An investigation into reading strategies employed by efl students at tra vinh high school for gifted students

APPENDIX 8: Summary of reading strategies used by successful and less successful students in reading a regular text --- 111 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Common pre-reading strategies of s

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITITES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY EFL STUDENTS AT TRA VINH HIGH

SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

Submitted to the Department of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By HANG PHUC MY PHUONG

Supervised by NGUYEN BICH HANH, M.A

HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2013

My sincere thanks go to the students at Tra Vinh high school for gifted students who have enthusiastically participated in the study

I would like to thank my friends in the MA course, TESOL 2008, for their useful advice, support, encouragement and willingness to share their resources and experience

The support extended to me by members of my family has been immeasurable I

am deeply grateful to my mother, my brother and my sister for their support and encouragement throughout the course and the completion of this thesis

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED

BY EFL STUDENTS AT TRA VINH HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED

STUDENTS

in terms of the statement of the Requirements for the Theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2013

HANG PHUC MY PHUONG

RETENTION OF USE

I hereby state that I, HANG PHUC MY PHUONG, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2013

HANG PHUC MY PHUONG

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements -i

Statement of originality - ii

Retention of use - iii

Table of contents - iv

List of tables - vii

List of charts - vii

Abstract - viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION - 1

1.1 Background to the study - 1

1.2 Statement of the problem - 3

1.3 Aims of the study - 6

1.4 Significance of the study - 7

1.5 Organization of the study - 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW - 8

2.1 Models of the reading process - 8

2.1.1 Bottom-up models - 9

2.1.2 Top-down models - 10

2.1.3 Interactive models - 12

2.2 Defining reading strategies - 13

2.3 Reading strategy identification - 15

2.3.1 Metacognitive strategies - 16

2.3.2 Cognitive strategies - 18

2.4 Strategies of good readers - 19

2.4.1 Metacognition - 19

2.4.2 Cognitive strategies - 21

2.5 The effects of reading strategy use in the reading process - 25

2.5.1 Assisting text comprehension - 25

2.5.2 Improving reading test performance - 27

2.5.3 Increasing fluent reading comprehension - 28

2.6 Framework for reading strategy instruction - 29

2.6.1 Framework for instructing a reading comprehension strategy - 29

2.6.2 Framework for strategic reading development - 31

2.7 Reading strategies to be taught - 33

2.8 Summary - 35

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY - 36

3.1 Research design - 36

3.1.1 Study setting - 36

3.1.2 Participants - 37

3.2 Instruments - 38

3.2.1 Questionnaire - 38

3.2.2 Reading test - 39

3.2.3 Retrospection report - 41

3.2.4 Think-aloud report - 41

3.3 Data collection procedure - 43

3.4 Data analysis procedure - 44

3.5 Summary - 45

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION - 46

4.1 Results from the questionnaire - 46

4.1.1 The students’ awareness of an English reading process - 46

4.1.2 The students’ frequency of using reading strategies in the reading process - 50

4.1.2.1 Frequency of using pre-reading strategies - 50

4.1.2.2 Frequency of using while-reading strategies - 51

4.1.2.3 Frequency of using post-reading strategies - 53

4.1.3 Summary - 55

4.2 Results from the reading test - 55

4.3 Results from retrospection and think-aloud reports - 56

4.3.1 The students’ employment of pre-reading strategies in their actual

reading process - 57

4.3.2 The students’ employment of while-reading strategies in their actual reading process - 62

4.3.3 The students’ employment of post-reading strategies in their actual reading process - 68

4.3.4 Summary - 70

4.4 Discussion of results - 71

4.5 Major findings - 76

4.6 Summary - 78

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS - 79

5.1 Summary - 79

5.2 Implications - 81

5.3 Suggestions - 83

5.3.2 For teachers at TVHSGS - 83

5.3.3 For the English majors at TVHSGS - 86

5.4 Limitations of the study - 86

5.5 Suggestions for further research - 87

REFERENCES - 88

APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Reading Test - 93

APPENDIX 2: Retrospection Report (Vietnamese Version) - 98

APPENDIX 3: Retrospection Report (English Version) - 99

APPENDIX 4: Questionnaire (Vietnamese Version) - 100

APPENDIX 5: Questionnaire (English Version) - 104

APPENDIX 6: The reading passage for thinking aloud - 108

APPENDIX 7: Summary of reading strategies used by successful and less successful students in doing a test - 110

APPENDIX 8: Summary of reading strategies used by successful and less

successful students in reading a regular text - 111

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Common pre-reading strategies of skilled readers - 23

Table 2.2: Common while-reading strategies of skilled readers - 24

Table 2.3: Common post-reading strategies of skilled readers - 24

Table 3.1: Students’ English learning experience - 37

Table 3.2: Main skills to be checked in the reading test - 40

Table 4.1: Students’ use of knowledge while reading English texts - 47

Table 4.2: Students’ awareness of the benefits of reading strategies - 49

Table 4.3: Frequency of using pre-reading strategies - 50

Table 4.4: Frequency of using while-reading strategies - 52

Table 4.5: Frequency of using post-reading strategies - 54

Table 4.6: Students’ reading test results - 55

Table 4.7: Students’ use of pre-reading strategies in their actual reading - 57

Table 4.8: Students’ use of while-reading strategies in their actual reading - 62

Table 4.9: Students’ use of post-reading strategies in their actual reading - -68

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Students’ ways of reading different types of English texts - 46

Chart 4.2: Students’ strategies of approaching the content of an English text 47

Chart 4.3: Students’ main purposes of reading English texts - 48 Chart 4.4: Students’ awareness of the importance of English reading strategies - 49

ABSTRACT

Reading research has indicated that good readers are strategic readers who use a variety of reading strategies to aid their text comprehension, increase reading fluency and enhance their test performance However, the teaching of reading strategies to Vietnamese high school students is neglected in the formal teaching of the reading skill Thus, this study was conducted to examine how EFL students at Tra Vinh High School for Gifted Students (TVHSGS) adopted reading strategies

in their reading process with a view to helping them develop strategic reading abilities

