vocabulary knowledge is the most common reading problem detected among college students. Hirsch (2003) also claimed that vocabulary knowledge is important for becoming good readers. Proficient readers know and use a diversity of strategies when they read, and they interpret and integrate what they read across the text. Furthermore, good readers tend to have a positive self-concept. On the contrary, poor readers had negative self-concept.. 治政大appropriate strategies to meet the strategies when confronting a reading problem and use 立. Skilled readers interact with the texts during the reading process. They adjust the. demands of reading. In other words, good readers are flexible and always ready to. ‧ 國. 學. change (Carrell, 2000). Grabe (1991) indicated that no particular set of strategies were. ‧. found to account for successful reading. Generally, successful readers were better at. sit. y. Nat. monitoring the success of strategies, which is a kind of metacognitive strategy. It is. io. er. worth noting that if readers apply incorrect strategies or use strategies inappropriately in interpreting reading texts, their comprehension will be adversely affected (Singhal,. n. al. 2001). Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Age and Reading Strategies Age plays an important role in children's learning. Learners at an early age depend more on teachers' or parents' assistance concerning the selection of reading materials. As children grow old, the influences from peers increase. Previous research indicated that as readers mature over time, their awareness and use of reading strategies improve (Garner, 1987). Mature readers are more able to recognize the errors they make during reading and to adopt proper strategies to enhance comprehension (Paris & Myers, 1981). Older readers were found to use more strategies than young readers, and strategies used by the two groups (young and older) were found to be different (Pawlak, 2011). 14.

(24) Some researchers discovered that sixth graders, specifically, are more sensitive to text structures and factors which influence their reading than second graders. Moreover, sixth graders tend to have a clear purpose on mind when they read (Paris & Myers, 1981). Similar studies were also conducted and found that children move from basic awareness to actual use of reading strategies throughout grades 3, 4, and 5 (Cross & Paris, 1988). Younger students may have awareness of a certain reading strategy and know how to describe it, but this does not mean that they know how to actually use it (Garofalo & Lester, 1985). Comparatively, strategy monitoring of young learners was. 治政大 and thus affect their younger learners to use metacognitive strategies in reading, 立. reported to be inferior to that of older learners. In another word, it is more difficult for. comprehension performance.. ‧ 國. 學. A previous research indicated that children from 11 to 14 learn strategies more. ‧. effectively than other children (Shieh, 2002); yet, higher level language functions such. sit. y. Nat. as semantic relations and strategy manipulation were reported to be better developed at a. io. er. later age (Brown, 2007). A surprising gap was found between strategies young readers claim used and those they actually perform during reading (Brown, 1978). But the gap. al. n. v i n may narrow as readers reach adulthood C h (Gambrell &UHeathington, 1981). Older and engchi. fluent readers tend to be more able to adjust strategies like slowing down or rereading to. clarify the incompatible parts in texts which cause confusion (Davis, 1995). Evidence showed that older and more experienced readers employ more and complex strategies to enhance their comprehension (Gertz, 1994). It seems that when a learner enjoys reading, he/she is more willing to adopt various strategies to overcome comprehension difficulties during the reading process. One evident characteristic of young learners is short attention span. Usually, young learners lose interests quickly if they feel the reading materials are boring or useless. A solution to this problem is to integrate a variety of activities into strategy learning and put strategy practice to real life 15.

(25) contexts (Brown, 2007). According to Chall (1996), reading ability of children between eleven to thirteen years old has developed from learning to read to reading to learn. In this transitional stage, learners’ reading skills move from word decoding and recognition to higher level of reading comprehension skills such as summarizing and inferring (Cohen & Macaro, 2007). Younger learners were reported to use more social strategies than older learners. Older learners tend to use more cognitively complex strategies than young learners. 治政大and strategy use (Cohen & difference might influence the relationship between age 立. (Victori & Tragant, 2003). Evidence from previous studies suggested that contextual. Macaro, 2007). In contrast with adult learners, children’s spontaneous and peripheral. ‧ 國. 學. attention to language forms is one of the factors which lead to their success in acquiring. ‧. a second or foreign language. Although younger or beginning readers are less competent. sit. y. Nat. at recognizing incomplete information (which brings about breakdowns in. io. er. comprehension), their ability to pick up the cues and construct meaning in a text would advance with time and experience (Davis, 1995). Older readers are perceived to be more. al. n. v i n adept at adjusting strategies and of sensing how and when to use what Ctheir h eability ngchi U. strategies can be enhanced by training and repeated practice. Upper primary years are considered a proper time when students make considerable gains in comprehension. Thus, this is a good time to teach children comprehension monitoring strategy (Clark, 2012). Gender and Reading Strategies In a study conducted by Chiu and McBride-Chang (2006), girls were found to enjoy reading far more than boys. Their study also showed that reading texts which interest both genders are quite different as well. Higher motivation in reading was reported among female students. However, there was no significant difference revealed on both 16.

