a study on reading strategy training for grade 11th english majors at binh xuyen high school, vĩnh phúc province = luyện một số thủ thuật đọc hiệu quả cho học sinh chuyên tiếng anh lớp 11

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES






TRẦN THỊ KHÁNH




A STUDY ON READING STRATEGY TRAINING FOR
GRADE 11 ENGLISH MAJORS AT BINH XUYEN HIGH
SCHOOL, VĨNH PHÚC PROVINCE

Luyện một số thủ thuật đọc hiệu quả cho học sinh chuyên Tiếng
Anh lớp 11, trường THPT Bình Xuyên, tỉnh Vĩnh Phúc


M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS




Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

HA NOI, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES






TRẦN THỊ KHÁNH






A STUDY ON READING STRATEGY TRAINING FOR
GRADE 11 ENGLISH MAJORS AT BINH XUYEN HIGH
SCHOOL, VĨNH PHÚC PROVINCE

Luyện một số thủ thuật đọc hiệu quả cho học sinh chuyên Tiếng
Anh lớp 11, trường THPT Bình Xuyên, tỉnh Vĩnh Phúc


M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Dr, Võ Đại Quang






HA NOI, 2013

i
STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY
I, Trần Thị Khánh, certify that the thesis “Training strategies to 11
th
grade
English non-majors at Binh Xuyen high school, Vinh phuc province”, partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my
own and has not been submitted for a degree to any other universities or
institutions.

ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Vo Dai Quang, for his assistance, guidance and critical comments so that I can
complete my study.
I also wish to send my thanks to lecturers during the M.A course, who have
helped me to fulfill the thesis.
I owe my sincere thanks to teachers and students at Binh Xuyen high school,
Vinh Phuc province, who have been enthusiastic to participate in my research.
Finally, I would like to show my big gratitude to my mother, my colleagues
and my friends who have encouraged me to overcome difficulties when I carried out
the research.

iii
ABTRACT
Reading is one necessary and important skill in learning English. Reading is also
the means to gain success in learning other subjects. However, teaching strategies
are still not paid attention at Binh Xuyen high school so as for students to overcome
difficulties in this skill school. As a teacher of English, I recognized that their
results in graduation and university entrance exam are not high at Binh Xuyen high
school and frequently complained by other teachers. The students felt bored and
afraid to cope with reading lessons. With the desire to improve students‟ reading
skill, the author carried out the research on the training reading strategies at Binh
Xuyen high school, Vinh Phuc province. The purpose of the study was to
investigate the effect of the training the strategies, give findings and useful
implications in learning and teaching reading.
This study consists of three main parts:

Part A, Introduction states the background of the study and the problem. Part B is
the main part of the study, Development continuing with three chapters in which the
first presents the literature review and the second describes the study in details and
analysizes the statistics. Chapter three focuses on data analysis, findings and
discussions. Part C draws conclusions and shows the limitations and suggestions in
the future studies.
The rest of the thesis is Part D: REFERENCES and Part E: APPENDICES







iv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Background information about the subjects of the study
Table 2:Numbers of students in score levels according to pretest and posttest results
of the Control group
Table 3:Mean and Standard Deviation of Pretest and Posttest according to
categories of test items and overall results of the Control group
Table 4:Numbers of students in score levels according to Pretest and Posttest
results of the Experimental group
Table 5:Mean and Standard Deviation of Pretest and Posttest according to
categories of test items and overall results of the Experimental group.
Table 6:Numbers of students in score levels according to Pretest results of the
Control and Experimental group
Table 7:Mean and Standard Deviation of Pretest according to categories of test
items and overall results of the Control and Experimental group
Table 8:Numbers of students in score levels according to Posttest Results of the

Control and Experimental group
Table 9:Mean and Standard Deviation of Posttest according to categories of test
items and overall results of the Control and Experimental group
Table 10: Mean and Standard Deviations of Overall Pretest and Posttest of Control
and Experimental group.