To achieve the goal, this study employed four data collection instruments including a questionnaire, a reading test, retrospection and think-aloud reports with the participation of 53 English majors of TVHSGS The results of the study revealed that the students were highly aware of an effective English reading process which requires utilizing both bottom-up and top-down approaches as well

as fluent text processing skills They used reading strategies more frequently in the pre-and while-reading stage for text comprehension than in the post-reading to gain a deeper understanding of texts Therefore, the skills they could use most successfully were skimming, scanning and guessing the meaning of new words

However, in actual reading most of the students tended to subscribe to bottom-up models by reading carefully to decode individual meanings for a complete understanding of texts even when the texts were simple Reports from retrospection and think-alouds also showed that the students did not have a thorough knowledge of using some basic strategies (e.g previewing, word meaning guessing) and lacked strong reading skills (e.g recognizing text structure, word recognition skills, making questions or predictions) to facilitate their interpretation, have an active engagement in texts and process them quickly Since the students are not used to responding to texts with a variety of effective strategies, the teaching of strategic reading is necessary to help them improve their

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study

Nowadays English has become a language for international communication The popularity of the language has a major impact on educational systems of many countries around the world in general and in Vietnam in particular Its position in the country can be seen clearly through the obligatory inclusion of English in all language curricula from elementary schools to universities with the aim of encouraging students to learn this important language to access information, to engage in advanced studies, to get a good job or to actively participate in the international integration Obviously, these goals can hardly be achieved without reasonable mastery of English

In order to open the way for students to be fluent at the language, the English language teaching in Vietnam is expected to help them acquire the four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is considered to be essential for students to learn because of several reasons First, it

is viewed as a useful tool to get access to world knowledge as well as ideas which are mainly written in English and exist in large numbers of English books Particularly, in the age of high technology reading proficiency continues to play an increasingly important role The advent of computers and the Internet has made greater demands on fluent English reading abilities to deal with large amounts of information to keep up with current events Second, the ability to read in English brings a lot of opportunities for students to make more progress and attain greater success in all academic areas (Anderson, 1999, p 1) In other words, it is believed that effective reading contributes greatly to developing students’ knowledge to the point at which advanced academic objectives can be accomplished With the considerable benefits of reading in English, training Vietnamese students to

become a good reader of English has been an indispensable part of English programs

Recently reading researchers (Grabe & Stoller, 2002; Janzen, 2002; Grabe, 2009; Almasi and Fullerton, 2012) have proposed that reading instruction should focus on the development of strategic readers who can specify goals for their reading activity, actively engage in reading by utilizing various effective reading strategies simultaneously, and monitor comprehension in an appropriate way while reading In order to become a strategic reader, students need to be taught effective text processing skills Especially, they should be able to recognize when, how and why to apply the strategies effectively in appropriate reading contexts Then they can gradually “build efficiency and automaticity in strategy use for routine situations that they commonly encounter” (Grabe, 2009, p 208)

Many reading research (Block, 1986; Anderson, 1999) also indicate that effective strategy instruction is not simply teaching one strategy at one time but various strategies in combination It should give students opportunities to practice strong strategies consistently across reading tasks Importantly, strategy discussion should be included in reading lessons to raise their awareness of strategic reading habits Acquiring a repertoire of effective strategies and the ability to use them in efficient combinations to monitor comprehension, readers can approach difficult and challenging texts and tasks with more confidence (Grabe & Stoller, 2002)

In order to help students become successful EFL learners, the teaching of reading in Vietnam used to be given priority over that of the other language skills for a long time (especially when the audio facilities were not available) Reading texts were once recognized as the most valuable sources of the authentic English language which could give teachers the opportunity to present new words and grammatical structures, the two most essential aspects to acquire the target language and understand English texts It is probably true to say that Vietnamese teachers of English invested a great deal of time and effort in teaching reading than

any other skills on the assumption that the more students read English texts the better their language acquisition was

Since the coming of the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” in 2006, the teaching of reading in many high schools in Vietnam has started to change The new material encourages teachers and students to make sense of the whole text within a forty-five minute period instead of dealing with each paragraph of the text

in different reading lessons as they did before

In an endeavor to improve students’ reading efficiency, the reading section

in the new textbooks is divided into three stages: “Before you read, While you read and After you read” The intended purpose of the clear division of the three stages

is to make students aware of an actual English reading process In “Before you read” stage, there are some pre-reading questions and pictures to draw students’ attention to the topic that they are about to read “While you read” section always includes three tasks in a fixed order Task 1 aims to focus students’ attention on vocabulary development while task 2 and task 3 consist of detailed comprehension questions to help students have a thorough understanding of the passage The last activity “After you read” is intended to help students personalize or localize the topic of a text through discussions or reflect their own experiences

With the innovation of the reading material and a clear educational goal, the teaching of reading is expected to fully develop students’ English reading abilities

to help them become effective readers

1.2 Statement of the problem

Up to now, however, it seems that most of Vietnamese high school students have failed to improve their reading abilities Three factors causing the problems are the design of the reading section in the English textbook, reading instruction and language tests

Firstly, the reading section does not state clearly the purpose of practicing a particular reading skill or group of skills in each task For instance, the instruction

of Task 1 does not state directly that it aims to help students develop the skill of guessing the meaning of the new words in context Instead, students are asked to complete the sentences by using words taken from the text or match the words with their definitions Hence, without a clear task requirement and the teacher’s encouragement for practicing the word meaning guessing skill, many students suppose they can look up the dictionary or turn to teachers or friends to know the meanings of the new words Apparently, such an unclear task instruction does not draw students’ attention to using the skill appropriately to do the task It can be said that although the reading section in the new textbook reveals the three phases

to process a text effectively, it is does not contribute much to students’ awareness

of improving effective reading skills

Secondly, the development of English reading abilities does not seem to be

a matter of concern to teachers or students in their reading programs The frequent primary goals of a reading lesson are to help students increase their vocabulary and make sense of texts to get detailed comprehension With this end in view, they follow the given order of the tasks closely: first discussing the topic of the text, next decoding some words, then answering comprehension questions and finally practicing other skills (i.e speaking and writing) based on the text content

It should be noticed that after having students answer pre-reading questions, the teacher provides the meanings of new words and goes through task 1 (vocabulary exercise) with them Since this activity is always conducted before getting students to process a passage, students tend to overemphasize the importance of vocabulary to get the meaning out of the text As a result, while reading they focus on dealing with new words at all times for text comprehension and do not contemplate using different reading skills to read it more fluently and efficiently