(26) genders’ reading skills. Males liked to be labeled as "masculine," as comics and humorous books were their favorites. In both genders, large number of students felt embarrassed when reading aloud. A national survey carried out in the US in 2000 revealed that girls in sixth grade read two times as many books as boys. Researchers have conducted many studies on the role of gender in learners strategy use from late twentieth century. However, studies on the gender issue reported remarkably different results among males’ and females’ strategy use. For example, boys were reported to use fewer strategies than girls based on the data from questionnaires. 治政大students (Cohen & Macaro, social/communicative/interactional strategies than male 立 and think-aloud technique (Wu, 2006). Female students were found to use more. 2007). Ehrman, Nyikos and Oxford (1988) attributed this finding to women’s better. ‧ 國. 學. verbal ability and higher willingness to accept existing norms. Furthermore, women. ‧. were more inclined to crave for social approval.. sit. y. Nat. A previous study conducted in a university in Thailand showed that female and. io. er. male students performed equally on reading comprehension and use of cognitive reading strategies, but male students were found to use more metacognitive reading. al. n. v i n strategies than females. No significant was reported among students C h gender difference engchi U. with same level of language ability (Phakiti, 2003). Another finding in a previous study indicated that both mature and female learners tended to use a variety of cognitive strategies more often (Padrón, 1992; Palinscar & Brown, 1984). Boys were reported to be more selective, whilst girls appeared to be less picky and tended to read various types of texts. The discrepancy on the strategy use of males and females might be attributed to the effect of specific cultural contexts of learning (Radwan, 2011). Reading Texts and Comprehension People receive a large quantity of information every day through various platforms, advertising brochures, newspapers, magazines, and social networks like face book, 17.

(27) twitter or blogs. However, this huge intake of reading is not definitely equal to good reading ability. Teachers should help students learn how to use text structures to enhance learning skills (Brown, Campione, & Day, 1981). EFL students need to make extra efforts in comprehending reading texts, as average readers lack enough background knowledge. Some researchers indicated that to reach a meaningful interpretation of a text, reading process might go either top-down or bottom-up, to achieve real comprehension. The two models need to be interactively manipulated (Soto & Delgado, 2003).. 治政大language learned at present will purpose and immediate purpose. The former means the 立 Reading texts in a foreign language classroom serve two purposes: deferred. be used some time in the future. Readers with deferred purpose in mind learn the. ‧ 國. 學. language system and skills. The latter means the language which is being learned will. ‧. meet learners’ immediate needs. When reading with immediate purpose, readers need to. sit. y. Nat. look for information in particular texts to solve urgent problems or to obtain ideas in the. io. er. texts to meet their immediate needs (Johns & Davies, 1983). Efficient readers have the ability to relate the textual material to their own knowledge.. al. n. v i n Written materials are supposed or teach reading. Furthermore, C h to teach the language engchi U. materials should contain the function of informing, instructing and entertaining readers (Wallace, 1992). To retain learners' delights in reading, especially young readers, it is. important to provide them with a wide variety of reading materials to meet their different needs. Besides, allowing them to choose what they are interested to read is important as well. A previous study which investigated how publishers grade books found that readers tend to choose books for pleasure reading; but teachers are more concerned about if they can teach vocabulary and grammar through graded books to enhance readers' linguistic ability (Claridge, 2012). From the reader’s point of view, the difficulty level of language used in the reading texts should be i-1 to ensure fluent reading; from 18.

