An investigation into english reading strategies employed by ethnic minority junior first-year english major students at tay bac university

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
Internationally, within the field of education over the last few decades a gradual but
significant shift has taken place, resulting in less emphasis on teachers and teaching and greater
stress on learners and learning. This change has been reflected in various ways in language
education. Teaching English as a second or foreign language (TESL/TEFL) has also changed
tremendously. Most significantly, the traditional teacher-centred approach has been replaced
with the learner-centred one, which reflects a desire to explore ways of making teaching
responsive to learner needs and interests and allowing learners to play a fuller, more active and
participatory role in the day-to-day teaching and learning processes. Inherent in this approach is
a shift in the responsibilities of both teachers and students in the foreign language classroom. No
longer does the teacher act as the centre of all instruction, controlling every aspect of the
learning process. Learners themselves now, more than ever, are sharing the responsibility for
successful language acquisition and, in doing so, are becoming less dependant on the language
teacher for meeting their own individual language learning needs. By giving students more
responsibility for their own language development, language programs are inviting learners to
become more autonomous, to diagnose some of their own learning strengths and weaknesses
and to sift-direct the process of language development.
Then, for all L2 teachers who aim to develop their students' communicative competence
and language learning, an understanding of language learning strategies is crucial. As Oxford
(1990) puts it, language learning strategies"... are specially important for language learning
because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing
communicative competence" (p.1). According to Nunan (1999), learner-centeredness does not
mean that teachers should devaluating their own professional roles or handling their duties and
responsibility to the learner. Learner-centered instruction "is a matter of educating learners so
that they can gradually assume greater responsibility for their own learning" (Nunan, 1999: 12)
and research suggests that training students to use language learning strategies can help them
become better language learners. In the field of second language acquisition, focus has been
shifted away from finding perfect teaching methodologies to investigating why some learners
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are very successful in their language learning while others are not although they have made as

much effort learning the language. Several studies that have been carried out by Oxford (1990),
O'Malley and Chamot (1990), Nunan (1991), Rubin and Thompson (1994) and Cohen (1998)
have shown that one of the most important factors that distinguish successful learners from
unsuccessful ones is their learning strategies. In other words, successful learners do use some
effective learning strategies to deal with problems that emerge during their learning process
while unsuccessful ones employ inappropriate or ineffective strategies resulting in their failure
in their language learning. This finding has provoked interest among researchers and teachers in
identifying learning strategies employed by good language learners with a view to training bad
learners to use such effective learning strategies.
In Vietnam, learning strategies have also become a topic of interest in recent years when
the concepts of "self-learning" and "life-long learning" have been familiar to the ears of both
Vietnamese teachers and learners. Several studies into this field have been conducted with
different type of learners to find out particular strategies employed by effective and ineffective
learners such as Huyen Tran study (2004) on vocabulary learning strategies used by students of
English at Quy Nhon University or Mai Duong's (2005) on writing strategies employed by first-
year students at Hanoi National University or Nguyen Thi Thu Ha's (2006) on reading strategies
employed by second-year bridge and road students at the University of Transport and
Communications or Mai Van Binh's (2007) on vocabulary learning strategies preferred by
students at College of Finance and Business Administration. However, studies as such are still
scarce, thus, more research should be done in order to clarify particular strategies used in
different settings and by learners of different levels.
At Tay Bac University (TBU), reading is regarded as an important skill to the students
because these students need to read a lot of English books and documents to support their
professional studies. However, apart from some students who are quite good at English reading,
most students especially ethnic minority junior ones find reading difficult. They often complain
that they have little understanding of the text they have read and hardly finish their reading
exercises and exams successfully. Having taught English majored students at TBU for several
years, I am aware of their problems and very much want to help them to improve their reading
ability. Therefore, I intend to examine their reading strategies to find out the reading strategies
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used by students of lower reading ability. Based on the findings, I am going to make some
implications to improve TBU students' reading proficiency.
1.2. Scope, aims and significance of the study
1.2.1. Scope of the study
The present study investigates the reading strategies used by readers among ethnic
minority junior first-year English-majored students at Tay Bac University (hereafter TBU). The
study of learning strategies in other English skills would be beyond the scope.
1.2.2. Aims of the study
The major purposes of this study are:
(1) to identify the reading strategies utilized by readers among ethnic minority junior
first-year English-majored students at Tay Bac University;
(2) to inform the concerned teachers so that they can find ways to improve their students'
reading proficiency.
In order to achieve the above aims of the study, the following major research question
will be addressed:
- What are the reading strategies employed by readers among TBU ethnic minority
junior first-year English-majored students?
1.2.3. Significance of the study
The study is the first one to be carried out in the field of reading strategies research at
TBU. It helps give a detailed description of reading strategies used by readers among first-year
English- majored students at junior grade at the university. More importantly, the findings of
their reading strategies can help teachers to understand more about their students and they can
serve as the foundation for some recommendations on how to improve the students' reading
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proficiency. They are also an important basic for reading strategy based instruction to be
implemented in the future.
1.3. Method of the study
In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the present study utilized quantitative
method including tests and survey questionnaires to collect data on the reading strategies
employed by TBU students. First, the two reading comprehension tests were given to the