v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EFL/ESL : English as a Foreign Language/ English as a second language
ELT : English Language Teaching
FL : Foreign Language
L2 : Second language
N : The number of students
VNU : Vietnam National University

vi
TABLE OF CONTENS
Statement of thesis originality i
Acknowledgements ii
Abtract iii
List of tables iv
List of abbreviations v
Part A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims and objectives of the study 2
3.Research questions for the study 2
4.Scope of the study 2
5. Significance of the study 3
6. Design of the study 3
Part B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. Learning strategies 5
1.1.1. Definition 5
1.1.2. Classification of language learning strategies 5
1.2. Definition of reading 6
1. 3. Reading comprehension 7

1.4. Reading strategies 8
1.4.1. Definition of reading strategies 8
1.4.2. Classification of Reading strategies 10
1.4.3. The role of Reading Strategies 13
1.4.4. Reading Strategy Instruction and Principles for Strategies Instruction 14
1.4.5. Research on learning and teaching reading strategies 16
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 26
2.1. Setting of the study 26
2.2. Restatement of research questions 27

vii
2.3. Research methods 27
2.3.1. Type of method 27
2.3.2. Population sampling 28
2.3.3. Data collection instruments 29
2.3.4. Data analysis techniques 30
2.4. Procedure 31
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 33
3.1. Data analysis 33
3.1.1 Comparison of the Pretest and Posttest Results within each group 33
3.1.2. Comparison of the Pretest and Posttest Results of Experimental group 34
3.1.3. Comparison of the Pretest Results between Control and Experimental group36
3.1.4. Comparison of the Posttest Results between the Control group and
Experimental group 38
3.1.5. Comparison of the Overall Pretest and Posttest of the Control Group and
Experimental group 40
3.2. Findings 41
3.2.1. Finding 1 and comments on this finding 41
3.2.2 Finding 2 and comments on this finding 42
3.2.3. Finding 3 and comments on this finding 43

Part C: CONCLUSION 44
1. Recapitulation 44
2. Concluding remarks on each of the thesis objectives 44
2.1. Concluding remarks on objective 1 44
2.2. Concluding remarks on objective 2 45
3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 47
3.1. Limitations of the study 47
3.2. Suggestions for future study 47
PART D: REFERENCES 49
APPENDIXES I

1
Part A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale for the study
It is easy to see that reading is one of essential skills at high school. First, reading
lessons have been systematically introduced together with other skills such as
listening, speaking and writing in the English textbook in Vietnam. Reading always
begins each unit in the textbook then, listening or speaking and writing. The
structures or new words in the reading lesson will continue to appear and be
practised in the following sections. Second, all regular tests in English class
involve reading comprehension questions. Especially, the points for reading
questions always make up a large number in graduate or university entrance exams.
Reading is also the database that provides knowledge for students to enhance their
language learning and improve skills in life. When students are provided with a
variety of language expressions, structures and a wide range of information, it is
easier for them to practise the rest skills such as writing or speaking. Moreover,
reading skill is also useful in other fields of science; for example, when students
have to study information technology subject or find out materials involved tourists,
history, even maths or chemistry in English. Students may read in order to gain

information or verify existing knowledge, do research and so on.
In addition, reading also develops some skills in real situations in life such as
scanning the timetable when they fly by plane to go abroad or look for information
in TV or magazines in English. In other cases, students can read to understand other
cultures, the relationship between people or social communication. The more they
read, the more knowledgeable they become. Therefore, it is crucial for them to read
English effectively. However, English reading is often said to be difficult in spite of
students‟ effort. The requirement for teachers is to teach their students how to
overcome the difficulties, but this is not an easy task.
At Binh Xuyen high school, English is a compulsory subject. Moreover, for the
majors of English, after graduation they will have to take a university entrance

2
exam. However, through observing English reading classes, the author has realized
most of the students read texts at low speed. They lack strategies to take advantage
of their vocabulary, linguistic or prior knowledge to do tasks. Besides, the method
of teaching is sometimes not suitable; for example, some teachers translate the texts
into Vietnamese or explain too many new words, which is waste of time without
dealing with the tasks. For aforementioned reasons, it‟s necessary for the author to
investigate what strategies should be trained to bring effects and whether the
teaching of strategies benefits students‟learning of reading or not.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
This thesis is aimed at gaining an insightful look into reading strategies with a
view to improving the teaching of reading skills at Binh Xuyen high school.
Objectives are set for investigation:
- Identifying the effects brought about by the 4 reading strategies to the teaching
and learning of reading skills at Binh Xuyen high school: Scanning, Skimming,
and guessing vocabulary in context and Inference
- Identifying the techniques possibly applicable to the teaching of reading
3. Research questions for the study