Thirdly, students have not been motivated to practice skilled reading due to the format of the language tests at high schools According to the requirements of English language testing, reading tests are almost always part of written tests which include other questions about vocabulary and grammar The combination of the different things enables students to manage their reading time at will As a result, most of them choose to read passages slowly and carefully with a view to understanding them fully Hence, they do not feel the need to familiarize themselves with using various reading strategies to make sense of texts efficiently under time pressure

It is clear that the three aforementioned problems seriously affect students’ development of effective reading skills to have active engagements in the actual reading process In fact, the consequences of the problems were reflected in two survey research by Le (2006) and Ung (2007) They carried out investigations into the instruction of EFL reading strategies and teaching and learning reading comprehension at four high schools in Binh Duong province The participants in these studies were EFL students who did not major in English The results of the research revealed that most EFL teachers and students neglected the development

of effective reading skills in classrooms

According to the former researcher, students processed a text by using

“bottom up, decoding strategies: word-by-word decoding by looking up words in the dictionary and translating into Vietnamese” (Le, 2006, pp iv-v) Also, she found that it was the instruction of only decoding strategies that left its mark on the students’ reading strategies Similarly, the latter researcher stated that “sub-reading skills such as skimming, inferring, predicting are unfamiliar to the students’ experience” as a result of teachers’ instruction focusing on vocabulary teaching and decoding skills (Ung, 2007, p iv) From the findings, both of the researchers shared their view that little attention was paid to the formal teaching and learning

of effective English reading skills in many high schools

It is certain that Tra Vinh High School for gifted students (TVHSGS) is facing the same problem Observation of many reading lessons at this school showed that teachers hardly instructed students how to read English texts or to employ reading skills to support comprehension In addition, an examination of some reading lesson plans prepared by the teachers at TVHSGS revealed that although the objectives of developing specific reading skills for students were clearly stated at the very beginning of the plan, they made no explicit mention of the specific steps to instruct students how to apply the skills into reading a text or

to have a discussion with students about their employment of the strategies after reading

Since teachers at TVHSGS do not pay attention to teaching students how to read English texts effectively, it may affect their development of reading skills, especially the English majors at this school Therefore, it is of great importance to conduct an investigation into the use of reading strategies of the English majors in

an attempt to suggest ways of improving their reading abilities and make teachers aware of their responsibilities of teaching strategic reading to the students

1.3 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are to investigate the employment of reading strategies of the English majors at Tra Vinh High School for gifted students and from the findings to offer recommendations about the incorporation of strategy training in the teaching of reading

To achieve the purposes, the study is conducted to find answers to the following research questions:

1 What do the English majors at TVHSGS think of an English reading process?

2 How frequently do they use reading strategies in their reading process?

3 Which reading strategies can they use most successfully?

1.4 Significance of the study

The study is aimed at gaining a better insight into the use of reading strategies which reflects reading efficiency of the English majors at TVHSGS Hopefully, the identified problems will motivate students at TVHSGS to make conscious attempts to develop their EFL reading abilities Also, the teaching implications and suggestions of this study will enable the teachers to conduct reading strategy training in classrooms to reinforce students’ reading skills and stimulate them to read in English more fluently

1.5 Organization of the study

The structure of the study consists of five chapters

Chapter 1 provides background information and existing problems of teaching reading comprehension and reading strategies in Vietnamese high schools and in TVHSGS It also points out the aims of the study, the research questions, the significance and the organization of the study

Chapter 2 presents an overview of the theoretical background of the research including (1) review of the models of the reading process; (2) discussion

of reading strategies including its definition, strategy identification, and effects, and (3) some frameworks for reading strategy instruction in classroom Chapter 3 focuses on the methodology employed in the study, including its research design, subjects and instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures Chapter 4 analyzes and interprets the data collected from the questionnaire, the reading test, retrospection and think aloud reports It then discusses the results and draws out some major findings of the research Chapter 5 summarizes the key findings and gives recommendations for English language teachers at TVHSG to improve students’ employment of reading strategies and proposes topics for further research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background of the research First, it discusses different models of the reading process Then it defines reading strategies, identifies two major groups of reading strategies, strategies of good readers and the effects of strategies in reading comprehension Finally, it presents some models of reading strategy instruction and effective strategies suggested by researchers to be taught in classroom

2.1 Models of the reading process

This section begins with a brief overview of the models of the reading process In this section, three different reading models: bottom-up, top-down and interactive models are discussed in sections 2.1.1, 2.1.2 and 2.1.3

“What is reading?” To this question, there have been many definitions proposed but it seems that none of them is satisfying all reading specialists Urquhart and Weir (1998, p 2) defines reading as “the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via the medium of print” However, this definition is disapproved by Carrell and Grabe (2002, p 234) These researchers point out that the single-sentence definition is insufficient since it does not reveal the different ways readers use to approach a text according to their purposes or the role of background knowledge during the reading process They suggest a more elaborate definition of reading should be given since reading is a complex activity

In fact, research in the field of psycholinguistics has demonstrated that reading is a highly complicated process of interaction between the reader and the text This conclusion has encouraged more research on reading to understand the processes underlying the skill over the last decades From the 1940s to the 1980s

of the many processes involved in reading by building up several models Based

on various reading theories, three main categories of models of how readers approach a text have been developed from passive to active to interactive including bottom-up models, top-down models and interactive models

2.1.1 Bottom-up models

The first and oldest models of the reading process are bottom-up models, which were developed in the 1940s and 1950s and used to be strongly approved in the teaching of reading Bottom-up models view reading as a well-formed process

in which a “series of stages that proceed in a fixed order from sensory input to comprehension” (Hudson, 1998, p 46, as cited in Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000,

p 122)

The models suggest readers process a text from its smaller units to its larger ones For instance, after recognizing the letters and the word created from the combination of these letters, readers tries to extract its meaning Next, they construct the meaning of a phrase or a clause by collecting the meaning of each word Finally, they derive the meaning of a sentence from gathering the meaning

of each phrase or clause Clearly, bottom-up models emphasize the use of the decoding skills as a prime factor for comprehension on the assumption that meaning is supposed to be hidden in the text itself (Samuel and Kamil, l984) The bottom-up text processing is described by Segalowitz, Poulsen and Komoda (1991,

as cited in Anderson, 1999) as follows:

“… lower-level processes consist of word recognition and include visual recognition of letter features, letter identification, the generation of grapheme-morpheme correspondences, utilization of orthographic redundancies such as regularities in letter sequences, the association of words to their semantic representations, possibly the identification of basic syntactic structures within the portion of text currently being read, and with the generation of propositional units.” (p 3)

It can be said that bottom-up models consider efficient readers as those who have good linguistic knowledge to process the text letter by letter, word by word and sentence by sentence According to Kolers & Katzamann (as cited in Nunan,

1991, p 253), this way of text processing is not always effective because of some problems First, it takes much time to decipher every letter and word of a text Second, there is likelihood that text meaning will be lost during the lengthy decoding process In other words, readers taking up the models are very likely to have difficulty doing fast reading with sufficient comprehension when circumstances require Third, decoding skills do not guarantee readers to get access to all the underlying meanings even if the text is read at slow speed

2.1.2 Top-down models

Top-down models were developed through the late 1960s and 1970s with great contributions of Goodman (1969, 1982) and Smith (1978) According to the researchers, the greatest difference between top-down models and bottom-up models is that readers taking up top-down models prioritize other sources of knowledge rather than completely rely on linguistic information to comprehend the text Smith (1978) stresses the importance of all the elements the reader brings to the reading process including: (1) the reader’s experience with the reading process, (2) knowledge of the context of the text, (3) familiarity with the structures and patterns of the language and of specific text types, and (5) generalized knowledge

of the world and specific subject matter knowledge Among these different sources

of knowledge, the reader’s background knowledge is viewed as the key element in constructing meaning of the text

The top-down perspective can also be found in Goodman’s model of reading called “psycholinguistic guessing game” In this model he describes a reading process in which readers “guess or predict the text’s meaning on the basis

of minimal textual information, and maximum use of existing activated knowledge” (as cited in Alderson, 2000, p 17) Specifically, the reader of the top-

connected it to his or her background knowledge and experience Next (s)he generates some expectations or makes some predictions about the text which are later confirmed or rejected while the reader is processing the text to find useful information for comprehension (Grabe & Stoller, 2002, p 32)

Thus, in the top-down models the reader’s contribution to meaning is considered to be an essential ingredient to comprehend texts In other words, readers are active meaning constructors in their reading process They are able to develop hypotheses about the possible meaning of a text and test them by continuously integrating textual information with prior knowledge for a better understanding of the text In short, the top-down approach promotes readers to interact with texts and writers actively

The top-down processing models, however, are not always accepted in the reading teaching practices, especially in contexts where the bottom-up approach has already existed because they have several problems One problem, as Stanovich (1980) points out, is that top-down readers will spend longer time making sense of texts if they neglect using decoding skills and emphasize making predictions of meaning by means of context cues or certain kinds of background knowledge (as cited in Nunan, 1999, p 253)

Another problem of the top-down models indicated by Eskey & Devine (1988) is that they “do not provide a true picture” of ESL/EFL readers In his view, the reader subscribing to the top-down models is certainly a good reader who can decode most words in texts rapidly by using many word attack and word recognition strategies These models are, therefore, supposed to be not appropriate for ESL/EFL readers who are on the way to the mastery of the language Similarly, Konza (2006, p 9) criticized the top-down models as comprehension based on using background knowledge and textual information is only possible when the reader can decode most of the text

Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000, p 122) also warn language learners and educators about the possible problems of using the models They say that this way

of processing is only appropriate for the readers who have some knowledge of the subject matter of the text On the contrary, if readers are not familiar with the topic

of the text, it will become more difficult for them to process it

It is clear that both bottom-up and top-down models fail to characterize or fully explain the reading process Thus, a more complete description of the reading process, the interactive models of reading, was developed by many reading specialists to reflect it more accurately

2.1.3 Interactive models

The interactive nature of the reading process has been described and studied during the 1980s by many researchers in this field (Rumelhart, 1977, 1980, 1985; Rumelhart and McClelland, 1982; Stanovich, 1980, 1981, 1986) From the research, interactive models started to emerge and have been accepted since they combine elements of both bottom-up and top-down processings Rumelhart (1977

as cited in Alderson, 2000, p 18) proposes a model in which readers’ comprehension of a text is derived from synthesizing various knowledge sources

to decide on text meanings

The idea is promoted in an “Interactive-Compensatory model” suggested by Stanovich (1980, as cited in Grabe & Stoller, 2002) In the model he puts forward the view that the combination of the bottom-up and top-down approaches not only compensates for their deficiencies but also enhances the readers’ active engagement in their reading process Specifically, readers taking up this model can rely more on context clues if they have problems with decoding skills Approving

of the idea, Dechant (1991) states that in an interactive model:

“… meaning comes from many sources, that the reader simultaneously uses all level of processing, that any one source of meaning can be primary at a given time, that

others, and that the reader constructs meaning by the selective use of information from all the sources of meaning without adherence to any set order.” (p 27)

Thus, during a reading process a reader of the interactive models continually changes his focus of attention from using top-down strategies to predict the content of the text to employing the bottom-up strategies to understand the textual information This point is clearly stated in Nunan’s definition (1999) that “reading is an interactive process, in which the reader constantly shuttles between bottom-up and top-down processes” (p 254)

Thus, interactive models regard good readers as those who can combine both top-down and bottom-up processing techniques according to reading purposes and reading situations to interact with texts They make sense of the text by activating their prior knowledge of the topic of the text and making use of their linguistic knowledge It is the simultaneous utilization of the two approaches that make the interactive nature of the reading process (Grabe, 1991, as cited in Alderson, 2000, p 18) It is appropriate to mention an interactive view reflected in Wixon and Peter’s definition of reading (as cited in Anthony, Pearson and Raphael, 1993, p 284):

“Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language, and the context of the reading situation.”