subjects in order to identify their English reading proficiency levels. Then, the questionnaires
were administered to find out their reading strategies.
After the data is analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some
suggestions will be raised in the thesis.
1.4 Organization of the thesis
The study is divided into five chapters
Chapter 1 includes the rationale, scope, aims, significance, methods and organization of
the study.
Chapter 2 reviews the literature relevant to the topic of research and summarizes some
selected studies on reading strategies, which serve as a theoretical and methodological
foundation of the study.
Chapter 3 presents the research methodology of the study. It provides information about
the participants, the research method, the instrumentation, the data collection procedures and
data analysis.
Chapter 4, the main part of the study that reports, discusses the main findings according
to the research question.
Chapter 5 is the conclusion that summarizes the findings, presents the implications and
limitations of the study and finally give some suggestions for further research.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction
This chapter reviews theories related to learning strategies in general and reading
strategies in particular. It also summarizes some studies on reading strategies that have been
conducted so far. All of these serve as a basic for an investigation into reading strategies which
is carried out and presented in the next chapter.
2.2. Language learning strategies
2.2.1. Learning strategies - The definitions
Over the last two decades, the study of learning strategies has seen as "explosion of
activity" (R. Ellis, 1994) with the contributions of such well-known researchers as Tarone
(1981), Weinstein and Mayer (1986), Rubin (1987), O' Malley and Chamot (1990), Oxford

(1990) and Cohen (1998). These studies have helped figure out a comprehensive overview of
learning strategies.
Although research on learning strategies is becoming increasingly popular, there have
been some considerable differences in the definition of learning strategies in the literature. Taron
(1981) claimed that "Learning strategies as attempts to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic
competence in the target language". Learning strategies, according to Weinstein and Mayer
(1986) (in O' Malley and Chamot 1990), have learning facilitation as a goal and are intentional
on the part of the learner. The goal of strategy use is to "affect the learner's motivational or
affective state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new
knowledge." (1986: 43). These definitions are too general in comparison to the complex nature
of learning strategies.
Oxford (1990) defined 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" (1990: 5). This definition is judged to be quite comprehensive as
it not only covers the cognitive but also the affective aspects of learning strategies (i.e. to
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increase enjoyment in learning). However, Oxford's definition is not sufficient in the sense that
it regards learning strategies as "specific actions", i.e. learning strategies are behavioral, and
therefore, they are mostly observable. However, many studies in this field have shown that
learning strategies are difficult to observe as they are not only behavioral.
In an attempt to define learning strategies in a more sensible manner, Weinstein and
Mayer (in Ellis,1994: 531) claimed that learning strategies "are the behaviors and thoughts that a
learner engages in during learning that are intended to influence the learner's encoding process".
Thus, these two authors see learning strategies both behavioral and mental. Their view has been
shared by most researchers in strategies studies.
The definition that has been widely accepted to date was proposed by O' Malley and
Chamot (1990). According to them, learning strategies are "the special thoughts or behaviors
that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information" (1990: 1). In
spite of being quite short, their definition covers the most important aspects of learning
strategies, that is learning strategies are both mental and behavioral (therefore both observable

