1 T. C.
SELÇUK ÜNİVERSİTESİ SOSYAL BİLİMLER ENSTİTÜSÜ EĞİTİM BİLİMLERİ ANA BİLİM DALI EĞİTİM PROGRAMLARI VE ÖĞRETİM BİLİM DALI
THE EFFECT OF COMPREHENSION MONITORING STRATEGIES ON
ACHIEVEMENT, ATTITUDE AND RETENTION IN DEVELOPING
READING SKILLS
DOKTORA TEZİ
DANIŞMAN
Doç. Dr. Ali Murat SÜNBÜL
HAZIRLAYAN Yasin ASLAN
2 ÖZET
Bu araştırmanın amacı, kavramayı izleme stratejilerinin (comprehension monitoring strategies) İngilizce Okuma Becerileri derslerinde öğrencilerin erişi, tutum ve öğrenilenlerin kalıcılığına etkisini incelemektir.
Araştırmada kontrol gruplu öntest-sontest deseni kullanılmıştır. Selçuk Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü İngilizce Öğretmenliği Anabilim Dalı birinci sınıfında okuyan toplam 62 öğrenciden oluşan iki şube araştırmanın örneklemini oluşturmaktadır. Grup atama yöntemiyle iki şubeden biri deney, biri de kontrol grubu olarak belirlenmiştir. İki gruba da önce tek oturumda 13 maddeden oluşan İngilizce Okuma Becerileri dersine Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği, okuduğunu anlama becerisini ölçen 30 sorudan oluşan Başarı Testi seviye belirleme testi olarak uygulanmıştır. Sekiz hafta (8x3 ders/saat) süre ile deney grubunda kavramayı izleme stratejisinden yararlanılarak, kontrol grubunda ise geleneksel yöntemler kullanılarak okuma parçaları ve hikayeler araştırmacı tarafından işlenmiştir. Sekiz haftalık uygulama sonunda Başarı Testi ve Derse Karşı Tutum Ölçeği son-test olarak uygulanmış, Başarı Testi sontest-öntest farkı erişi olarak alınmıştır. Son testten dört ay sonra Başarı Testi aynı gruplara öğretilenlerin kalıcılığını belirlemek amacıyla uygulanmıştır.
Ortalama, Standart Sapma, t-testi, Frekans ve Yüzde teknikleri kullanılarak yapılan veri çözümlemeleri sonunda, okuma becerileri derslerinde kullanılan kavramayı izleme stratejisi ile öğrenci erişisi, tutumu ve öğrenilenlerin kalıcılığı arasında arasında anlamlı bir ilişki bulunmuştur.
3 ABSTRACT
The aim of this research is to examine the effect of comprehension monitoring strategies on students’ Achievement, Attitudes and Retention of the things learned in English Reading Skills courses.
Pre-test post-test experimental design with control group was used in the study. The two first-class groups in the English Teacher Education program of the Faculty of Education at Selçuk University formed the sample for the research. One group was determined as the experiment group and the other one as the control group. The Attitude towards lesson taught scale consisting of 13 items and the Achievement Test containing 30 questions were administered to both groups in a single session as a pre-test. In three weeks, experiment group was given various strategies comprehension (verbal, visual and action) in the teaching session, but not the control group. Three weeks later, each group was administered the Achievement Test and Attitude Scale towards the Lesson Taught given as post-test. The difference between the pre-test and post-test results is accepted as an achievement. The Achievement Test used to explore the retention of the things was given to all the groups four months after post-test.
The statistical techniques Mean, Standard Deviation, t-Test, Frequency and Percentage were used to analyze the data. It has been found out that there is significant relation between comprehension monitoring and the students’ achievement, attitude and retention levels.
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Doktora programımın her aşamasında, araştırma konumun belirlenmesinde ve tez çalışmalarımın her aşamasında desteklerini esirgemeyen; okuyup, eleştiren ve önerileri ile beni yönlendiren danışmanlarım Sn. Doç. Dr. Ali Murat Sünbül ve Doç. Dr. Mehmet Çelik’e şükran borçluyum. Doktora programı ders aşamasında aldığım derslerde ve bu tezin konusunun belirlenmesinde önerilerini esirgemeyen değerli hocam Sn. Prof. Dr. Özcan Demirel’e; tez izleme komitemde çalışmamın son haline gelmesi önerilerini benimle paylaşan Sn. Prof. Dr. Musa Gürsel’e ve Sn. Yrd. Doç. Dr. Kemal Güven’e; tezimi yazdığım süre boyunca bana yapıcı dönüt veren hocalarım ve meslektaşlarım Sn. Doç. Dr. Hasan Çakır, Öğr. Gör. Dr. Mustafa Özgen ve Öğr. Gör. Dr. Sally Ashton’a ve ders aşamasında konu alanımla ilgili yeni bilgiler öğrendiğim hocalarım Sn. Doç. Dr. Ahmet Saban’a, Sn. Yrd. Doç. Dr. Hakan Sarı’ya ve Sn. Yrd. Doç. Dr. İsa Korkmaz’a teşekkürü bir borç biliyorum.
Tezin uygulama aşamasında desteklerini esirgemeyen, burada isimlerini sayamadığım Selçuk Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi öğrencilerine, idarecilerine ve öğretim elemanlarına; kendileri ile paylaşmayı planladığım zamanların çoğunluğunda ders çalışmak zorunda kalıp, kendilerini ihmal etmek durumunda kalışım karşısında gösterdikleri hoşgörü ve anlayıştan dolayı eşim ve oğluma en içten teşekkür ve şükranlarımı sunuyorum.