To sum up, interactive reading models encourage all the contributory elements to reading which can be activated through the efficient use of appropriate reading strategies Certainly, the reading strategy approach is the one that most reflects the interactive reading model This will be discussed in the following sections

2.2 Defining reading strategies

Afflerbach et al (2008) These researchers commonly regarded reading strategies

as a “purposeful means” or a “set of conscious activities” that readers select to approach a text effectively and to comprehend the author’s message Afflerbach et

al (2008, as cited in Almasi & Fullerton, p 1) define reading strategies as

“deliberate goal-directed attempts to control and modify the reader’ effort to decode text, understand the words, and construct meanings of text.”

However, later it is suggested that although the term “reading strategies” emphasizes the reader’s intentional participation to comprehend a text, not all strategies are consciously employed by fluent readers According to Davies (1995,

p 50), reading strategies include both conscious and unconscious mental activities which are deliberately taken by the reader to facilitate his/her text interpretation

To distinguish the two aspects of strategy use, many researchers refer to them as reading strategies and reading skills Their differences have been discussed among reading researchers such as Carrell (1998), Grabe and Stoller (2002) and Grabe (2009) The following definition of reading skills and reading strategies showing their different features as well as their relationship are provided

by Paris, Wasik, and Turner (1991, as cited in Carrell, Gajdusek & Wise, 1998) as follows:

“… Skills refer to informational processing techniques that are automatic whether

at the level of recognizing grapheme-phoneme correspondence or summarizing a story

Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many reasons including expertise, repeated

practice, compliance with directions, luck, and nạve use In contrast, strategies are

actions selected deliberately to achieve particular goals An emerging skill can become a

strategy when it is used intentionally Likewise, a strategy can “go underground” (cf Vygotsky, 1978) and become a skill Indeed strategies are more efficient and developmentally advanced when they become generated and applied automatically as skills Thus, strategies are “skills under consideration”. (p 97)

It can be seen that when a reading strategy is used automatically it becomes

continuously Hence, later is there a compromise agreement that the precise distinction between skills and strategies is not completely clear since they have an interrelationship and are an integral part of a reading process (Grabe & Stoller,

2002, p 15)

Reading strategies, therefore, were given more careful definitions which refer to different approaches to various kinds of text Wallace (1992, p 57) and Singhal (2001, p 1) describe them as “ways of processing text” used by the reader according to the text types, the reading purpose, and the contextual situation in order to enhance text comprehension and overcome failures of meaning construction More specifically, Duffy (1993, p 232) considers reading strategies

as ways of solving problems the reader encounters while making sense of text (as cited in Janzen, 2002, p 287)

Since the reader cannot use a single strategy to tackle texts, reading strategies are emphasized as “a wide arrays of tactics that readers use to engage and understand texts” (Carrell, 1998, p 7) The following section will make an attempt to identify reading strategies which are associated with the reading process

2.3 Reading strategy identification

Research has begun to focus on identifying language learning strategies since 1980s A number of ways of categorizing strategies have been developed including classifications of language learning strategies in general and language sub-skills strategies in particular by many researchers such as O’Malley and Chamot (1990), Rubin and Wenden (1987) and Oxford (1990) These researchers have endeavored to classify the strategies into general categories such as learning strategies, communication strategies, social strategies, direct and indirect strategies

Two major language learning strategies which are universally recognized

knowledge about cognitive process and such self-management processes as planning, monitoring, and evaluating Cognitive strategies refer to the steps or strategies which learners use to acquire the language knowledge Based on this idea, reading researchers have made great attempts to reflect the two major categorizations of reading strategies.

2.3.1 Metacognitive strategies

Reading researchers such as Carrell, Gajdusek and Wise (1998) and Grabe, (2009) view metacognition in reading as the knowledge and control that readers have over their cognitive processes The first aspect involves the reader’s awareness of his or her own reading comprehension process and from the identification (s)he will decide on steps to interpret texts more effectively According to Carrell, Gajdusek and Wise (1998, p 104), there are three components of metacognitive knowledge in reading: declarative (knowing what a reading strategy is and why it should be learned), procedural (knowing how to use the strategy) and conditional (knowing when, where and how to evaluate its effectiveness) These kinds of metacognitive knowledge are considered especially important since they reveal the reader’s consciousness of the value of strategies and use them in appropriate contexts

The second aspect of metacognition refers to the management of the reading process by employing various reading strategies in combinations which consist of planning, monitoring, testing, revising, and evaluating of the strategies employed during reading (Baker & Brown, 1984 as cited in Carrell, Gajdusek & Wise, 1998) Thus, metacognitive control has been considered as metacognitive strategies

However, according to Grabe (2009), these so-called metacognitive strategies are not specific strategies but processes that can be supported by a number of strategies Thus, he states that the processes or metacognition should

He also puts forward the view that the reader’s metacognition can have direct effects on the choice of strategies to meet the reading goals In order to regulate

text comprehension, Grabe suggests using the following metacognitive processes:

1 Set (or reset) reading goals

2 Expect to build a coherent interpretation of a text and establish the main ideas

of a text

3 Make inferences as necessary in line with our goals

4 Monitor comprehension to maintain a coherent interpretation and awareness of main ideas

5 Recognize when we are losing coherence of interpretation or the reading output does not match our reader goals

6 Summarize the main ideas of a text

7 Engage various strategies to help repair an incoherent interpretation

8 Evaluate the reading input in various ways beyond simple understanding

(ibid p 224)

It can be seen that these management processes are not always consciously carried out by the reader since they may change their focus of attention on using specific strategies more or less effectively Hence, Grabe points out that on the basis of reading goals and the awareness of their own comprehension readers may employ appropriate strategies to monitor their text interpretation

In brief, metacognitive abilities play a vital role in reading It indicates what

we know about an effective reading process as well as what we do to comprehend texts successfully O’Malley & Chamot (1990) point out that: “Students without metacognitive approaches are essentially learners without direction or opportunity

to review their progress, accomplishments, and future directions” (p 561) It is true that the development of the abilities is necessary since it contributes greatly to strategic reading for comprehension

2.3.2 Cognitive strategies

As O’Malley, Chamot and Oxford (1990) put it, cognitive strategies involve dealing with the language directly In reading, cognitive strategies have commonly been recognized as specific steps used by a reader such as guessing the meaning of

an unknown word from context, paying attention to text structure, identifying discourse markers, ignoring an important word, generating a question about an author, or recognizing a main idea (Grabe, 2009)