(28) the teacher’s point of view, the difficulty level should be i+1 to help learners' ability be improved. Language in reading texts need to be context embedded. For instance, real-life conversation, story lines, familiar situations and characters which have meaningful purposes, all these will build up a context within which language can be received and sent (Brown, 2007). Wallace (1992) believed that reading is a dynamic process as the emphasis is placed more on readers’ progression through a text rather than the text itself. The. 治政大Texts refer to the text features purpose of reading, schemata and language proficiency. 立 process view of reading investigated how readers interpret the text according to their. of reading materials. The arrangement of ideas in the text, the author’s intention, syntax,. ‧ 國. 學. familiarity with the content and vocabulary are all factors which affect readers’. ‧. comprehension (Freebody & Anderson, 1983).. sit. y. Nat. Reading texts can be discussed on a number of variables: text types, length,. io. er. readability, range of vocabulary, grammar, forms and topics depending on the content validity of the texts to be representative for learners to read successfully (Hughes, 1989).. al. n. v i n When a text is produced, the underlying the text will be interpreted C h meaning of U engchi. differently according to readers’ purpose and social context. Besides, cognitive, affective and psychological factors all influence the interpretation of texts. Ambiguous words or confusions within the text affect cognitive processing. With or without readers’ awareness, text structures also influence learning. Strategies that ensure readers’ deep processing of texts, enable readers to organize knowledge in storage, and finally use them in a meaningful way are believed to be positively related to reading achievement (Padrón, 1992). Successful readers not only can identify which strategy to use for different types of reading texts, but also can employ strategies that work for them. To ensure better conscious control of strategy use, 19.

(29) one requirement readers need to remember is the knowledge of the effect of text structure (Davis, 1995). Muth (1987) indicated that the strategy of reading with the help of text structures is used most often in expository texts like content-based textbooks. She designed three strategies to raise students' awareness towards text structures and helped students read and comprehend reading texts. These strategies include hierarchical summaries, conceptual maps, and thematic organizers. For young learners, a more challenging type of reading is poems as readers need to explore the implicit meaning of the abbreviated. 治政 The content of reading texts should be interesting大 and closely relate to life 立. and condensed language in a poem (Silbertein, 1993).. experience of readers. This is because rich semantic input can compensate for the lack of. ‧ 國. 學. syntactic knowledge. The second/foreign language acquisition could be much easier and. ‧. more effective if reading texts are enticing. Evidence in previous study indicated that. sit. y. Nat. learners tend to read faster and remember better if the reading materials interest them. io. er. (Gambrell & Heathington, 1981).. If the content is highly specialized like economics or law-related studies, a lack of. al. n. v i n this specific knowledge might C cause poor comprehension for some readers (Soto & hengchi U Delgado, 2003). Since all texts contain other texts, readers cannot interpret without. referring to related texts (Wallace, 1992). Authentic texts are generally assumed to be more interesting than those written for pedagogical purposes. The interest and background knowledge will enable the reader to comprehend at a proper rate and keep him/her involved in the text regardless of its syntactic difficulty (Coady, 1979). Therefore, providing good written texts as models for readers to imitate is another advantage learners can benefit from good reading materials (Harmer, 2008). Besides writing, reading texts can be exercised to the greatest by integrating class/group discussions and oral presentation into the reading activities as 20.

(30) well (Harmer, 2008; Wallace, 1992). Texts with an appropriate level of challenge may offer students opportunities to experience a certain degree of success (Silbertein, 1993). Krashen (1982) proposed that language learners should be provided with language inputs which are one level advanced than their current level. One way to evaluate text difficulty is to check if there are a certain number of unknown words in the texts, but this way of evaluation remains problematic. Some people misconceive that as long as they know a large amount of words, they would become reading experts. The fact is that people learn new words. 治政大Wallace, 1993). and then become professionals overnight (Carrell, 1998; 立. largely through extensive and constant reading. People do not learn words in isolation. Another way to gauge text difficulty is to take length of words and sentences as. ‧ 國. 學. criteria. The longer of the average length, the harder a text will be. However, one of the. ‧. drawbacks about this text evaluation is that it neglects factors as reduced clauses and. sit. y. Nat. culture-bound usage, which comparably create more difficulty for children's reading. In. io. er. such cases, teachers have the responsibility to choose quality, appropriate, and interesting reading materials for students.. al. n. v i n Children were found to beCmore attracted by story type of reading. Stories with hengchi U. beautiful illustrations seem even more tempting to children (Mohr, 2006). However, in today’s world, young learners are expected to have the ability to read different types of texts. The importance of reading nonfiction type of texts is getting more attention. Language teachers need to know readers' expectations and background knowledge and help readers relate language clues to their prior experience. Furthermore, teachers should enrich students’ vocabularies, especially in their desired working fields, and help students familiarize themselves with the conventions of writing (Silberstein, 1993). Online resources are good reading materials as well (Tunnell, Jacobs, Young, & Bryan, 2008). In this technology age, people are becoming more and more dependent on 21.