5 CONTENTS ÖZET...i ABSTRACT ... ii CONTENTS ... iii TABLES ...vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...1
1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ...1
2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ...9
3. RESEARCH QUESTION...10 4. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ...10 5. ASSUMPTIONS ...11 6. LIMITATIONS ...11 7. DEFINITIONS...12 8. ABBREVIATIONS...13 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ...14
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING ...14
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING CURRICULUM ...15
LEARNING STRATEGIES ...17
6
STRATEGY INSTRUCTION ...21
COGNITIVE STRATEGIES...24
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES...26
READING AND OTHER BASIC SKILLS ...30
FUNDAMENTAL VIEWS ON DEVELOPING READING SKILLS ...35
CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES TO READING ...39
READING STRATEGIES ...54
READING COMPREHENSION ...56
INSTRUCTIONAL FACTORS IN DEVELOPING READING SKILLS ...66
READING ASSESSMENT...71
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN READING AND METACOGNITION 77
COMPREHENSION MONITORING STRATEGY ... 94
RELEVANT RESEARCH ...123 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY...136 1. RESEARCH DESIGN...136 2. SUBJECTS ...138 3. PROCEDURES...139 4. INSTRUMENTS...144
4. 1. Reading Comprehension Test ...144
4. 2. Attitude toward Reading Scale...144
7 CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS...146
1. Achievement Pre-test results of the Experimental and the Control group ...147
2. Achievement Post-test Results of the Experimental and the Control group ...147
3. Retention Results of the Experimental and the Control group ...148
4. Attitude Pre-test Results of the Experimental and the Control group...149
5. Attitude Post-test Results of the Experimental and the Control group ...150
CHAPTER V DISCUSSION and IMPLICATIONS ...151
Discussion of the Hypothesis 1:...151
Discussion of the Hypothesis 2:...157
Discussion of the Hypothesis 3:...159
Discussion about the Sub-Problem ...160
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS 166 CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION and SUGGESTIONS ...170
RESULTS ...170
SUGGESTIONS ...171
REFERENCES ...179
APPENDICES ...193
8 APPENDIX B ...194 APPENDIX C ...195 APPENDIX D ...201 APPENDIX E ...202 APPENDIX F...213
9
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the statement of the problem, the problem sentence, the hypotheses of the study, the purpose and significance of the study, the assumptions, limitations and definitions have been mentioned.
1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Education is a process of changing behaviours in an individual in general. In other words, behaviours of a person who has passed through the processes of education are supposed to change. Varış (1985) states that a person’s aims, knowledge, behaviours, attitudes and moral values change by means of education. Ertürk (1982) also expresses that education is the process in which the individual intentionally changes his/her behaviours by means of the experiences he/she has had on his/her own. On the basis of these definitions, education is the process in which we make the individual change his/her behaviours by means of his/her life experiences and deliberate culturing (Demirel, 2004).
There are several factors that affect the content and quality of education. All these factors have an effect on the process of education system. It is impossible to organize the educational activities only by means of teachers. Likewise, it is also inappropriate to think only students or the content of the lessons. Education is a
10 systematic process that entails coherence and wholeness in all components. That is to say, certain components in the system should work in a collaborative way and support each other to reach a purpose like machines in a factory. One of these components is input. For instance, in a factory raw materials and the current technology which is necessary for production can be seen as an input in the factory. Another component is processing these raw materials with the current technology and labour force, which is called the process of the system. As a result of these processes, there exists a product like a computer, television or car in the factory. The appropriacy and quality of these products must be checked in case there are faults. Provided that there are faults or deficiency in the products, the reasons must be determined and necessary measures must be taken urgently. Making the quality control of the outputs of the system such as computer and car and taking necessary precautions in order to determine the faults can be regarded as the evaluation of the system. It is considerably important that all the components forming the system work collaboratively. A problem in any component of the system affects the whole system in a negative way (Tan and Erdoğan, 2004).
If we regard education as a system, we find out that like all systems education system is also composed of the following components: input, process and sub-systems, output and evaluation (feed-back) (Gürsel, 2003). Any change, deficiency or inefficiency in one of these components affect the process of the system and the quality of the products. That is why, as a result of harmony, coherence and collaboration among all the components of the system, individuals are provided with willing behaviours. The components forming education system and the relationship among each other can be shown as follows:
11 INPUT PROCESS and SUBSYSTEMS OUTPUT
-Student -Use of Sources and Potential -Willing
-Teacher -Insufficient
-Economy -Unwilling
-Syllabus
-Administration
EVALUATION
Figure 1. The Relationship Among The Components Of The Education
Considering education as a system, we see that the elements of the system such as input, process, output and evaluation interact with each other. Among the major inputs of education system are students, teachers, economy of the country, education curricula and approaches of management. Process as a part of time covers the time that the students enter the education system until they leave it. The process and sub-systems of the education system includes all the operations done for gaining students desired and planned behaviours. The output of the education system can be regarded as the behaviours or qualities the students have learned after learning process. Evaluation of the education system enables to establish the problems and deficiencies of the system. As a result of checking the outputs, the level and resources of insufficient conditions about the developed behaviours can be determined (Tan and Erdoğan, 2004).
The activities done within the stage of process should be carried out in a framework of a program. Ertürk (1982) calls this program as “curriculum” and defines it as “an order of valid learning experiences”. He thinks that curriculum, in
12 terms of students, is an order of learning experiences and in terms of teachers, an order of educational situations. Doğan (1975) defines education curriculum as “all the activities planned to achieve the desired learning in the student”. In view of these definitions, education curriculum can be defined as an order of learning experiences offered to the learner through the planned activities in and out of school. It is possible to provide learning experiences to the learners by means of education curricula. Education curricula come into existence after a certain process and are developed, as in the approach of system previously mentioned. An education curriculum has four main components such as objective, content, learning-teaching process and evaluation. The concept of objective includes the desired behaviours which will be gained by the learner. With the component of content, the subjects suitable for the objectives in the education curriculum are considered as a whole. In the learning-teaching process, which learning-teaching models, strategies, ways and techniques to reach the objectives will be chosen is stated. With the component of assessment and evaluation, it is determined how many desired behaviours are gained and the quality control of education is pointed out by testing the target-behaviours one by one (Demirel, 2002).
In the studies of developing curriculum, a possible answer to the question “how to teach?” may be the identification of learning and teaching approaches. Learning and teaching approaches benefit from psychology in every stage. Learning and teaching are associated with each other and psychology reinforces the relationship between them. The findings obtained from psychology constitute the base of theories and principles affecting the teacher’s and student’s behaviour. Processing the information theory, which tries to explain mental processes which
13 occur in meaningful learning, is a pillar of constructivist theory. This theory is one of the most accepted theories trying to show how an individual stores the information he/she learned at any time in his memory and how he will use them when necessary. (Yalın, 2002).