Oxford (1990) made recommendations for the utilization of cognitive strategies in learning the four language skills Some of the strategies which can be applied to help improve reading comprehension are identified as follows:

1 Repeating This strategy involves reading a passage several times to

comprehend it more thoroughly A useful technique is each time to go through the passage with a different purpose to enhance comprehension

2 Recognizing and Using Formulas and Patterns This strategy greatly

contributes to reading comprehension and fluency if the reader can be aware of common structures in the target language

3 Getting the idea quickly This strategy which consists of skimming and

scanning allows readers to focus on what they need to understand and skip the unimportant information

4 Reasoning deductively This strategy is common and very useful because

the reader engages in making hypotheses and constructing meanings implied in the text

5 Analyzing expressions This strategy is used to break down complicated

structural units into smaller parts to make sense of them more easily

6 Translating This strategy is helpful for beginners, but it can sometimes

slow down their reading

7 Transferring This strategy involves using prior knowledge to overcome

interpretation difficulties

8 Taking notes This strategy means jotting down the main points of the text

in order to focus on understanding the text as a whole

9 Summarizing This strategy involves readers logically organizing the main

information to check their comprehension

10 Highlighting This strategy is used to emphasize major points in the text

These cognitive strategies are believed to enable readers to improve text understanding and thus they are essential in reading comprehension process

2.4 Strategies of good readers

There have been a lot of attempts made by researchers to discern what reading strategies a good reader actually use to comprehend a text to help poor readers to improve their reading comprehension In fact, research on reading strategies has identified a wide variety of strategies used by good readers They have an enormous range from such commonly used reading strategies as skimming and scanning to significant strategies such as activating background knowledge and recognizing text structure Below are findings of some studies on reading strategies of good readers which distinguish them from poor readers

2.4.1 Metacognition

Reading strategy research have indicated that good readers are more conscious of responding to texts strategically One important study carried out by Gibson and Levin (1975, as cited in Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000) reveals that effective readers quickly accommodate themselves with a kind of text and use appropriate strategies to attack it effectively according to their reading purposes Moreover, they can recognize the causes of interpretation difficulties or inefficient strategies and immediately select stronger strategies to repair miscomprehension

Other findings from Pearson and Gallagher’s study (1983) show that good

knowledge, text structure, making inferences to facilitate their reading Particularly, they have an awareness of the strategies they are going to use and in general they are better at monitoring and adjusting the strategies they use

In addition to the metacognitive knowledge of strategic text processings, successful readers actually know how to use various reading strategies in combination effectively, which is shown in the two following research

In one study Block (1986) examined the strategies used by nine native English speakers and ESL students They were asked to read two expository passages from an introductory psychological textbook, do a think-aloud while reading, retell each passage, and answer twenty multiple choice comprehension questions about the text From think-aloud reports, Block found that the readers who got higher comprehension scores could use both top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously to comprehend the text The study also addressed four characteristics which make readers successful: (1) the ability to integrate old and new information; (2) the ability to recognize aspects of text structure; the ability to use general knowledge, personal experiences, and associations; and (4) the ability

to process texts objectively

Another study carried out by Anderson (1991, as cited in Grabe and Scholler, 2002, pp 138-140) pointed out that effective readers employed a wide array of strategies to control their reading process Participants in the study were

28 Spanish-speaking students in an ESL program First, they were asked to do a reading test Based on the results of the test, they were divided into three groups: high, intermediate and low levels of reading proficiency Then they were taught to give think-aloud comments on a reading task and made verbal reports The students were also asked to describe the strategies that they used while reading and answering comprehension questions at the end of each passage in a reading test From the think-alouds, Anderson classified the steps taken by students to read texts into 47 reading strategies

The results of the study showed that both successful and unsuccessful students applied almost the same types of strategies into different reading texts The main differences in their strategy use were that good readers used much more strategies and monitored them in a more appropriate and effective way while reading whereas weaker readers were not fluent at this Thus, the study indicated that good readers not only had a great awareness of how to use a specific strategy effectively but also could integrate its use with other strategies strategically (pp 468-469)

It can be seen that from the awareness of the benefits of strategic responses

to text, better readers employ a wide variety of strong strategies to make their interpretation possible

2.4.2 Cognitive strategies

It is clear that successful readers are effective strategy users who can combine both bottom-up and top-down skills simultaneously and flexibly to

interact and comprehend a text (Dijik & Kintsch, 1993, as cited in Celce-Murcia &

Olshtain 2000, p 124) A lot of specific strategies employed by good readers to process a text are found in many studies

Hosenfeld (1977, as cited in Alderson & Urquhart, 1984) made an effort to identify the strategies students used to solve problems of understanding foreign language texts The subjects in his study were 40 ninth-grade U.S students learning French as a foreign language First, they were classified into two groups: successful and unsuccessful readers based on the score they gained from an L1 reading test Then they were asked to verbalize the strategies they used while

doing a task and after they completed it From the reports, she found that before reading successful readers made use of illustrations, the title and world knowledge

to facilitate their reading While reading they read in clusters of words, skipped

less important words, kept meaning of the text in mind, guessed the meanings of

unfamiliar words, constructed the meaning of the text and evaluated their guesses

By contrast, unsuccessful readers failed to do this

Hosenfeld (1984) later conducted a study to find out how good readers used

a common specific reading strategy: guessing the meaning of unknown words The participants in the study were L2 young readers From the study she found that successful readers employed various strategies to decipher the new words: (1) skipping the unimportant words, (2) identifying the part of speech of unfamiliar words, (3) getting the meanings from others in the sentences, (4) making use of textual information to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words, and (5) employing background knowledge to infer the meaning of unknown words (as cited in Alderson & Urquhart, 1984)

The study carried out by Aebersold and Field (1997, p 16) revealed many strategies a successful reader employed to read a text from both top-down and

bottom-up perspectives Before reading, they made use of titles, text features, world knowledge and context to guess about the meaning of the text While reading, they kept making and evaluating the guesses to construct the meaning of

the text correctly Also, they used different strategies to monitor their comprehension such as reading carefully, keeping the main ideas in mind and paraphrasing complicated points to check comprehension