The aims are specified in two research questions:
1. To what extent does the training of four reading strategies (skimming, scanning,
guessing vocabulary in context, and inference) affect grade 11 English majors‟
reading learning at Binh Xuyen high school?
2. How can students‟ abilities in reading be improved via four reading strategies?
4. Scope of the study
A learners‟ success or failure in acquiring a foreign language can be affected by
many interrelated factors from both students and teachers. At high school, students
learn all English skills: listening, speaking, writing and grammar. However, this
study only focuses on the teaching some of reading strategies at Binh Xuyen high
school, and the effects are brought about by those strategies.

3
5. Significance of the study
The research is carried out at Binh Xuyen high school with a view to applying
reading strategies and exploring its effects. Although it only focuses on 4 reading
strategies for reading, its significance is remarkable. First, it touches on reading
strategies that is often overlooked in teaching reading at Binh Xuyen high school. It
highlights the importance of teaching strategies in classes. With clear evidence from
the study, the researcher hopes to encourage students to take advantage of self-study
competence and teachers to use creative methods of teaching. Second, the study
helps the author-teacher understand more about the students‟ learning and using
reading strategies at Binh Xuyen high school. Third, through a thorough analysis of
the results, the author desires to share ideas and experiences with other teachers in
the school to come up with solutions to drawbacks existing in teaching. Such
findings will help improve both the learning and teaching in reading in the future.
Finally, useful implications from this study will be beneficial for further studies.
6. Design of the study
The study comprises 3 main parts:
Part A is the introduction, which presents the rationale of the study, the aims

and objectives, research questions, the scope and the significance and design of the
study.
Part B, Development including three chapters, presents the contents of the
study:
Chapter one – Literature review - provides theoretical background of the
study focusing on learning and reading strategies which are discussed and analyzed
by experts and researchers.
Chapter two – Methodology – describes how the authors carried out the
study with the participating of the students (group 11A10 and 11A11) at Binh
Xuyen high school, Vinh Phuc province. The process includes administrating the
pretest and posttest, teaching reading four strategies and the way of collecting,
analyzing data.

4
Chapter three – Analyses and Findings – includes the analyzing data,
findings and the comments for each finding.
Part C is the conclusion which summarizes all the main contents of the
study, reviews objectives, limitations of current research and gives suggestions for
further studies.
Appendixes with supplementary materials and references are included in
Part D and Part E.

5
Part B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Learning strategies
1.1.1. Definition
Learning strategies is the concept discussed much in language research. Why
this person studies better, more easily and more effectively than others? The reason
for this is the use of reading strategies. Learning strategies are considered important
to comprehension, learning, or retention of the information.
Many researchers describe learning strategies from different points of view.
Strategies are considered as “any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by
the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information.”
(Wenden and Rubin, 1987) Learning strategies become the means to gain success in
students‟ learning.
Wenden (1987) and Brown (2007:119) mention learning strategies as “language
learning behaviors”. Brown cites another definition that shows second language

learning strategies as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques…used by
students to enhance their own learning” (Oxford & Ehrman, 1998, p.8). He explains
that “Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of
operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and
manipulating certain information.” Oxford (1990:8) also defines language learning
strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster,
more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new
situations”. In spites of any expressions or terms, language strategies are
acknowledged to facilitate the learning.
1.1.2. Classification of language learning strategies
Together with the definition of language strategies is its classification. Alderson
(2000) reviews the classification from Rubin (1987:19) in terms of cognitive, meta-
cognitive, and communication strategies as the following:

6
“Cognitive learning strategies (clarification/verification; guessing/ inductive
inferencing; deductive reasoning; practice; memorization; and monitoring)
Meta-cognitive learning strategies (choosing, prioritization, planning, advance
preparation, selective attention and more);
Communication strategies (including circumlocution/ paraphrase, formulae use,
avoidance strategies and clarification strategies)
Social strategies”
(Rubin, 1987:20 passim)

Lee (2010:140) summarizes another classification according to Oxford (1990).
Strategies are divided into direct and indirect ones. Direct strategies are “used to
deal with new language” while “indirect ones do not directly involve using the
language, but they support language learning.” Three groups that belong to the
direct one are memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies. The indirect
strategies also include three groups: meta-cognitive, affective and social strategies.

1.2. Definition of reading
A person reads for different purposes in native language or other second or
foreign languages. Reading is considered a daily activity which is integral part of
people, so what is reading?
According to Harmer (1991:190) reading is a mechanical process in which “eyes
receive the message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the
message.”
Alderson and Urquhart (1984) confirm “Reading undeniably and incontrovertibly
involves two necessary elements: a reader and a text.” The third element is “the
writer.” Likewise, Nuttal (1996: 11) considers reading as “an interactive process- as
conversation because both reader and writer depend on one another.” He
acknowledges that the interaction is of complexity because of no writer‟s explaining
or facilitating at the time of reading. The reader has to find out the meaning of the

7
text written by the author. Consequently, there seems to be no “complete” concept
of meeting between the reader and the writer.
Williams (1984:2) defines “reading is a process whereby one looks at and
understands what has been written.” Reading aloud without understanding is not
called reading and requiring students to read what students knows is also considered
“an activity of very limited value”; however, reading aloud is also included in
reading and is one of activities to practise pronunciation. The word “understand” in
the definition is comprehended in a flexible way. He claims that “This definition of
reading does not mean that a foreign learner (or indeed any reader) needs to
understand everything in a text.” Also, the reader does not simply work with words
and sentences in a boring or passive way, but he or she is actively working on the
text. He can arrive at understanding without looking at every letter and word. In
summary, reading is a process related to understanding written text, but it is not “an
absolute process- understanding nothing or all.” One efficient reader must know
what he/she needs and how he/she does to obtain meaning without reading

everything in the text.
The aforementioned definitions make an effort to identify what the reading is and
what is involved in reading. Another term often appearing in studies on reading is
reading comprehension which is presented in the next part.
1. 3. Reading comprehension
Many studies confirm that the final goal of reading instruction is
comprehension and one of the most important goals of skilled reading is decoding
and understanding written text. However, the decoding and the ability to recognize
words in texts are only the beginning stages of reading and reading comprehension
(Adam, 1990). The concept of comprehension is explained in a higher level by
Grellet (1981), he states that “Understanding a written text means extracting the
required information from it as efficiently as possible.” He also shows the examples
in which a good reader will omit unnecessary information and find out what he or
she is searching for.

8
Other people believe that reading comprehension is not just a receptive
process. It requires many other skills in combination. “It implies a complex process
in which the readers identify basic information and are able to predict, to infer, to
argue and to recognize writers‟ points of view.” Díaz& Laguado (2003,p.6).
Pang, Muaka, Bernhardt and Kamil (2003), also states that “Reading is a
complex activity” in the combination of related processes: word recognition and
comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written
symbols correspond to one‟s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of
making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use
of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with
text and other strategies to help them understand written text.”
Harris and Hodges (1995) suggest that reading comprehension is “the
construction of the meaning of a written text through a reciprocal interchange of
ideas between the reader and the message in a particular text”. Aebersold (1997: 15)

also emphasizes two “entities” in the reading process; they are the text and the
reader. He adds that “the meaning the reader gets from the text may not exactly the
same as the meaning the writer wished to convey. Because of influences from “the
family, community, aptitude and other personal characteristics”, consequently,
“reading comprehension differs from one reader to another.”
Combined from the all definitions, reading comprehension can be defined as “a
fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own
background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension…”
(Anderson, 2000, p.68)
1.4. Reading strategies
1.4.1. Definition of reading strategies
Barnet (1998) considers reading strategies as the mental operations which
happens when a person reads effectively and makes sense of the meaning. Alderson
(1999:70) argues that strategies like “deliberate action that learners select and
control to achieve desired goals or objectives” (Winograd and Hare, 1988, p.123).