Within the field of the education, a gradual but significant change has lately taken place, resulting in less emphasis on teachers and greater stress on learners and learning. This change has been reflected in a variety of ways in language education and teaching. Research and the theory in second/foreign language learning strongly suggest that good language learners use a variety of strategies in order to gain new language skills. These strategies enhance language learning and help learners develop language competence, in four basic skills in foreign learning such as listening, speaking, writing and reading.
It is known that there are four basic skills in foreign language education known as listening, speaking, writing and reading. Among these, developing reading skills is not only important for reading comprehension but also for enriching vocabulary. Even those who have vocabulary and grammar at advanced level may have great difficuty in understanding reading passages or texts both in native language and in foreign language. Taking into consideration that there are cultural differences between languages, it can be seen that reading skills are rather complex, particularly in foreign language education.
Several studies which have been done so far show that the process of reading and reading comprehension go through a variety of stages. Although different strategies have been suggested for developing reading skills, it is seen that these strategies cannot provide the students to overcome the difficulties of reading skills
14 completely. For the purpose of overcoming the problems concerning reading comprehension and increasing the quality of reading, in addition to the studies as regards reading process there is also a need for studies about learning process, which is essential to the understanding of modern education the center of which is the individual.
It is thought that teaching and using metacognitive strategies can affect students’ acheievement and attitudes positively as well as the retention of the knowledge by making a contribution to reading process in teaching foregin language reading skills. In addition, cognitive learning theories lay emphasis on the necessity of the learner’s active participation in learning and undertake the responsibility of learning. That is why, the recent researches on this field have focused on learning strategies. Learning strategy is a set of behaviours and thoughts which the learner can carry out during learning and which are expected to affect the process of encoding.
Learning strategies point to the processes of behaviour and thinking which affect the learner’s learning and which are used by the learner and which also include cognitive strategies such as placing into the memory and recalling and metacognitive strategies which direct cognitive strategies.
Students need certain behavioral and thinking processes so that they can carry out learning. For example, they find the main idea of a reading passage, summarize a story or take short notes about a text. Their performing these tasks successfully depends on the use of certain strategies which are appropriate to learning. Learning strategies are processes used by the students to learn on their own. The students who provide their learning are called “Strategic Learners”, “Independent learners”, or “Self-regulated learners”. These students can manage such functions:
15 1. Identifying a particular learning situation accurately,
2. Choosing the most appropriate strategy for learning, 3. Monitoring to what extent the strategy is effective,
4. Trying to give enough effort through motivation until learning occurs.
Researches show that the students who read the reading materials effectively are using learning strategies as well. A strategic reader makes a decision about which strategy he/she will use in a learning environment, evaluates them effectually, and he/she modifies or adapts these strategies when needed. The researches done on good and poor readers with regard to the use of learning strategies indicate that good readers have more strategies than poor ones. These students possibly use appropriate learning strategies if they are not reminded what they should do. For instance, if a strategic student’s purpose is to understand the reading material, he/she reads more slowly by thinking deeply, but if the purpose is to find a specific event, he/she browses throughout the reading passage.
Generally learning strategies are classified as follows: 1) repetition strategies for basic learning situations, 2) repetition strategies for complex learning situations, 3) meaning construction strategies for basic learning situations, 4) meaning construction strategies for complex learning situations, 5) organization strategies for basic learning situations, 6) organization strategies for complex learning situations, 7) comprehension monitoring strategies and 8) affective and motivational strategies.
Learning strategies are generally classified into five different categories: 1) attention strategies, 2) improving short term memory strategies, 3) enhancing the
16 coding strategies, 4) enhancing recalling strategies, 5) monitoring-directing strategies.
Metacognitive knowledge is thinking about the learner’s own thoughts and using certain strategies which they have adopted; that is, the individual’s knowledge about his/her own cognitive processes. It is generally thought that metacognitive knowledge has two main components. One of them is the knowledge concerning the cognitive process, and the other one is self-determination mechanisms such as monitoring, organizing and self-efficiacy. The knowledge with regard to the cognitive process involves the knowledge and understanding. In other words, the learner decides what learning strategies which he/she uses in a particular learning situation and becomes aware of his/her learning process. The second component of metacognitive knowledge is comprehension monitoring. Comprehension monitoring is an ability through which the individual chooses, uses, monitors and evaluates the most appropriate strategy in the learning process.
Comprehension and acquiring knowledge includes both the components of knowledge such as words, paragraphs or sections in a text and basic knowledge about the relationship between basic knowledge and students’ own experience. Comprehension is organizing the relations between the components of the things learned and the learner’s basic knowledge or thoughts structurally or conceptually.
Comprehension monitoring is a reader’s being aware of whether he/she has understood a text while reading. Metacognitive strategies are generally used to monitor comprehension. Comprehension monitoring requires not only establishing the targets for teaching a lesson or a unit but also determining the levels of achieving
17 these targets and, if needed, modifying the strategies used in order to reach these targets.
2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Students should be active in the learning process rather than recording what the teacher presents or tells in the classroom. Another important point is how the students learn and what they do in the learning process as well the knowledge presented to them.
There is a considerable difference between a student who has acquired the necessary methods or habits for effective studying and learning and the one who has no or limited knowledge about them. The students’ achivement distribution is usually heterogen because of their learning and studying strategies. That is why, in Turkey where traditional education is applied, there are significant differences in student achievement in the classroom although students go through the same learning processes. We also see the same thing at universities in Turkey, in which the researches concerning reading comprehension strategies are seem to be insufficient.
The students who use learning strategies effectively and evaluate their learning processes successfully will learn better. The teachers or lecturers who take care of the students’ cognitive and learning processes and have enough knowledge about metacognitive stategies can help students reach better learning levels. Students should also be aware of the strategies while they are reading something. This will not only help them become more successful in their courses but also affect the retention of the information they had positively.
18 In the light of the findings, results and suggestions of the researches about the significance and necessity of teaching reading skills in foreign language, the effect of comprehension monitoring strategy, one of the basic metacognitive strategies, on students’ achievement, attitudes and retention of the knowledge they have learned in foreign language process has been chosen as the subject of this dissertation.
3. RESEARCH QUESTION
To what extent do comprehension monitoring strategies used in English Reading Skills courses affect the students’ achievement, attitude and retention of knowledge learned?
4. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
In this study, the effect of comprehension monitoring strategies in English Reading Skills course on students’ achievement, attitude and retention have been examined. In order to reach this aim, the following hypothesis have been put forward:
1. There is significant difference between the achievement levels of the students’ in experimental group and the students in control group in terms of the use of comprehension monitoring strategies in English Reading Skills course.
2. There is significant difference between attitudes the students’ in experimental group toward reading and the students in control group in terms of the use of comprehension monitoring strategies.
19 3. There is significant difference between retention levels of the the students’ in experimental group and the students in control group in terms of the use of comprehension monitoring strategies.
Sub-Problem
4. What are students’ thoughts about the application of comprehension monitoring strategies?
5. ASSUMPTIONS
1. The variables that cannot be controlled have affected the experimental group and control group at the same level.
2. The attitude scale formed by the researcher is supposed to provide the data needed for the study.
3. The subjects in the experimental group and control group haven’t studied the reading materials apart from the courses throughout the study.
6. LIMITATIONS
This study is limited to:
20 b. evaluating the effect of comprehension monitoring strategies on students’ achievement, attitude and retention of the knowledge learned in English Reading Skills courses,
c. the students in Selcuk University, Faculty of Education, English Teaching Sub-Department.
7. DEFINITIONS
Achievement Test: A test, the reliability and validity of which has been made and applied in this study as a pre-test and post-test including 30 questions to establish critical target attitudes and coherent learning level.
Reading Comprehension Test: A multiple-choice test, the reliability and validity of which have been made, which measures the students’ reading comprehension skills such as finding main idea, subordinate idea, judging the text, making inferences in reading comprehension.
Retention of Leaning Test: A post-test, which measures the durability and retention of knowledge 4 months after applying the achievement test for reading comprehension.
Attitude Scale towards Reading: A Likert-type scale, the reliability and validity of which have been made by t-test, including 13 items that measure students’ choosing and applying the appropriate strategy while reading or their behavioral tendency.
Comprehension Monitoring Strategy: A reading comprehension strategy used to help understand a text that is being read, in which readers are aware or conscious of how well they are understanding a text as they read, and know what to
21 do (what procedures to use) when they have a problem in understanding. All the activities applied in reading courses in the Experimental Group in the act of reading, the noting of one's successes and failures in developing or attaining meaning, usually with reference to an emerging conception of the meaning of the text as a whole, and adjusting one's reading processes accordingly.
8. ABBREVIATIONS
EFL : English as foreign language ESL : English as second language L1 : mother tongue
L2 : second/foreign Language e.g. : for example
i.e. : namely
M : mean (average score) N : number of students Sd : standard deviation Sig. : “p” value
22
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
Individuals growing and living in today’s societies require a second language to various degrees after they have learnt their first language. The different reasons which prompt such second language learning are familiar enough. In fact, the prinipal question is what provision must be made by society to help these individuals to learn the second language needed. The answer to this question is what is meant by language teaching.
If it is claimed that language teaching is unnecessary or that no effective provision can ever be made to induce language learning, then this could be an argument for the abandonment of all language teaching. In that case we must be prepared to leave language learning alone and treat it as an unplanned social process. Language teaching can be defined as the activities which are intended to bring about language learning. Language teaching is more widely interpreted than “instructing a language class”. Formal instruction or methods of training are included; but so is individualized instrucion of self-study and the use of media, such as radio or televison. Likewise, the supporting activities, such as preparation of teaching materials, teaching grammar, or dictionaries, or the training of teachers, as well as making the necessary administrative provision inside or outside an educational system – they all fall under the concept of teaching.
23 Since language teaching is defined as “activities intended to bring about language learning”, a theory of language teaching always implies concepts of language learning. In a given theory the concepts of learner and learning may not be made explicit, or they may be misguided, too rigid, too demanding; or they may fail in other ways to do justice to the learner or the learning process. But it is hardly possible to visualize a language teaching theory which is not also a theory of language learning. A good language teaching theory should meet the conditions and needs of learners in the best possible ways. It is the failure of teaching in this respect that is often criticized and that has led to the demand for a greater concern for understanding the learner. To sum up, language teaching can be interpreted widely so as to include all activities to bring about language learning.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING CURRICULUM
The whole point of educational treatment is that it is provided as a “course” or “curriculum”, i.e., a given subject matter is taught over time which unfolds a certain structure or “syllabus”, has coherence and, stage by stage, aims to develop proficiency and other learning outcomes. Classroom teaching episodes are therefore viewed in the context of a curriculum and of activities which reach beyond the particular classroom setting. The teacher as curriculum developer plans the activities, prepares or selects materials, adapts materials to specific uses, divides the total set of materials and the clasroom activities into steps and stages. As a classroom practitioner, the teacher may organize both in-class and out-of-class events. Beyond the classroom itself, there may be private reading, homework assignments, projects, papers and other practice activities related to classroom language learning. Teachers
24 also arrange student exchanges, invite target language visitors, and plan student travel and other contact experiences with speakers of the second language in its natural environment. In short, teaching interpreted in terms of curriculum, is represented as planned action with certain ends in view and means to reach them. That is why, a means-ends view of teaching is unavoidable in language pedagogy.
Content Objectives
Proficiency Knowledge Affect Transfer Langauge syllabbus (L2)
Culture syllabbus
Communicative activity syllabbus General language education
Figure 2. A Curriculum Model For Language Teaching adapted from Stern (1980) and Ullmann (1982)
Suggested major emphasis Suggested minor emphasis
According to the curriculum model in Figure 2, there are four categories of behavioral objectives and four content categories. It recognizes proficency in the second language as a first and major objective. The second one is knowledge which comprises an explicit knowledge about the second language and knowledge about the corresponding culture. The third objective expresses the belief that the cultivation of affective objectives forms an integral part of the scheme. A final behavioural category, which is described as transfer, acknowledges as an objective the possibility
25 of learning a particular language with the purpose of generalizing beyond the language in question. This objective repeats the three specific objectives in language syllabus on a more general plane and specifies the aim to learn a second language in such a way as to learn about language learning in general, in terms of proficiency, conceptual knowledge and as well as more generalized values and attitudes.
In curriculum theory, making a conceptual distinction between ends (contents and objectives) and means (instruction) is particularly important in language teaching because the confusion between them has been another constant source of trouble in the debate on teaching methods. The teacher sets materials and other equipment, and the procedures he/she selects lead to specific classroom activities.