(31) computers, smart phones, tablets, and the like. Huge information is accessible by a click on the keyboard or a touch on the screen. The visual and verbal effects embedded in multimedia learning resources were reported to have positive effects on children's reading comprehension (Chun & Plass, 1996), though adverse effects also come along. Students get distracted much easier than before when the enticing animation combined with fascinating sound effects keeps popping up in front of them. As a result, students’ deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle (Jacobs, 2011). However, online reading has inevitably become a part of this generation, so reading strategies. 政治大. which assist in obtaining key information efficiently must be adopted and developed (Coiro & Dobler, 2007).. 立. Cooperative, Collaborative & Peer Assisted Learning. ‧ 國. 學. Children tend to use a lot of cognitive and affective strategies to internalize first. ‧. and second language in a subconscious way. Early adolescent students are developing. sit. y. Nat. cognitive abilities as well as a desire to make decision and have more control of their. io. er. learning. However, young learners’ short attention span and naturalness seem to limit the effectiveness of classroom instruction (Brown, 2007). Mismatch between students'. al. n. v i n needs and school's curriculum C might cause students' withdraw from learning. Involving hengchi U peers in learning activities has positive influence on both students’ attitudes toward. school and their behavior in school (Stevens & Slavin, 1995). Stevens (2003) suggested that meaningful learning activities, appropriate learning materials and learning environment influence the intensity of motivation. Cooperative learning has been studied for several decades and has been proved to be beneficial to students' learning. Five essential elements are needed for cooperative work: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, social skills and group processing (Johnson & Johnson, 2000). Cooperative learning gives students a reason to talk and makes learning processes more active as students 22.

(32) discuss tasks with one another (Stevens, 2003). A form of cooperative learning called Jigsaw was found to be able to develop learners’ metacognitive awareness. When learning in Jigsaw, each learner of a group is assigned a part of an article. They find the others who get the same part and form an expert group. After discussion, each member in the expert groups goes back to the original group and teaches the other group members their shared part of the article. Jigsaw cooperative learning places emphasis on learner-centered, teacher-facilitated and interdependent communication (Meng, 2010). Some poor readers trained in small. 治政 associated with decoding, reading comprehension, and大 cognitive processing 立. groups with metacognitive reading strategies significantly improved their performances. (Johnson-Glenberg, 2005). Different discussion opportunities are provided to students. ‧ 國. 學. according to how they are grouped. For example, several people work together or work. ‧. in pairs, and then teachers adjust the way they lead the discussion accordingly. sit. y. Nat. (Prado-Olmos, 1993).. io. er. Bejarano (1987) introduced another form of cooperative learning called Student Teams and Achievement Divisions (STAD), which is a peer-tutoring technique aiming. al. n. v i n to raise students’ motivation ofC learning by organizing small heterogeneous groups in hengchi U. the class, assigning group work on a worksheet, computing each team’s score and. rewarding the winning team. Each student has an equal opportunity to contribute to the team achievement. Discussion Group (DG) technique is also a method used in cooperative learning. It is carried out as follows: Students choose a topic of interest and form groups based on the interests. Then they examine learning task and plan how to carry it out. Finally they evaluate the overall group products and report to the class. Slavin (1996) defined four theoretical perspectives on cooperative learning and achievement. They include: motivational perspective, which presumes all learning 23.

(33) process is driven by motivation. Group goal and reward are the most emphasized. Cognitive perspective indicates that students’ achievement will be increased through group members’ interaction on mental processing of information. Social cohesion perspective supports the belief that the effects of cooperative learning on achievement are mediated by the cohesiveness of the group. Group members help each other to succeed because they care about the group and identify with the group. Developmental perspective is developed on Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory (1978), which claimed that cooperative activities among children promote growth because children are likely to. 治政大 2010). children increases their mastery of critical concepts (Slavin, 立. operate within one another’s proximal zones of development. This interaction between. In essence, cooperative learning requires students to work in small groups to help. ‧ 國. 學. each other learn. Each member of a group takes on a shared responsibility and works. ‧. together to achieve the group’s ultimate goal (Johnson & Johnson, 2000). Consequently,. sit. y. Nat. students’ achievement will increase if group goal and individual accountability are. io. er. integrated in cooperative learning (Slavin, Chamberlain, Daniels, & Madden, 2009). People sometimes use collaborative learning and cooperative learning. al. n. v i n interchangeably, but there is a C slight difference between them. A broad definition of hengchi U. collaborative learning is that it is a situation in which two or more persons learn. something together. In this situation, an interaction among them is expected to occur. The probability of making the interaction occur could be increased by setting up initial conditions and regulations, encompassing interaction rules and enhancing the teacher's monitoring (Dillenbourg, 1999). In cooperative learning, students split a task. After completing individual sub-tasks, students combine the partial results to make a final output. In contrast, collaborative learning encourages students to do the work together. Team collaboration is expected to induce more metacognitive thinking, higher self-esteem, better learning and positive 24.

(34) attitudes. However, sometimes capable members might take on more responsibility than others and thus 'free rider' effect is likely to occur (Salomon & Globerson, 1989). Collaborative learning has been integrated with technology and been applied in various areas of research for several years. The increasing popularity of the Internet related software brings spatially distributed people together to work on problem-solving joint activities (Stahl, Koschmann, & Suthers 2006). In team projects, people intellectually explore and socially interact with one another in small groups. The number of group members should be big enough to involve diverse opinions to reach a. 治政 2005). To ensure effective collaboration, a few things大 are important: time management, 立 convincing result but not be too big to make discussion go astray (Rummel & Sapda,. labors allocation, and the balance between individual and joint work. In addition,. ‧ 國. 學. establishing and sustaining mutual understanding among group members should also be. ‧. considered.. sit. y. Nat. Peer assisted learning (PAL) can be defined as people of similar social groupings. io. er. acquire knowledge and skills through active helping and supporting each other. Some researchers believed PAL possesses features which comply with the principles of. al. n. v i n effective instruction. PAL’s structured, between partners “offers C h one-to-one interaction engchi U social support and encouragement, increases students’ academic engaged time,. facilitates immediate corrective feedback, and permits frequent opportunities to respond (Fuchs, Fuchs, Mathes, & Simmons, 1997, p. 202).” Peer tutoring (PT) is a kind of peer assisted learning. It is an effective learning strategy which promotes students’ academic achievements and enhances their social skills. PT improves interaction among students and creates positive atmosphere in the classroom. PT also increases students’ engagement in learning tasks and maintains students’ attention to the reading texts for longer periods of time (Smith, 2013). Reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) allows students to take turns playing the roles of tutor and tutee. When students learn with more 25.

(35) knowledgeable peers, they expand visions and gradually they will become knowledgeable too. In this research, reading with peers was more like a form of collaboration. Students were not teamed up intentionally and the participant was not required to teach others. The focus was placed on the participant’s strategy use in peer reading situations, not on how to grade each member in a team or how to evaluate each person’s contribution to the team. So students were sometimes grouped heterogeneously and sometimes homogeneously.. 治政大likely to learn what they are Previous research indicated that learners are more 立 Reading Strategies Instruction. taught than what they are not taught (Allington, 1983). Many researchers suggested that. ‧ 國. 學. language learners can be trained to use specific strategies to improve their language. ‧. performance (O'malley, Chamot, Stewner, Russo, & Küpper, 1985). Students’ awareness. sit. y. Nat. of their own reading comprehension process could be enhanced through systematic,. io. er. direct instruction (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). Dreyer and Nel (2003) found that both good and at-risk students obtained higher comprehension scores after an experiment on. al. n. v i n development of strategy use with C hthe aid of study instruction. engchi U. From the cognitive psychological point of view, people achieve reading. comprehension through a complicated process of manipulating reading strategies (Dillenbourg, 1999). According to the results of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2006, children demonstrated much better in direct comprehension than in explanatory comprehension. In other words, children may know the meaning at words level, but they may not understand the implications, as they may have trouble reading between the lines. To help children read more efficiently, Shieh (2002) stated that reading strategies must be taught intentionally. Strategy learning has been included in many Chinese text books for a long time, but the English ability 26.