From some studies on good readers, Pressley (2002) found out effective

readers employed significantly various strategies Before reading good readers set

specific goals for their reading, previewed the text, activated prior knowledge in

appropriate ways, and formed predictions about the text While reading, readers

actively got involved with the text in many ways: making use of text structure to guide understanding, identifying important information, making guesses about unknown words, making inferences from prior knowledge and monitoring their

comprehension continuously After reading, they often checked their

understanding, built main-idea summaries, reflected on the information in the text,

evaluated the information from the text in various ways (as cited in Grabe 2009, p 226)

It can be said that good readers are strategic readers who can apply an orchestra of strategies to make text interaction possible Therefore, reading specialists have made attempts to put forward a typology of reading strategies in order to help less successful readers become more effective readers It is agreed that there may be an overlap among the strategies while being used, which shows the interconnectedness of the strategies and the interactive nature of the reading

process

Based on research on reading strategies, Grabe and Stoller (2002, p 16) identified 22 common reading strategies employed by skilled readers They are divided into 3 groups on the basis of the three reading stages of a reading process

as follows:

PRE-READING STRATEGIES

Specifying a purpose for reading Predicting the contents of the text or section of text Planning what to do Paying attention to text structure

Previewing the text Posing questions about the text

Connecting text to background knowledge

Table 2.1: Common pre-reading strategies of skilled readers

This set of strategies is used to prepare for purposeful and active interpretation of texts The two first are adhered with the reader’s metacognition of the reading process while the other five strategies belong to top-down processing skills The most commonly used strategy, previewing, can include the four following strategies if readers use all of them simultaneously Thus, while previewing readers not just conduct a quick survey of the resources and the text structure but also activate prior knowledge to make predictions of the text content

or formulate their expectations in the question forms

It should be noted that these pre-reading strategies are also used in the while-reading process Hence, their emergence in the list is not in fixed order or in one specific reading stage

Identifying difficulties Checking comprehension

Table 2.2: Common while-reading strategies of skilled readers

The aim of this group of strategies is to adopt different tools to comprehend texts clearly It begins with two strategies used quickly to respond to the actions taken in the pre-reading stage The next two strategies are about the abilities to recognize discourse organization of text while the three following strategies are the processes to monitor comprehension The subsequent two strategies are used to overcome comprehension difficulties and comprehend the text clearly The last strategy employed by skilled readers to adjust their processes for comprehension in

an appropriate way

POST-READING STRATEGIES

Summarizing information Critiquing the text Critiquing the author Reflecting on what has been learned from the text Judging how well objectives were met

Table 2.3: Common post-reading strategies of skilled readers

The five strategies in this group are commonly adopted after finishing reading to check the reader’s understanding of the whole text, promote critical thinking, evaluate their performance to get more reading experiences and make plans for future reading

In short, as many reading specialists say, successful readers have a fairly large range of strategies, use various kinds of appropriate strategies in effective combinations to comprehend a text They also have better metacognitive awareness of the reading process and get engaged actively in text interpretation Therefore, the reading strategies play an important role in assisting reading

comprehension The following section will discuss their effects

2.5 The effects of reading strategy use in the reading process

How the employment of strategies is related to effective reading comprehension has been the focus of both first and second language reading research The findings from these studies have confirmed the important role of reading strategies and their relationships to reading efficiency (Johnson, 1982; Carrell, 1984; Rasinki, Padak, Linek & Sturtevant, 1994)

2.5.1 Assisting text comprehension

Many studies on L1 and L2 reading strategies agree that strategic reading is

a key characteristics of expert readers (Paris, Wasik and Turner, 1991 as cited in

Carrell & Grabe, 2002, p 246) A lot of L1 reading research shows that expert

readers use a variety of reading strategies to aid comprehension (Baker and Brown, 1984) In L2 reading, Grabe stresses the important role of strategic reading abilities

by stating when a set of reading strategies can be used appropriately and flexibly according to different reading purposes, then it is “a critical component for comprehension” (as cited in pres & Renandya, 2005, p 281)

In the light of the research on reading strategies of good and poor readers,

adopted by successful readers (Carrell, 1985; Carrell, 1989; Pressley & Woloshyn, 1995) These studies show a positive correlation between reading strategy instruction and reading comprehension

With the aim of strengthening students’ reading skills, Carrell (1985) investigated the effects of teaching the rhetorical organization of texts on reading comprehension in ESL context The participants were 25 high intermediate ESL students who were divided into two groups: an experimental and a control group The experimental group was taught four major expository discourse types including “comparison, causation, problem/solution, and description” while the control group received no training The results showed that the experimental group recalled more ideas from the given texts than the control group It also pointed out that the ability to recognize the organization of texts helped readers to understand the content of the texts clearly and present the information they collected with a more appropriate text organization

For further research on the effectiveness of strategy instruction, Carrell (1989) conducted a study to investigate the effects of cognitive and metacognitive strategy instruction on the reading ability of ESL students The subjects of this study were 26 high intermediate level adult ESL students In the experiment, they were divided into three groups One group of the students received training in the semantic mapping techniques which aim to promote their ability to recollect associated vocabulary Another group received training in the experience-text-relationship (ETR) which is used to develop the skill of integrating background knowledge and textual information These groups were also trained in metacognitive awareness to govern their reading process A third group underwent

no training Students were also given a test before and after the experiment to assess their reading improvement The findings showed that the use of both strategies enhanced L2 reading comprehension of the students in the experimental groups as compared with the group that received no training

Thus, it is generally recognized now that selecting appropriate reading strategies and using them flexibly depending on the particular types of text and reading purposes really help readers interact with text effectively as well as

enhance their comprehension

2.5.2 Improving reading test performance

To investigate how reading strategy training supports reading comprehension, many studies had the participants do pre- and post-tests Their findings revealed that the employment of reading strategies really helped to improve students’ comprehension tests scores The three following studies carried out in different contexts showed the positive outcome

In L1 context, Brown and Palinscar (1984, as cited in Sternberg & Berg,

1999, p 338) conducted a study to determine whether strategy instruction had a positive effect on reading comprehension The subjects in the study were seventh grade native speakers of English who were divided into two groups: the experimental group and the control group The experimental group was taught four strategies: (1) clarifying, (2) identifying the main idea of a section of text, (3) summarizing, and (4) predicting During the instruction, the teacher modeled the use of these four strategies Then the subjects were divided into groups and a student was asked to model the use of these strategies by thinking aloud as s(he) was reading a text The teacher then conducted a group discussion on the use of these strategies At the end of the instruction, a reading test was administered The results showed that the students who were taught the strategies did score higher on the comprehension test than those students who were not