Instruction, in the specific sense of curriculum theory, brings us to the areas of most intense controversy in the method debate. It is appropriate therefore to follow in the direction initiated by methodics, method analyses, and abandon the notion of the fixed method, i.e., an unalterable combination of techniques. Instead, it is analytically more effective, and pedagogically more flexible to operate with the broader concept of teaching strategy under which can be included a large number of specified teaching teachniques. These two concepts correspond to ‘learning strategy’ and ‘learning technique’. Moreover, curriculum theory has also employed the strategy concept. Carefully designed and used strategies are likely to lead a better understanding of second language teaching and learning.
LEARNING STRATEGIES
According to Borkowski et al. (1990), contemporary psychological research has yielded three particularly important findings in relation to student's learning. The first finding is that students must be strategic and engage in strategies to build
26 connections between new knowledge and prior knowledge. The second finding is that students must possess and utilize metacognitive knowledge to control their thinking and the third is that students must believe that they are responsible for their learning. The first two findings are related to the domain of learning strategies. There are two aspects of learning strategies. One aspect of learning strategies involves plans or mental activities which "students may use to acquire, retain, and retrieve different kinds of knowledge and performance" (Rigney, 1978, p.165). These strategies are generally referred to as cognitive strategies. Cognitive strategies may include such activities as acquiring, selecting and organizing information, rehearsing material to be learned, relating new material to information in memory, and retaining and retrieving different kinds of knowledge.
Learning strategies that deal with strategy learning or "learning to learn" are called metacognitive strategies. Metacognitive strategy involves cognitive activities such as checking, monitoring, planning, and prediction (Brown, 1987). People who have metacognitive strategies are equipped with the knowledge and control over their thinking and learning activities. The term "learning strategy" generally includes both cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies. Learning strategies are considered to be the most significant current contributions of cognitive psychology to instructional design. (West, Famer, & Wolff, 1991)
The development of cognitive psychology helped confirm the importance of learning strategies. Cognitive psychologists have proposed the information-processing theory. They identified that memory storage system has two levels: working memory (WM) (also called short-term memory) and long-term memory (LTM) (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968). When a stimulus is perceived or attended to, the
27 input is transferred to working memory. The working memory can only keep limited amount of information for a short period of time. However, if the new information is rehearsed or related to the prior knowledge in the long-term memory, then it can be assimilated into long-term memory. The learning process involves integrating new materials into long-term memory in a meaningful fashion. To encode information, learners first attend to the new information and transfer it from the sensory register to working memory. Learners can also activate related knowledge in their long-term memory and build links between new information and prior knowledge. When learning involves long-term memory, it is a more meaningful learning process. Thus, learners should integrate much information into long-term memory (Schunk, 1991).
In addition, cognitive psychologists have also identified three types of knowledge: declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge. Each type of knowledge requires a different function of the memory system. Declarative knowledge refers to the aspect of "knowing that" and implies the awareness of information. Procedural knowledge refers to the aspect of "knowing how" and relates to the information about procedures, rules, and principles. Conditional knowledge refers to the aspect of "knowing when and why" and implies the decision to select and use specific procedures, rules and principles.
Learning strategies assist in acquiring different types of knowledge as well as in modifying and regulating each phase in the information processing system (Gagne, 1977). Cognitive strategies may be referred to as declarative and procedural knowledge; they help assimilate information into long-term memory. Metacognitive strategies, on the other hand, are referred to as conditional knowledge which operates the "executive control" on the use of learning strategies. In other words, according to
28 what Gagne (1977) has specified, learning strategies help learners attend to facts of a particular category, encode new information, retrieve knowledge from their long-term memory and implement problem-solving skills. Therefore, learning strategies serve an important role in the learning process.
LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES
Since the amount of information to be processed by language learners is high in language classroom, learners use different language learning strategies in performing the tasks and processing the new input they face. Language learning strategies are good indicators of how learners approach tasks or problems encountered during the process of language learning. In other words, language learning strategies, while nonobservable or unconsciously used in some cases, give language teachers valuable clues about how their students assess the situation, plan, select appropriate skills so as to understand, learn, or remember new input presented in the language classroom. According to Fedderholdt (1997), the language learner capable of using a wide variety of language learning strategies appropriately can improve his/her language skills in a better way. Metacognitive strategies improve organization of learning time, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation. Cognitive strategies include using previous knowledge to help solve new problems. Socioaffective strategies include asking native speakers to correct their pronunciation, or asking a classmate to work together on a particular language problem. Developing skills in three areas, such as metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective can help the language learner build up learner independence and autonomy whereby he/she can take control of his/her own learning. Lessard-Clouston (1997) states that language learning strategies contribute to the development of the
29 communicative competence of the students. Being a broad concept, language learning strategies are used to refer to all strategies foreign language learners use in learning the target language and communication strategies are one type of language learning strategies. It follows from this that language teachers aiming at developing the communicative competence of the students and language learning should be familiar with language learning strategies. As Oxford (1990) states, language learning strategies "... are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed movement, which is essential for developing communicative competence." Besides developing the communicative competence of the students, teachers who train students to use language learning strategies can help them become better language learners. Helping students understand good language learning strategies and training them to develop and use such good language learning strategies can be considered to be the appreciated characteristics of a good language teacher (Lessard-Clouston 1997). Research into the good language learning strategies revealed a number of positive strategies so that such strategies could also be used by bad language learners trying to become more successful in language learning. However, there is always the possibility that bad language learners can also use the same good language learning strategies while becoming unsuccessful owing to some other reasons. At this point, it should be strongly stressed that using the same good language learning strategies does not guarantee that bad learners will also become successful in language learning since other factors may also play role in success.
STRATEGY INSTRUCTION
The language teacher aiming at training his students in using language learning strategies should learn about the students, their interests, motivations, and
30 learning styles. The teacher can learn what language learning strategies students already appear to be using, observing their behavior in class. Do they ask for clarification, verification or correction? Do they cooperate with their peers or seem to have much contact outside of class with proficient foreign language users? Besides observing their behavior in class, the teacher can prepare a short questionnaire so that students can fill in at the beginning of a course to describe themselves and their language learning. Thus, the teacher can learn the purpose of their learning a language, their favorite or least favorite kinds of class activities, and the reason why they learn a language. The teacher can have adequate knowledge about the students, their goals, motivations, language learning strategies, and their understanding of the course to be taught (Lessard-Clouston 1997). It is a fact that each learner within the same classroom may have different learning styles and varied awareness of the use of strategies. The teacher cannot attribute importance to only one group and support the analytical approach or only give input by using the auditory mode. The language teacher should, therefore, provide a wide range of learning strategies in order to meet the needs and expectations of his students possessing different learning styles, motivations, strategy preferences, etc. Therefore, it can be stated that the most important teacher role in foreign language teaching is the provision of a range of tasks to match varied learning styles (Hall 1997).
In addition to the students, the language teacher should also analyze his textbook to see whether the textbook already includes language learning strategies or language learning strategies training. The language teacher should look for new texts or other teaching materials if language learning strategies are not already included within his materials.
31 The language teacher should also study his own teaching method and overall classroom style. Analyzing his/her lesson plans, the language teacher can determine whether his/her lesson plans give learners chance to use a variety of learning styles and strategies or not. The teacher can see whether his/her teaching allows learners to approach the task at hand in different ways or not. The language teacher can also be aware of whether his/her strategy training is implicit, explicit, or both. It should be emphasized that questioning himself/herself about what he/she plans to do before each lesson and evaluating his/her lesson plan after the lesson in terms of strategy training, the teacher can become better prepared to focus on language learning strategies and strategy training during the process of his/her teaching (Lessard-Clouston 1997).
Language learning strategies, being specific actions, behaviors, tactics, or techniques, facilitate the learning of the target language by the language learner. All language learners, needless to say, use language learning strategies in the learning process. Since the factors like age, gender, personality, motivation, self-concept, life-experience, learning style, excitement, anxiety, etc. affect the way in which language learners learn the target language, it is not reasonable to support the idea that all language learners use the same good language learning strategies or should be trained in using and developing the same strategies to become successful learners. As Lessard-Clouston (1997) mentions, studies to be done on language learning strategies and strategy training should move beyond descriptive taxonomies of language learning strategies and attempt to seek for answers to a wide range of questions, such as: What types of language learning strategies appear to work best with what learners in which contexts? Does language learning strategies or language learning strategies
32 training transfer easily between L2 and FL contexts? What is the role of language proficiency in language learning strategies use and training? How long does it take to train specific learners in certain language learning strategies? How can one best assess and measure success in language learning strategies use or training? Are certain language learning strategies learned more easily in classroom and non-classroom contexts? What language learning strategies should be taught at different proficiency levels? It can be expected that answers to the above mentioned and many other questions from research in a variety of settings will pave the way for building the theory that seems necessary for more language learning strategies work to be relevant to current L2 / FL teaching practice.
COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
Weinstein and Mayer (1986) categorized learning strategies into eight types: (a) basic rehearsal strategies,
(b) complex rehearsal strategies, (c) basic elaboration strategies, (d) complex elaboration strategies, (e) basic organizational strategies, (f) complex organizational strategies,
(g) comprehension-monitoring strategies, and (h) affective and motivational strategies.
Although this categorization was useful, it does not provide design guidelines for instructional designer on how and when the learning strategies could be employed.
33 In contrast, West, Farmer, and Wolff (1991) presented another categorization: (a) chunking (or organizing) strategies,
(b) spatial learning strategies, (c) bridging strategies, and (d) general purpose strategies.
Besides devising a new way of categorization, they also provide designer's guidelines for the use and teaching of these learning strategies as well as possibilities of hybridization. In the book "Instructional Design--Implications from Cognitive Science", they introduced nine kinds of cognitive strategies: (a) chunking, (b) frames, type one, (c) frames, type two, (d) concept mapping, (e) advance organizer, (f) metaphor-analogy, (g) rehearsal, (h) imagery, and (i) mnemonics. West et al. (1991) presented a detailed description of each strategy and research conducted on these strategies. They conclude that instructional designers can make great use of these strategies. Likewise, these cognitive strategies may also be applied in hypermedia-assisted instruction.
Research on Cognitive Strategies
Most of these cognitive strategies have been broadly researched and are recognized as effective ways of learning. Park (1995) synthesized the research findings on cognitive strategies and listed three categorizes of learning strategies: (a) strongly effective strategies, (b) weakly effective strategies, and (c) strategies that need more research. Those strongly effective strategies include adjunct questions, reflective questions, summarization, note taking, keyword method, pegword method, method of loci, and advance organizer. The weakly effective strategy is underlining and the strategies that need more research are concept mapping, vee diagram, matrix
34 frames and signaling. His conclusion derived from meta-analyses or print-based research, but he suggested that these learning strategies may also be applied in Computer-Assisted-Instruction (CAI).
Horton et al. (1993) conducted a meta-analysis and examined the effectiveness of concept mapping as an instructional tool for improving students' achievement and as a strategy for improving students' attitudes. They found that the top-down instructional strategy of concept mapping has had generally positive effects on students' achievement, and students' attitudes. The results also showed that there was little difference in the effectiveness of teacher-prepared versus student-prepared concept maps in improving students' achievement. Therefore, concept mapping has also been shown to be an effective strategy in improving achievement.
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES
Metacognitive strategies have been considered as a very important aspect of learning strategy. Metacognitive strategies focus on establishing one's metacognition on learning. The definition of metacognition relates to an individual's awareness, knowledge, and use of the monitoring process of cognitive goals for the purpose of increasing understanding and retention of learning material (Brezin, 1980). In other words, metacognition is the cognition about monitoring and regulating the cognitive process. According to Bonds et al. (1992), metacognition includes two basic aspects. The first aspect is that the learner is aware of the nature of the learning task and the requirement for reaching this task. The second one is that the learner possess knowledge pertinent to finishing the learning task. Therefore, people with metacognitive strategies have the knowledge of new information and cognitive strategies.
35 Metacognitive strategies have been classified into five classes of monitoring strategies: planning, attending, encoding, reviewing, and evaluating (Brezin, 1980). Planning strategies include selecting (learning goals), preparing (activating relevant memory schemata), gauging (determining difficulty of tasks and depth of processing involved), and estimating (predicting the information processing demands of the task). Attending strategies include focusing (on materials), searching (relating presented information to memory), contrasting (comparing presented information to memory), and validating (confirming presented information with existing knowledge). Encoding strategies include elaborating (linking presented information with existing knowledge), and qualitatively relating (linking presented information with deeper levels of existing knowledge). Reviewing strategies include confirming (using new information), repeating (practice recall), and revising. Evaluating strategies include testing (determine the consistency of new information), and judging (Jonassen, 1988). To sum up, all these metacognitive strategies aim at monitoring the learning process.