(36) indicators in the 9 year-academic-curriculum (2003) did not include reading strategies learning (see Appendix H). Having general awareness of reading strategies does not mean learners can actually put strategies into use ( Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002). Cubukcu (2008) found that explicitly teaching students about metacognition may assist students in various reading tasks. Teachers often refer to successful readers’ strategy use when they design reading strategy instruction. Baker and Brown (1984) suggested that strategy training should include (a) skills. 治政大 When strategies are those strategies, and (c) self-regulating the use of strategies. 立. training in using specific strategies, (b) training about the usefulness and significance of. appropriately modeled to students and opportunities of practice are sufficiently provided,. ‧ 國. 學. students’ comprehension usually will improve (Padrón, 1992; Snow, Burns, & Griffin,. ‧. 1998).. sit. y. Nat. Teachers’ instruction is an important source of input which offers meaningful. io. er. communication among the reader, the reading text and the writer in an appropriate context (Brown, 2007). Earlier studies suggested that strategy instruction positively. al. n. v i n affects learners’ reading comprehension 1999; Williams, 2002). C h (Chamot & El‐Dinary, engchi U Students need to know how to learn. One of the most important goals of language. teaching should be facilitating learners’ autonomy. An instruction approach called strategies-based instruction (SBI) was first addressed by Cohen (1998) and McDonough (1999). It basically means teaching learners how to learn. Learning strategies were believed to be an important factor which helps learners to achieving the final goal of becoming autonomous learners (Wenden, 1998). Auerbach and Paxton (1997) claimed that students’ conceptions, awareness, feelings, and strategies in English learning were positively affected by instructor’s attempt to bring metacognition into language reading class. With a fair degree of 27.

(37) guidance and modeling, readers can develop different reading comprehension skills; furthermore, providing readers opportunities to discuss and practice applying the strategies, readers would have a better chance of becoming critical readers. Teachers are entrusted with the responsibility to encourage students not to be afraid of making mistakes and to take risks. Students need to set goals for a particular reading and choose appropriate strategies to achieve comprehension (Silberstein, 1993). Paris and Winograd (1990) maintained that the consciousness-raising instruction can transfer the responsibility of monitoring learning from teachers to students and thus foster students’. 治政 Explicit reading instruction is not about teaching大 students to guess the answers to a 立. independent learning (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002).. formal exercise after reading a text (Lueg & Lueg, 2014). It is about increasing students’. ‧ 國. 學. awareness about their own learning (Schmidt, 2010). A higher level of awareness leads. ‧. to better learning outcome. To ensure success in reading comprehension, learners need. sit. y. Nat. not only the knowledge and the awareness of reading strategies, but also the ability to. io. er. regulate the strategies. It is worth noting that teachers’ conceptualization of which strategies would be most effective on improving students’ comprehension will decide. al. n. v i n what strategies to be taught (Cohen C h & Macaro, 2007).UReading strategies can be engchi developed to compensate for insufficient reading ability (Wallace, 1992).. Strategy instruction should satisfy students’ needs and students need to be taught on how to use metacognitive strategies to improve comprehension (Cohen & Macaro, 2007). Explicit explanation, teacher modeling and students’ self-regulated strategy use should be taken into consideration when teachers implement the strategy instruction (Chamot & El-Dinary, 1999; Cohen, 1998; Fisher & Frey, 2002; Graham, 1997; Oxford, 1990). Previous research supported that readers can be taught to develop both self-awareness and control of learning (Davis, 1995). Awareness of metacognitive skills can be developed through instruction. One important factor to differentiate successful and 28.