and unobservable), and learning strategies are individually characterized (i.e. every learner's
strategies are different). Because of its comprehensive features, the present study utilized this
definition as the key direction in its investigation.
2.2.2. Why studying learning strategies?
When commenting on the role of learning strategies, Weinstein and Mayer (in O' Malley
and Chamot 1990) say that learning facilitation is the goal of learning strategies, which are
intentional on the part of the learner. The goal of learning strategy use is to "affect the learner's
motivational or affective state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or
integrates new knowledge." (1986: 43).
Oxford (1990), one of the leading teachers and researchers in language learning
strategies field, also gives her own evaluation on learning strategies: "strategies are especially
important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement,
which is essential for developing communicative competence". (1990: 1)
As a teacher of English, my strong belief is that " It takes better teachers to focus on the
learner" (Peter Strevens, cited in Oxford, 1990: 193) and "We cannot teach another directly; we
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can only facilitate his learning (Carl Rogers, cited in Oxford, 1990: 193). The current approach
that is encouraged to be taken to teach English in our country in general and in our own
language setting in particular is communicative language teaching in which learners are central
to the learning process. Helping learners to be independent during their learning process is a task
of every teacher. To gain this aim, one of the suggestions is that learners should be equipped
various strategies so that they control their own learning process confidently and independently.
That is the reason why learning strategies are chosen as the topic of this thesis.
2.2.3. Classification of learning strategies
Much of the earlier research (Rubin 1975 and 1981; Stern 1975; Naiman et al 1978)
focused on compiling inventories of the learning strategies that learners were observed to use or
reported to use.
Rubin (1981) proposed a classification scheme that subsumes learning strategies under
two primary groupings and a number of subgroups. Rubin's first primary category, consisting of
strategies that directly affect learning, includes clarification/verification, monitoring,

memorization, guessing/inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning and practice. The second
category, consisting of strategies that contribute indirectly to learning, includes creating practice
opportunities and using production tricks such as communication strategies. An alternative
classification scheme proposed by Naiman et al (1978) contains five broad categories of
learning strategies and a number of secondary categories. The primary classification includes an
active task approach, realization of language as a means of communication and interaction,
management of affective demands and monitoring of second language performance.
Subsequent descriptive studies have endeavored to identify broad classes of learning
strategies, under which a large number of more specific strategies can be grouped. The works by
Wenden (1983), Oxford (1990), O'Malley et at (1985a and 1985b), O'Malley and Chamot
(1990) have made an important contribution to our knowledge of learning strategies. Wenden's
(1983) research examined the strategies that adult foreign language learners use in order to
direct their own learning. She identifies three general categories of self-directing strategies: (1)
knowing about language (relating to what language and language learning involves), (2)
planning (relating to what and how of language learning), and (3) self-evaluation (relating to
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progress in learning and learner's response to the language experience). Wenden's framework
devised as a basic for learner training.
R. Oxford (1990) built on the earlier classifications with the aim of subsuming within
her taxonomy virtually every strategy previously mentioned in the literature. Oxford (1990)
draws a general distinction between direct and indirect strategies. The former consists of
memory, cognitive and compensation strategies while the later includes metacognitive, affective
and social strategies. However, Oxford's classification of learning strategies is somewhat
complicated and confusing as she treats compensation strategies as a direct type of learning
strategies and memory strategies as separate ones from cognitive strategies.
Perhaps, the framework that has been most useful and generally accepted is O'Malley
and Chamot (1990)'s. In O'Malley and Chamot 's framework, three major types of strategies are
distinguished in accordance with the information processing model, on which their research is
based. Metacognitive strategies are "higher order executive skills that may entail planning for,
monitoring or evaluating the success of learning activity" (O'Malley and Chamot: 44). Cognitive

strategies "operate directly on incoming information, manipulating it in ways that enhance
learning" O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 44). The last subtypes of these strategies presented in
Table 2.1 were identified by O'Malley and Chamot on the basis of their several descriptive
studies on learning strategies used by second language learners.
Learning strategy Definition
A. Metacognitive
strategies
Planning
Advance
organizers
Previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material to be learned, often by skimming
the text for the organization principle.
Directed attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and to ignore irrelevant
distracters.
Functional
planning
Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components necessary to carry out an outcoming task.
Selective attention Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input, often by scanning for key words,
concepts and/or linguistic markers
Self-management Understanding the conditions that help one learn and arranging for the presence of those
conditions.
Monitoring
Self-monitoring Checking one's comprehension during listening or reading or checking the accuracy and/or
appropriateness of one's oral or written production while it is taking place.
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Evaluation
Self-evaluation Checking the outcomes of one's own language against a standard after it has been
completed.
B. Cognitive
strategies