These metacognitive strategies may be shown in the form of cognitive strategies and appear to overlap with cognitive strategies. These metacognitive strategies include such tools as advance organizer, concept mapping, and other monitoring-related activities such as questions-generating and prompt messages which will enable learners to think about their learning process. The distinction lies in that when these metacognitive strategies serve as cognitive strategies, their function is to process information while as metacognitive strategies, their function is to monitor learning rather than to produce it (Jonassen, 1988).
36 Research on Metacognitive Strategies
Much research conducted on metacognition has indicated the relationship between metacognitive strategies and academic achievement. For example, Ryan's (1984) study found that college students who used "comprehension standards" to monitor their comprehension in an introductory psychology course performed better academically than those who used "knowledge standards." Slife et al. (1985) examined the performance of students of varying mathematical aptitude and different metacognitive ability. They found that high-metacognitive students were more likely to correctly monitor right and wrong answers than were low-metacognitive students. They also concluded that metacognition was an independent construct from general cognition. Swanson (1990) investigated whether children from fourth or fifth grades with high levels of metacognitive knowledge about problem solving could compensate for their overall low aptitude. The results showed that regardless of these children's overall aptitude level, higher metacognitive children outperformed lower metacognitive children in problem solving. In Applegate et al. 's (1994) case studies, the researchers used metacognitive strategies to enhance achievement for two at-risk liberal arts college students. The research results were very encouraging: both students with different needs responded very well to a combination of metacognitive strategies such as concept mapping, self-questioning and predicting. All these studies explored different aspects of metacognitive strategies and they all obtained positive results. Considering the effectiveness of these researches on metacognitive strategies, our study examines the use of comprehension monitoring strategies.
In addition, there is a limited amount of research on metacognitive strategies in computer-based programs. Veenman, Elshout, and Busato (1994) tried to
37 determine whether providing students with metacognitive instructions during a computer simulation environment will result in better learning outcomes than unguided discovery learning. High and low intelligence students worked in either a metacognitive-mediated or unguided discovery environment for learning the principles of electricity. Analyses of thinking aloud protocols showed that metacognitive-mediated subjects exhibited a better working method than subjects in the unguided discovery condition. However, in a quantitative posttest, only low intelligence metacognitive-mediated subjects showed enhanced performance and no learning effects of metacognitive instruction were detected in the analysis of the retention tests.
Chiquito's (1995) pilot test used advance organizers and captioning as metacognitive strategies to teach Spanish in a hypermedia instructional program. The result indicated that the group who used either advance organizer or captioning showed significant differences on comprehension in one scene but not in the other scene of the program. The researcher interpreted the result as being confounded by other factors such as the content of the scenes, the type of advance organizer and the linguistic and discourse structure of the advance organizer and captioning.
More research needs to be done concerning the use of metacognitive strategies in reading comprehension. Since metacognitive strategies are proven to be beneficial in reading, it should be determined whether comprehension monitoring instruction in reading courses, especially hypermedia-assisted instruction, can help learners acquire metacognitive strategies and how should instructional programs be designed to facilitate learners the most.
38 READING AND OTHER BASIC SKILLS
There are four basic skills in foreign language learning: 1) Listening, 2) Speaking, 3) Writing, and 4) Reading. Of these reading plays a very significant role in developing one’s language skills. Thus, this study study mainly focuses on reading skills, in terms of the use of comprehension montoring strategies.
In order to help students understand the meaning of the new language it is necessary that teachers convey in very clear and easy ways the meaning and context. This may be realized through a wide range of techniques, from the use of mimic sounds, gestures, and facial expressions to the exploitation of pictures, photographs, objects (realia), and songs. It goes without saying that the meaning of a lexical item depends on the situation of occurrence, thus teachers should always simulate, as best the classroom facilities can afford, the context of the situation where the word is employed (e.g., authentic material such as magazines and newspapers, or everyday situations in familiar environments such as home, school, friends, shops, and the like). They also should be careful to choose situations that are interesting for their students, since this device helps them remember new words.
What has been focused on in the previous paragraph can be easily summarized by observing that the teaching of meaning and context is not merely a matter of transmitting a long list of new words or lexical items, but rather the more complex procedure of teaching the vocabulary of a language. This entails recognizing an item in its spoken and written forms, as well as its grammar and pronunciation; knowing both its denotative and connotative meanings, its collocations, and its registers of use. The author suggests various strategies for the
39 teaching of vocabulary. Lexical sets and semantic networks function well when each word refers to clearly differentiated concepts, and the words are presented via an action, realia, or a visual context. On the other hand, the use of synonyms does not work with beginners because it imposes an overloading task on them. Synonyms are instead useful with intermediate students, as are antonyms, or instructing students to use word formation strategies. Finally, the use of spidergrams or mental maps is helpful in tracing a constellation of relations among items belonging to general categories. I would like to add that making associations, exploring ranges of meaning, or learning words in groups provide cognitive strategies that are helpful in order to understand, categorize, and store new items in the mental lexicon. Moreover, teachers should always make the context of use explicit because this inferencing strategy, involving a greater amount of mental energy, allows better retention of words (Mondria & Wit de-Boer, 1991).
Students need to learn the main points of grammatical correctness, but that this alone does not provide them with the skills necessary to communicate appropriately and to participate in communicative situations. The aim of teachers, then, should be to pay attention to the different illocutionary forces that the same speech act may have depending on the situation and the subjects.
This first set of observations closes with a focus on how to teach pronunciation. After devoting a few notes to sound, stress, and intonation, the author offers some tasks to practice phonemic transcription, so that teachers can become aware of the difficulties students meet when they try to learn correct pronunciation. For each task good pieces of advice are given. A complex matter such as the teaching of pronunciation cannot be approached thoroughly in a few pages.
40 To develop listening skills, Lindsay provides some useful tips. Teachers should exploit different listening strategies, and select appropriate materials with a specific listening purpose in mind. The main tip the author gives is the need to help students develop listening skills rather than testing their listening ability. To do so, he suggests that teachers should make students more confident about the listening task by introducing the chosen material with global understanding questions and by dividing students into pairs or small groups so that they can share difficulties in finding answers to the proposed activities. Common tasks are listed: putting events or items in the right order, true/false statements, multiple choice questions, note-taking. It is worth emphasizing the importance of teachers being familiar with the crucial role that different types or stages of memory (e.g., echoic, working, long-term memory) play in the development of listening abilities (Cohen et al, 1986; Smyth & Wing, 1987).
Speaking is introduced through three stages: elicitation of appropriate functional language, intensive oral practice, and developing oral fluency. The first goal may be reached by asking questions, using synonyms and antonyms, giving instructions, using realia and visual aids, gestures, and mime. Intensive practice involves repetition, echo questions, simple substitutions of dialogue prompts, or combining sentences. These activities enable students to become more accurate in specific language structures. Fluency is undoubtedly the most difficult skill to develop since it is highly dependent on interest in the topic and preparation of required vocabulary. Thus it is good practice to let students choose the topics and let them break the ice by starting with warm-up activities. Role-play, games, and information-gap activities are suitable for the development of oral fluency. As for
41 accuracy, Allan (1991) suggested the use of taping a ten-minute talk from notes for self-correction of errors.
Teachers should become aware that writing is useful to their students only when this activity involves tasks that are realistic and relevant to students' lives. In order to help students build confidence in their writing abilities, teachers should make wide use of guided tasks: e.g., giving cue and items, using substitution tables to form sentences, providing model texts, asking students to write a simple letter or a postcard. Advanced students may write longer letters, biographies, diaries, stories and fables, topic subjects, articles for the school magazine. Since writing involves a set of complex cognitive processes, good teachers would help their students, in my opinion, to generate ideas and to direct them towards guided techniques. They should also enable students to develop effective planning procedures and to produce receiver-based compositions. The use of the word processor assists students in learning spelling, in the generation of rapid drafting, and in the easy correction of texts, thanks to the revision facilities that any writing software offers.
Reading is seen as an additional exposure to the foreign language, and it contributes to the development and updating of vocabulary. I can say that it is a good device to increase systemic knowledge (syntactic and morphological) as well as schematic knowledge (encyclopaedic, socio-cultural, topic, and genre). Intensive reading is useful in the language classroom to analyse grammatical features, to learn how discourse markers are used to connect parts of text, and to infer the meanings of new words and lexical items relying on the context. These aspects may be elicited by true/false activities, questions, or cloze exercises.
42 Reading is likely one of the most researched topics in education and the primary focus of instruction at different levels. The changes that occurred in language research and the psychological study of mental processes played a prominent role by elevating reading research to a higher level if compared to other skills. Reading is an important component of learning a second/foreign language. Foreign language students need to learn to read for communicative purposes and they learn to read materials as the most readily available source of comprehensible input in language learning. At advanced proficiency levels in a foreign language, the ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate and with good comprehension has long been recognized to be as important as oral skills, if not more important (Eskey, 1970). One of the main advantages of reading for students is that it improves their general language level.
It is obvious that one reads for various purposes. Alderson and Urquhart (1984) state that the only certain element in a definition of reading is that there is a reader, author and a text. Widdowson (1979) describes reading as “the process of getting linguistic information via print.” But Alderson and Urquhart (1984) point out that this is a simplification as it is too all-embracing to be of practical use. Smith, Goodman and Meredith (1970) suggest that reading is an active process rather than a passive and reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. Meaning does not come from the printed letters alone. It involves an interaction between thought and language. Rather than reading individual word, readers choose the fewest and most productive hints from the printed page, which are essential to make predictions and affirm them. They guess what will come or happen next and check their predictions. Smith (1973) claimed that reading is not even primarily a visual process. Nonvisual
43 information coming from the brain is more important in reading than what appears on the printed page. Nonvisual information consists of all the things the reader already knows about reading, grammar, syntax, semantics, context, and the world in general. Thus, reading is not a passive reception of meaning from the text. It is an active process, making use of the interaction between the reader’s knowledge and the text.
Resnick and Weaver (1979) give a comprehensive examination of the issues associated with learning to read including: 1) significance of decoding, 2) the nature of reading skills, 3) the relationship between reading and language, 4) factors that interfere with learning to read, and 5) the acquisition of reading competence. The general model that derives from a great many analyses is that early stages of reading depend on letter-sound correspondence with increasing importance upon semantic-linguistic aspects over time. Seeing that reading is a meaning-making process involving an interaction between the reader and the text, readers use mental activities so as to construct meaning from text. These activities are generally known as reading
strategies. Effective and successful readers consciously or unconsciously engage in
specific behaviours to understand the texts they read faster and better.
FUNDAMENTAL VIEWS ON DEVELOPING READING SKILLS
In order to place the present study in a conceptual framework, we provide an overview of the changing views of reading theory, and review the relevant research in foreign language reading which has contributed to our understanding of the reading process.
44 A description of what a student has understood from a text is not the same as a description of how he/she arrives at such an understanding. In fact, it is too complex to analyze what we do when we read. Huey (1968) emphasizes this fact that as follows: “… to completely analyze what we do when we read would almost be the acme of a psychologist’s dream, for it would be to describe very many of the most intricate workings of the human mind”. However, some substantial attempts have been made to describe the most intricate workings of the human mind when engaged in reading. It is accurate to speculate that until the mid-1950s and the 1960s, there was not a strong tradition of attempting to conceptualize knowledge and theory about the reading process. Recent researchers on text processing have greatly expanded understanding of the mental processes involved in reading. Nowadays, there is an awareness of the fact that readers’ language abilities, cognitive resources, social and cultural backgrounds, their purposes and the strategies they use will be reflected by how and what they read and what they get from their reading. The activity of the reader in the reading process has been attributed to reading strategies which reveal the way readers interact with written text in the process of meaning construction. The recent focus on the process rather than product of reading has led to the adoption of different research methodologies in the investigation of readers’ processes.
The traditional view of reading is that meaning resides in the text to be comprehended; not in the reader performing the comprehending. Problems of second language reading comprehension were seen as being essentially decoding problems, deriving meaning from the print. Current views of second language reading have been largely influenced by first or native language reading models. About a few decades ago, first/native language reading models, particularly those based on the