9
He highlights the “active role” of the readers in using effectively in obtaining
“desired results”. However, reading strategies are not considered “a single event”
but “a sequence of activities” and it is not hoped they can meet demands of getting
all but only “some of the sequence”.
In terms of monitoring text comprehension that refers to the readers‟ “constantly
checking to see if the strategies they are using”, Smith (1988:3) states that
“strategies that build comprehension focus on how the text progresses and the
meaning of the text as it builds sentence and paragraph by paragraph.”
In reading research, reading strategies may be confusing to be understood in
comparison with reading skills. It is said that they are used interchangeably and
mutually supportive. Strategies support skills, so they are placed in “complementary
relations”. Skills and strategies also refer to the development in progress “e.g. first
phonics skill then the comprehension strategies.” Smith (1988:364). However, a

group of researchers such as Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008: 365) who try to
make a distinction claim that skill is related to the “proficiency of a complex act”
and strategies refer to “a conscious and systematic plan”. Skills come from
“learning through practice” but strategies from “constructive, self-controlled
theories of information processing.” They also show that using skills and strategies
depends on students‟ knowledge. They tend to use skills when their tasks are easy
and “their knowledge is strong” while strategies are used when they do not have
enough knowledge to confront a difficult text. A number of distinctions are listed:
“Skills make up strategies.”
“Strategies lead to skills.”
“Skill is the destination, strategy is the journey.”
“We learn strategies to do a skill.”
“Skills are automatic, strategies are effortful and mediated.”
“We use strategies as tools.”
“Strategies that work require a skill set.”

10
“We have to pay attention in learning skills, but eventually we use them
automatically.”
“You don‟t think about skills, and you do think about strategies.”
Hudson (2007:105) says: “Other researchers restrict reading skills to automatic
processes and contrast those to the view that strategies are conscious and deliberate
repair strategies”. He also cites the differences between skills and strategies by Paris
Walsik and Turner (1996):
“Skills refer information- processing techniques that are automatic, whether at the
level of recognizing phoneme-grapheme correspondence or summarizing a story.
Skills are applied to text unconsciously for many reasons including expertise,
repeated practice, and compliance with directions, luck, and naive 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” and become a skill. Indeed, strategies are more efficient and
developmentally advanced when they become generated and applied automatically
as skills” (Paris et all. 1996: 610-11).
All the distinctions help make the definition of strategies clear and in the next
part; classification of reading strategies is presented.
1.4.2. Classification of Reading strategies
Grellet (1990) provides 3 groups of techniques:
Sensitizing: Inference, Understanding relations within the sentences, linking
sentences and ideas.
According to Ur (1996), an effective reader:
- Concentrate on reading and is involved with the author‟ logic, word usage
and ideas
- Read with goals in mind
- Visualize what is being read
- Associated new ideas with old ones through comprehension and retention
- Know most of the vocabulary

11
- Can guess many word meanings form sentences around the unfamiliar
words
- Used the dictionary to determine meanings of key and for technical words
- Use critical, logical meaning to access and apply new ideas.
- Summarizes new knowledge in own words.
- Use review methods with texts.
- Integrates new ideas, fact and theory into knowledge already acquired about
the subject
- Read in phrases and thought units , not word by word
- Always previews material before reading
- Learn and can apply main ideas and find details as they relate to main ideas.
- Make use of both inductive and deductive reasoning

- Locate thesis statement, topic sentences, generalizations.
O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) classify reading strategies into cognitive, meta-
cognitive and social/ affective. Some items such as “Clarification or verification,
guessing or inductive inferencing, deductive reasoning, practice, memorization, and
monitoring” belong to cognitive strategies. Other items like “a conscious overview
of the learning process; making decisions about planning, monitoring, or
evaluating” are included meta-cognitive strategies.
Alderson (1999:82) also gives the list with 24 strategies in while reading that is
classified into three different groups: cognitive reading strategies, meta-cognitive
reading strategies, and compensating reading strategies:
Cognitive Reading Strategies
1. Predicting the content of an upcoming passage or section of the text.
2. concentrating on grammar to help you understand unfamiliar constructions.
3. Understanding the main idea to help you comprehend the entire reading
4. Expanding your vocabulary and grammar to help you increase your reading
5. Guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words or phrases to let you use what you
already know about English.