(38) unsuccessful strategy training is if metacognition is included (Carrell, 1998). Teachers can help students learn from reading and encourage students to take an active role in reading. The goal is to develop active, independent learners. Integrating metacognitive skills into classroom instruction can make that goal attainable. Winograd and Hare (1988) suggested that a careful and complete explanation by an instructor needs to have five elements. First, teachers should describe and define the features of each strategy; second, teachers should explain why a strategy should be learned; third, teachers should explain and demonstrate how to use various strategies;. 治政大 are successfully employed fifth, teachers should instruct students to evaluate if strategies 立 fourth, teachers should advise students on when and where the strategies can be used;. and give them suggestions on how to resolve remaining problems. Carrell (1998) agreed. ‧ 國. 學. that the above five elements precisely reflect Flavell’s (1979) definition about. ‧. metacognition. Although the strategy instruction in this research adopted the instruction. sit. y. Nat. model presented by Baker and Brown (1984), it carries the same meaning as Winograd. io. n. al. er. and Hare’s opinions about instruction.. Ch. engchi. 29. i n U. v.

(39) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 30. i n U. v.

(40) CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY The purpose of this research was to probe into a student’s reading strategy use towards different types/topics of reading texts in both peer reading situations and in individual reading situations after the strategy instruction. To obtain in-depth results, a case study was adopted for this research---to investigate how a student or phenomenon functions in a context over a period of time (Nunan, 1992). Eight sections comprise this. 治政大 the reading materials background, the research context, the data collection methods, 立. chapter, including the criteria used to choose the participant, the participant's. 學. ‧ 國. used in this study, the strategies students learned during the instruction, the data collection procedure and the data analysis.. ‧. Criteria of Selecting the Participant. sit. y. Nat. After observing the interaction among the students in the researcher's fifth grade. io. er. classroom for several months, the researcher had a general understanding about the students' background, strengths and weaknesses, and their difficulties in learning English.. al. n. v i n A participant, Joel (a pseudonym), C hwas selected basedUon the following criteria. First, he engchi always showed great motivation on learning English and had positive attitude toward. learning the foreign language and its culture (see Appendix E). Therefore, he was usually the first one volunteering to explain meanings of a reading passage when the other students were still at loss. Second, Joel did not spend much time on reading English and he did not work as hard as the other students; however, he greatly outscored his peers on many academic tests. Third, his good English ability made him qualified to be the participant of this research because most of the other students had difficulty reading a text with more than 100 words.. 31.

(41) The Participant Before entering kindergarten, Joel hardly read any English books except the word cards his mother bought for him. Those cards had Chinese on one side and English on the other. At around four years old, Joel went to a kindergarten where English was the only language spoken. Joel learned with English teachers during the three years of kindergarten. He perceived learning English as an enjoyable activity. He had a very positive attitude towards the language and its culture. After Joel graduated from kindergarten, he kept learning English at a private. 治政大 learning each time. The learning at cram school was academic-oriented. Joel knew very 立 English cram school two times a week after formal school hours, about two hours of. well about the purpose of learning English and the benefits of learning a foreign. ‧ 國. 學. language. He has a very supportive family. His parents run a trading company and. ‧. English is the main language they use to communicate with customers in everyday. sit. y. Nat. business. Sometimes, Joel’s father gave him business letters and let him practice. io. er. translating. His parents’ encouragement and love created a positive atmosphere in the family and helped develop Joel’s reading literacy at an early age.. al. n. v i n Joel’s English academic records 100 in first grade and 97 in grades C h at school were U engchi. two through six. Joel passed the “Movers” level of Cambridge Young Learners English Tests (YLE) and got the certificate in 2012 when he was in the fifth grade. One year later, he reached the advanced level and received a "Flyers" certificate. He passed an examination which qualified him for becoming a member of his dreamed junior high school’s English gifted class. When this research started, Joel already knew all the 300 vocabulary required for an elementary graduate. He was able to pronounce those words without problems. Joel always paid close attention to the teacher’s instruction and was very active in class activities. His great confidence and positive learning attitude were revealed in an 32.