Resourcing Using target language reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, or textbooks.
Repetition Imitating the language model, including overt practice and silent rehearsal.
Grouping Classifying words, terminology or concepts according to their attributes or meanings.
Deduction Applying rules to understand or produce the second language or making up rules based on
language analysis.
Imagery Using visual images (either mental or actual) to understand or remember new information.
Auditory
representation
Planning back in one's mind the sound of a word, phrase or longer language sequence.
Key word method Remembering a new word in the second language by: (1) identifying a familiar word in the
first language that sounds like or otherwise resembles the new word, and (2) generating
easily recalled images of some relationship with the first language homonym and the new
word in the second language.
Elaboration relating new information to prior knowledge, relating different parts or new information to
each other, or making meaningful personal associations with the new information.
Transfer Using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to assist comprehension or production.
Differencing Using available information to guess the meanings of new items, predict outcomes or fill in
missing information.
Note taking Writing down key words or concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or numerical form while
listening or reading.
Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language sequence by combining known
elements in a new way.
Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or producing the second language.
C.
Social(affective)
strategies
Question for
clarification
Eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanation, rephrasing, examples or verification.
Cooperation Working together with one or more peers to solve a problem, pool information, check a

learning task, model a language activity, or get feedback on oral or written performance.
Self-talk Reducing anxiety by using mental techniques that make one feel competent to do the
learning task.
Table 2.1. Learning strategy definition and classification (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119)
This classification of learning strategies is comprehensive and sufficient and it is
applicable to learning strategy studies on four English disciplines. Therefore, the current study
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will adopt O'Malley and Chamot's classification of learning strategies as the theoretical
framework for investigation.
2.4. The theory of reading
2.4.1. Definition of reading
For many foreign language or second language learners, reading is a very important
skill. Concerning the role of reading, Carrell (1988:1) stated that "Without solid reading
proficiency, second language learners cannot perform at levels they must in order to succeed".
Anderson (1999) also confirms that "the more exposure a student has to language through
reading, the greater the possibilities that overall language proficiency will increase" (1999:3).
Reading plays such a significant part in the success of second language learning and it is
essential to understand what reading really is. However, the act of reading is not completely
understood nor easily described. In a general term, (Anderson,1999:1) defines reading as "an
active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning".
This definition of reading has been generally shared by other researchers.
According to Rumelhart (1977), reading involves the reader, the text and the interaction
between the reader and text. Aebersold and Field (1997:15) share the same view on reading:
"Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols
in that text. The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading
process to start. It is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes the
actual meaning". These interaction, in their opinion, are the interactions between purpose and
manner of reading and through reading strategies and schema. Purpose determines how people
read a text. People may read the text to understand it (reading for full comprehension), or simply
to get the general idea (skimming), to find the part that contains the information they need

(scanning). Readers also use some mental activities that are often referred to as reading
strategies to construct meaning from a text. In addition, readers base on their previous
knowledge that they bring meaning to the text to assist their reading comprehension. This prior
knowledge is known as the schema. Research in reading has shown that schema plays an
important role in helping the reader to comprehend a text.
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The above-mentioned views on reading are only general ones. In order to understand
more about the nature of reading, it is necessary to take a closer look at the actual process that
really takes place in the reader's mind. So far, several models have been proposed to describe
this process. The next section is going to present these models of reading and discuss their
strengths and weaknesses.
2.4.2. Models of reading process
Up to now, attempts to describe the interaction between reader and text have been
numerous and different views of the reading process have been proposed. These views are often
grouped under three different reading models named the bottom-up, the top-down and the
interactive ones.
2.4.2.1. Bottom-up model
Early researchers often assumed a passive, bottom-up view of second language reading,
that is it was viewed as "a decoding process of reconstructing the author's intended meaning" via
recognizing the printed letters and words and building up a meaning for a text from the smallest
textual units at the bottom (letters and words) to larger and larger units at the top (phrases,
clauses, intersentencial linkages) (Rivers 1964, 1968; Plaister 1968; Yorio 1971).
In other words, in the bottom-up reading model, the reader begins with the written text
(the bottom) and constructs meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within
and then processes the text in a linear fashion. The coming data from the text must be received
before the high level mental storage of understanding transform and recode the data.
Gough (1972) who supported this reading model explained the sequence of the reading
system from a bottom-up perspective as follows: First, the graphemic information enters through
the visual system and it is transformed at the first level from a letter character, that is from
graphemic representation to a phonemic representation. Second, the phonemic representation is