12
6. Analyzing theme, style, and connections to improve your comprehension.
7. Distinguish between opinions and facts in your reading
8. Breaking down larger phrases into smaller parts to help you understand difficult
passages.
9. Linking what you know in your first language with words in English
10. Creating a map or drawing of related ideas to enable you to understand the
relationships between words and ideas.
11. Writing a short summary of what you read to help you understand the main
ideas.
Meta-cognitive Reading Strategies
12. Setting goals for yourself to help you improve areas that are important to you.

13. Making lists of relevant vocabulary to prepare for new reading
14. Working with classmates to help you develop your reading skills.
15. Taking opportunities to practice what you already know to keep progress steady
16. Evaluating what you have learned and how well you are doing to help you focus
your reading
Compensating Reading Strategies
17. Relying on what you already know to improve your reading comprehension
18. Taking notes to help you recall important details.
19. trying to remember what you understand form a reading to help you develop
better comprehension skills.
20. Reviewing the purpose and tone of a reading passage so you can remember
more effectively
21. Picturing scenes in your mind to help you remember and understand your
reading
22. Reviewing key ideas and details to help you remember
23. Using physical action to help you remember information you have read.
24. Classifying words into meaningful groups to help you remember them more
clearly.

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An another classification with ten strategies relating to bottom-up procedures, and
others to top down processes is proposed by Brown (2001) :
1. Identify the purpose of reading (clearly identify the purpose in reading something
so you will know what you are looking for);
2. Use graphemic rules and patterns to aid bottom-up decoding, especially for
beginning level learners;
3. Use efficient silent reading technique for rapid comprehension (for intermediate
to advanced levels)
4. Skim the text for main ideas (quickly running one‟s eyes across whole text for its
gist) for prediction;

5. Scan the text for specific information (quickly searching for some particular piece
or pieces of information in a text)
6. use semantic mapping or clustering (group ideas meaningful clusters, helps
readers to provide some order to the chaos)
7. guess when you aren‟t certain (guess a meaning of a word, guess a grammatical
relationship, guess a discourse relationship, guess a discourse relationship, infer
implied meaning, guess about a cultural reference and guess content messages)
8. analyze vocabulary (look for prefixes, look for suffixes, look for roots that are
familiar, look for grammatical contexts that may signal information, look at
semantic context for clues)
9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings;
10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships.
1.4.3. The role of Reading Strategies
Reading strategies play an important role in reading comprehension. They are
considered as centered in learning process to gain success and nowadays more and
more attention is paid to them. It is the reason that Anderson (1999) states “recently,
there has been a shift in attention from a focus on the product of reading (such as a
score on a reading comprehension test) to an emphasis on determining the strategies
that readers use in various reading contexts.

14
Various studies on reading strategies show that reading strategies can support
students‟ reading comprehension (Cohen, 1998; Chamot, 1999). Researchers
acknowledge that efficient readers know how to operate their reading strategies to
achieve success while poor readers lack the development of reading strategies.
O‟Malley & Chamot ( 1990) also add that students using strategies perform better
in reading than that of students who are not provided with reading strategies
instruction. Moreover, according to (Allen, 2003; Rubin, 1987), reading strategies
activate autonomic independent learning. In the reading process, students can do
self-direct their learning or reading.