Also in L1 context, Brown, Pressley, Van Meter and Schuder (1996, as cited in Grabe & Scholler, 2002, p 114) carried out a study to examine the effectiveness of transactional strategy instruction (TSI) on students’ reading comprehension The participants were students who had a low level of English

into the experimental and control groups and taught to read with TSI for one year After finishing the program, they were tested on word study skills and reading comprehension The results of the study showed that the experimental students had significantly better reading test scores than did the control students

In order to help university freshmen to develop reading skills for more effective reading comprehension, in her research Ta (2004) incorporated reading strategy instruction into reading lessons to teach fifty EFL students The training lasted 15 weeks with careful instructions and frequent discussions about strategic reading To find out whether the strategy training could help develop her students’ reading comprehension, a pre-test and a post-test were administered to the participants The results showed that the students’ reading comprehension scores were improved after subscribing to the course

It is clear that the employment of effective reading strategies support students’ reading performance strongly They are especially beneficial and thus essential for EFL students who are faced with many formal testing situations

2.5.3 Increasing fluent reading comprehension

Reading specialists now agree that using reading strategies automatically and flexibly makes a great contribution to fluent reading comprehension According to Grabe and Stoller (2002, p 79) “fluency and automaticity in reading

processing are now seen as essential foundations for reading comprehension.”

Anderson (1999) especially emphasizes the important role of automaticity in

reading comprehension as follows:

“Automaticity plays a critical role in the development of strong reading skills.… When reading rate becomes more automatic, readers will be able to use their cognitive skills for comprehending what they are reading They will be able to spend thinking time analyzing and synthesizing what they are reading and not moving through a passage one word at a time The reader must approach the reading task with automaticized skills.” (p

It can be said that readers who get used to using strategies, especially word recognition skills, fast reading skills, can read texts more quickly When rapid reading can occur, it stimulates more strategic responses to texts and thus makes reading fluency Processing texts rapidly and automatically is an essential component of fluent reading comprehension abilities

One empirical study was carried out by Cushing Weigle and Jensen (1996,

as cited in Anderson, 1999, p 59) to investigate the effects of reading rate instruction on L2 reading fluency of advanced international students at UCLA The participants were taught regular timed and paced readings in nine weeks The results of the study showed that the students could add more than 100 words to their previous average reading rate of 184 words per minute

Therefore, it is obvious that the ability to use reading strategies automatically will help students read English texts faster and more fluently When they can regulate their reading process at high reading speed, they will read the text more With more time spent on tackling the text, their comprehension will definitely improve

2.6 Framework for reading strategy instruction

2.6.1 Framework for instructing a reading comprehension strategy

Based on the research on strategy instruction, Winograd & Hare (1988, as cited in Carrell, Gajdusek & Wise, 1998, pp 102-103) suggested the explanation

of a reading comprehension strategy should include the following five steps First,

teachers explain what a strategy is by describing its important features or giving a

definition Second, teachers tell students why learning the strategy is important to help them see its potential benefits Third, teachers illustrate how to use the

strategy by analyzing its various components.Four, teachers point out when and

where it is appropriate to employ the strategy Five, teachers instruct students how

to evaluate their strategy use

To implement strategy instruction into learning a foreign language,

ESL/EFL teachers suggest using a popular instructional sequence of introducing, practicing, reinforcing and evaluating strategy use for each language task The

sequence attempts to raise students’ metacognitive awareness of the value of particular strategies, give them opportunities to practice the strategies and help them apply the strategies they have learned in new learning contexts

A model of this kind of instruction is proposed by O’Malley & Chamot (as

cited in Oxford, 1990, p 216) The researchers worked on a project called

Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) to provide a useful framework for direct language learning strategy instruction The sequence of strategy training in CALLA consists of five phases:

(1) Preparation: get students to prepare for strategy instruction by

identifying their prior knowledge about the use of specific strategies

(2) Presentation: demonstrate the new learning strategy and explain how

and when to use it

(3) Practice: get students to practice using the strategy with regular class

activities

(4) Evaluation: get students to self-evaluate their use of the learning

strategy and how well the strategy is working for them

(5) Follow-Up Expansion: get students to extend the usefulness of the

learning strategy by applying it to new situations or learning for them

CALLA model is considered valuable since it enhances three important kinds of learning strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, and social/affective strategies Particularly, it is useful in improving students’ language skills and encouraging them to use effective learning strategies consciously Moreover, the model gives students opportunities to share their learning strategies with each other and with the teacher and thus their interaction between them is increased

2.6.2 Framework for strategic reading development

As successful students use various strategies in effective combinations, one model of reading strategy training called Transactional Strategy Instruction (TSI) has been developed by Michael Pressley and his colleagues (as cited in Grabe & Scholler, 2002, p.113) to help students become effective strategic readers

TSI suggests the following features should be embedded in the approach

First, a few strategies should be taught when necessary in many mini lessons over

a period of time The instruction should emphasize on increasing students’

metacognitive knowledge of when and why to employ specific strategies Second,

teachers can introduce effective strategies by thinking aloud how to carry out them while reading and having a discussion with students about the effects of strategy use

Third, students regularly model how to use the strategies for each other to

see how it could be applied in different ways effectively In the post-reading stage they should discuss not just the meaning of texts but also strategies which are

useful to comprehend them Fourth, through the regular discussion, the teacher

helps students see the benefits of using effective strategies to improve text interpretation and remind them to apply appropriate strategies in new contexts

Finally, TSI considers strategy instruction as a chance for teachers to have conversations with students about their ways to arrive at the meaning of the text

The ideas of TSI were examined by Janzen (as cited in Richards &

Renandya, 2005, pp 289-293) who carried out strategic reading instruction in one

ESL classroom The participants were high-intermediate university students who were taught how to use different strategies to make sense of texts In the experiment, Janzen went through some processes which were reflected in her class activity organization First, the class had a general discussion about benefits of using strategies Next, the teacher modeled how to use some strategies by thinking