converted at level two into a word. The meaning units or words then pass on to the third level
and meaning is assimilated into the knowledge system.
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In short, the bottom-up model tends to be linear as they start with the printed stimuli and
proceed to higher level stage, one step after another. The basis for bottom-up processing is the
linguistic knowledge of the reader. However, this model reveals several shortcomings in
describing the actual reading process.
An important drawback of this model, as pointed out by Samuel and Kamil (1988: 31), is
"the lack of feedback, in that no mechanism is provided to allow for processing stages which
occur later in the system to influence processing which occurs earlier in the system. Because of
the lack of feedback loops in the early bottom-up models, it was difficult to account for
sentence-context effects and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in
word recognition and comprehension.".
Due to this limitation, and together with the advent of Goodman's top-down view of
reading, the bottom-up view of reading fell into disfavor.
2.4.2.2. Top-down model
About over three decades ago, the views on reading changed together with the top-down
model of reading. Goodman (1975:135) described reading as a "psycholinguistic guessing
game", in which the "reader reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded
by a writer as a graphic display". According to this point of view, the reader reconstructs
meaning from written language by using graphonic, syntactic and semantic systems of the
language, but he/she merely uses cues from the three levels of language to predict meaning, and
most important, confirms these predictions by relating them to his/her past experiences and
knowledge of the language.
Although Goodman did not characterize his theory as a top-down model, several other
reading experts (Anderson 1978; Cziko 1978) have considered it as basically a concept-driven
top-down pattern in which "higher level processes interact with and direct the flow of
information through low level processes" (Stanovich 1980:34). In this top-down approach, the
reader begins with a set of hypotheses or predictions about the meaning of text he is about to
read and then selectively sample the text to determine whether or not his predictions are correct.

Reading is a process of reconstructing meaning rather than decoding form, and the reader only
resorts to decoding if other means fail. This perspective was shared by many other reading
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specialists such as Carrel (1988), Clarke and Siberstern (1977), Mackey and Mountford (1979)
and Widdowson (1978, 1983) as they viewed reading as "an active process in which the second
language reader is an active information processor who predict while sampling only parts of the
actual text" (in Carrel, 1983;3).
Just like bottom-up models, top-down models do have some limitations. These models
"tend to emphasize such higher-level skills as the prediction of meaning by means of context
clues or certain kinds of background knowledge at the expense of such lower skills as the rapid
and accurate identification of lexical and grammatical form. That is, in making the perfectly
valid point that fluent reading is primarily a cognitive process, they tend to deemphasize the
perceptual and decoding dimensions of that process" (Eskey,1988:93).
Samuel and Kamil (1988) also shared the same view. According to them, one of the
problems for the top-down model is that for many texts, the reader has little knowledge of the
topic and cannot generate predictions. A more serious problem is that even if a skilled reader
could generate predictions, the amount of time necessary to generate a prediction may be greater
than the amount of time the skilled reader needs simply to recognize the words.
Due to the above limitations of both bottom-up and top-down models, a new and more
insightful model of reading process has been proposed by Rumelhart (1977, 1980). Sanford and
Garrod (1981) and Van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) under the name of interactive model.
2.4.2.3. Interactive model
The interactive model combines elements of both bottom-up and top-down approaches,
using that "a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several
knowledge sources" (Stanovich, 1980:35).
Widdownson (1979) has discussed reading as the process of combining textual
information with the information the reader brings to a text. In this view, the reading process is
not simply a matter of extracting information from the text. Rather, it is one in which the reading
activates a range of knowledge in the reader's mind that he/she uses, and that, in turn, may be
refined and extended by the new information supplied by the text.

Eskey (1988) defined the interactive model as a reading model that "posits a constant
interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in reading, each source of information
contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of the meaning of the text"(1988: 94). According
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to this view, good readers are regarded as "both good decoders and good interpreters of texts,
their decoding skills become more automatic but no less important as their reading skill
develops" (1984: 94). Eskey also believed that to achieve both fluency and accuracy in reading,
developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills and their top-
down interpretation strategies. In other word, good reading - that is, fluent and accurate reading -
can result only from a constant interaction between these two processes.
The following comment by Stanovich (1980) can summarize all the strengths of the
interactive model over the other two models: "Interactive models of reading appear to provide a
more accurate conceptualization of reading performance than strictly top-down or bottom-up
models. When combined with an assumption of compensatory processing (that a deficit in any
particular process will result in a greater reliance on their knowledge sources, regardless of their
level in the processing hierarchy), interactive models provide a better account of the existing
data on the use of orthographic structure and sentence context by good and poor readers"(1980:
32)
Therefore, it is generally agreed that the interactive model is the best one that can truly
reflect the reading process that takes place in the reader's mind. In this process, the reader
constantly shuttles between bottom-up and top-down processes and he can not be successful in
reading comprehension without either of these two processes. As this study focuses on reading
strategies, the next part is going to summarize some outstanding studies on reading strategies
that have been carried out.
2.5. Reading strategies
2.5.1. Definition of reading strategies
Much attention has been paid to the study of reading in general and reading strategies in
particular. Reading strategies are of interest for what they reveal about the way the readers
manage their interaction with written text and how these strategies are related to text
comprehension.

As mentioned earlier, research in second language learning suggests that learners use a
variety of strategies to assist them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information. C.
Brantmeior (2002) defined reading strategies as "the comprehension processes that readers use
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in order to make sense of what they read" (2002:1). This process may involve skimming,
scanning, guessing, recognizing cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting,
activating general knowledge, making inferences, following references and separating main
ideas from supporting ones (Barnet, 1988). Obviously, some strategies may be more useful than
others with different types of reading texts and tasks.
Based on O'Malley and Chamot's (1990), reading strategies can be understood as the
special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them to comprehend, learn and retain
new information from the reading text. These strategies are both observable and unobservable
and individually different. According to O'Malley and Chamot's (1990), reading strategies can
be classified into three main types including metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective
strategies. A categorization scheme of these strategies have been provided in section 2.1.
2.5.2. Review of reading strategies research
A considerable number of studies examine the comprehension strategies that second
language readers utilize to process a text. In these studies, the participants are quite diverse,
some from elementary, secondary and university levels, some from remedial reading classes and
others enrolled in courses taught at non-university language centres. Obviously, the participants
are of many different ages and backgrounds. Furthermore, the investigators use a variety of
research method and tasks to examine strategy type and frequency of strategy use including
think-aloud reports, interviews, questionnaires, observations and written recalls (Bernhardt,
1991).
One of the earliest pieces of research on individual learners' reading strategies was
conducted by Hosenfield (1977). She examined successful and unsuccessful readers to find out
what types of cognitive operations they used to process written texts. Participants were ninth
grade students who were learning French. Before conducting her study, she classified readers
based on a test of L2 reading. Then, in an oral interview, participants were asked to read a text
and do think-aloud reports (that is, she directed them to say in their first language whatever

came to their mind while processing each sentence in the text). Hosenfield found out that the
successful readers used the following kinds of strategies (1977: 233-4):
* Keep the meaning of the passage in mind
* read in broad phrases
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* skip inessential words
* guess from context the meaning of unknown words
* have a good self-concept as a reader
* identify the grammatical category of words
* demonstrate sensitivity to a different word order
* examine illustrations
* read the title and make inferences from it
* use orthographic information (e.g. capitalization)
* refer to the side glossary
* use the glossary as the last resort
* look up words correctly
* continue if unsuccessful at decoding a word or a phrase
* recognize cognates
* use their knowledge of the world
* follow through with a proposed solution to a problem
* evaluate their guesses.
Poor readers, on the other hand, translated sentences and lost the general meaning of the
passage, rarely skipped words or looked up unknown words in a glossary and had a poor
concept as a reader. While these results clearly described the strategies the students used to
process the text, they did not link the strategy use to comprehension of specific paragraphs or to
text as whole. The data only focused on sentence level comprehension so the results of the study
did not reveal overall comprehension of the entire text.
A decade later, Block's (1986) study compared the reading comprehension strategies
used by native English speakers and ESL students who were enrolled in remedial reading course
at the university level and she connected these behaviors to comprehension. The participants

were identified as non-proficient readers because they failed a college reading proficiency test
before they study. Subjects read two exploratory passages selected from an introductory
psychology textbook, and were asked to think aloud while they reading (they reported after each
sentence). After reading and retelling each passage, the participants answered twenty multiple
choice comprehension questions. Block developed a scheme to classify strategies that consisted
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of two types: general strategies and local strategies. General strategies included the following
behaviors: anticipate content, recognize text structure, integrate information, question
information, distinguish main ideas, interpret the text, use general knowledge and associations to
background, comment on behavior or process, monitor comprehension, correct behavior,
focused on textual meaning as a whole, and react to the text. Local strategies were: paraphrase,
reread, question meaning of a clause or a sentence, question meaning of a word and solve a
vocabulary problem. Of the 9 ESL students in the study, the readers with higher comprehension
scores on the retelling and the multiple choice questions integrated new information in the text
with old information, distinguish main ideas from details, referred to their background and
focused on textual meaning as a whole. This means they all employed "general strategies". On
the other hand, readers with low comprehension scores rarely distinguished main ideas from
details, rarely referred to their background, infrequently focused on textual meaning and seldom
integrated information.
Sarig (1987) investigated the contribution of L1 reading strategies and L2 language
proficiency to L2 reading, as well as the relationship between L1 and L2 reading strategies.
Sarig's subjects were 10 female native Hebrew readers who were studying English as a foreign
language. Sarig classified the data from think-aloud reports into four general types of behaviors
or responses: (1) technical aids, (2) clarification and simplification, (3) coherence detection and
(4) monitoring moves. Sarig's results revealed that subjects transferred strategies from L1
reading to L2 reading and that the same reading strategy types "accounted for success and
failures in both languages to almost the same extent" (Sarig, 1987: 118). Top-down, global
strategies led to both successful and unsuccessful reading comprehension. The two language
dependent strategies, the clarification and simplification strategies contributed to unsuccessful
reading comprehension in both L1 and L2. Results also indicated that most of the strategies used

during the reading comprehension process were particular to each reader or that each individual
read differently and used a different combination of strategies. These results do not duplicate
Block's (1986) where global strategies led to successful (not unsuccessful) reading
comprehension.
Some studies have shown that better readers are also better strategy users. Carrel (1989)
for example, conducted a study to investigate the metacognitive awareness of second language
reader strategies in both their first and second language and the relationship between this
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awareness and their comprehension. Her first group of subjects was native Spanish speakers of
intermediate and high-intermediate levels studying English as a second language at a university
level institute. Her second group consisted of native English speakers learning Spanish as a
foreign language in first, second and third-year courses. Carrel first asked subjects to read two
texts, one in L1 and one in L2. She controlled for content schemata as both texts were on a
general topic of language. The subjects answered multiple choice comprehension questions
about the text followed by a strategy use questionnaire. Carrel correlated strategy use with
comprehension and concluded that the ESL readers of more advanced proficiency level
perceived "global" or top-down strategies as more effective. With the Spanish as a L2 group, she
found that at the lower proficiency levels, subjects used more bottom-up or "local" strategies.
The last study mentioned here was conducted by Block (1992). He investigated the
comprehension monitoring process used by first and second language readers of English. The
subjects were 25 college freshmen and consisted of proficient and non-proficient readers of
English. While reading an expository text, the participants were asked to think aloud or more
specifically, to "say everything they understood and everything they were thinking as they read
each sentence" (Block, 1992: 323). The results indicated that when facing a vocabulary problem,
proficient ESL readers used background knowledge, decided on whether the word contributed to
the overall meaning of the passage, reread the sentence and used syntactic clues. The meaning-
based strategies are classified as global behaviors. On the other hand, non-proficient ESL
readers focused on identifying lexical problems and did little to figure out the meaning of the
words.
From the above findings of research in reading strategies, it becomes clear that there are

indeed differences between successful or good readers and less successful or poor readers in
terms of strategy use. Overall, more proficient readers combine both top-down and bottom-up
strategies in reading but tend to use more top-down strategies than bottom-up ones. Specifically,
they exhibit the following types of reading behaviors:
* overview text before reading
* employ context clues such as title, subheadings and diagrams
* look for important information while reading and pay great attention to it than
other information
* attempt to relate important points in text to one another in order to understand
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