In summary, reading strategies facilitate reading process and enable readers to
construct meaning from the text effectively. They direct readers on the right track
and discover the reasons why they are poor reader or how they can do to improve
reading comprehension.
1.4.4. Reading Strategy Instruction and Principles for Strategies Instruction
Anderson (1999) confirms that “teaching readers how to use strategies is a prime
consideration in reading classroom.” It may be the reason why in the past decades,
so many studies explore the teaching in reading strategies with the hope to enable
students to cope with difficulties and improve their reading abilities.
In a study, a group of authors such as Shohreh Raftari, Keivan Seyyedi, and Shaik
Abdul Malik Mohamed Ismail Hamp( 2012) who have reviewed studies on reading
strategies instruction draw conclusions that the teaching strategies are “always
useful” . However, “its usefulness varies according to different factors such as the
teaching methods and the learners‟ personal variables.”
Using reading strategies are necessary and powerful to an efficient reader, but to
help students become such good readers, strategies instructions must be considered.
The principles or how strategy instructions are delivered in effective way are
discussed. Garner (1982, cited in Anderson, 1999) “emphasizes that low-
proficiency readers need guided practice if strategy training is to be successful.
Such training can emphasizes the “when” and “why” of strategy use at least as

15
much as the “what”. Anderson pays close attention to the role of teacher in teaching
strategies. He states that “teacher explanation is an intergral part of success in
learning how to verify strategy use.” Some elements are shown clearly by Winogard
and Hare (1998, cited in Anderson, 1999): “(1) what the strategy is, (2) why the
strategy should be learned, (3) how to use the strategy, (4) when and where the
strategy is to be learned, and (5) how to evaluate the use of the strategy.” (p.71)
In addition, Hudson (2007) shows a variety of studies on second language
strategy and comes to conclusion that the training must depend on “second language

ability and the depth of the training”. He also argues that instruction is only become
the most effective when the instructor:
1. carefully explains the nature and purpose of the strategy
2. models its use through reading and thinking aloud
3. provides ample practice and feedback for the students
4. reminds students of the benefits of strategy use and encourages the independent
transfer of these skills to new learning situation
5. provides a content base so that strategy learning is embedded in authentic
purposes.
Other his implications for instruction are the instructional time for direct-strategy
instruction and modeling available for strategy instruction to be effective. The
strategies need to be taught in “a sufficient duration for the training to be effective”
The strategies taught must be “determined through task analyses of strategies
needed.” They are suitable enough for students to do, not too difficult or not too
easy. Finally, strategies “should be presented over a number of contexts with a
variety of texts.” (p.136)
Yang (1995, p.6, cited in Shang, 1996, p.24) generalizes steps as follows:
1. Diagnosis: Developing students‟ awareness toward different strategies;
identifying and assessing students‟ current strategies through observations
questionnaires, interviews, diaries, self-report surveys, think-aloud procedure, etc.

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2. Preparation: Explaining the concept and importance of learning strategies;
providing students with knowledge about language learning strategies and
information on motivation and belief, etc
3. Instruction: Providing direct and informed instructions on learning strategies
through explanation, modeling, practice, and integration; and providing different
practice opportunities with various learning tasks.
4. Evaluation: Helping students evaluate their own strategy use, evaluating the
whole strategy training and revising the training component if necessary.

1.4.5. Research on learning and teaching reading strategies
1.4.5.1. Research on teaching reading strategies
Barnet (1988) investigates the relationships among reading strategies and perceived
strategies use on reading-comprehension in a two-part study. He firstly looks at the
strategies use, and secondly looked at the effect of a teaching intervention designed
to help students develop more effective reading strategies before, during and after
reading. The results indicates that students had better reading comprehension with
use of reading strategies through context. This study may show the importance of
quality and intensity of the strategy instruction.
Kern (1989) has shown the effects of strategy instruction on the study “the effects
of strategy instruction on the reading comprehension and inferential ability of
intermediate level French students”. The study focuses not only on whether direct
strategy instruction is effective, but also whether it is differentially effective
depending upon second language reading ability. The subjects are fifty-three French
students in the third semester, divided into two groups. The experimental group
receives explicit strategy instruction in reading while the Control group received the
normal course without the strategy training. The results indicates there is a
statistically significant difference in comprehension between the Experimental
group and the control group.
Recently,the authors, Shohreh Raftari, Keivan Seyyedi, and Shaik Abdul Malik
Mohamed Ismail Hamp (2012:26) have listed a variety of studies around the world: