Effects of Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction on EFL Students’Reading Anxiety and Comprehension

• Main Authors: Chiou-Mei Lee, 李秋美
• Other Authors: Raung-fu Chung
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 100
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/52495465388036604234

碩士 === 高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 99 === The study investigated the major causes of EFL senior high school first-graders’ reading anxiety and the effects of the explicit reading strategy instruction on their reading anxiety. Their post-test changes in the aspect of their reading anxiety, reading comprehension, and ability to answer different patterns of multiple-choice reading questions were the focus of the study. Besides, their responses and attitudes toward the instruction were also explored. Eighty-four senior high school male first-graders in Kaohsiung Municipal Senior High School participated in the study. They were divided into three groups according to their levels of reading anxiety, with 22 students belonging to the high-anxiety and low-anxiety group respectively, and 40 students belonging to the mid-anxiety group. A 15-week instruction with a focus on five reading strategies (identifying the text structure, skimming for the topic and main idea, scanning for details, drawing inferences, and deriving word meanings in context) were given to all the students. These strategies were taught in the explicit comprehension approach, emphasizing explicit explanation, teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent application. The main causes of their reading anxiety were determined through the pre-test scores of the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS). The effects of the strategy instruction were examined through the pre-test and post-test of the FLRAS and a reading comprehension test. Their responses and attitudes toward the instruction were explored through the post-test questionnaire. After the analysis of the collected data, the major findings are summarized as follows. 1. A total of 12 items of the FLRAS were found major factors affecting the students’ English reading anxiety. They were categorized into five aspects: limited reading proficiency, lack of sufficient prior knowledge, unfamiliar linguistic features, reading experience, and low self-efficacy of reading competence. 2. The reading strategy instruction helped reduce students’ reading anxiety arising from limited reading proficiency, lack of sufficient prior knowledge, unfamiliar linguistic features, and low self-efficacy of reading competence. The more anxiety a student suffered from reading, the more he could benefit from the anxiety-reduction effect. However, the instruction did not significantly influence students’ reading experience in terms of their fondness for English reading and their fear for oral reading. 3. The reading strategy instruction helped reduce students’ reading anxiety. The effect was large and visible to students with a high or middle level of reading anxiety, but not for those with a low level of reading anxiety. 4. On the whole, students achieved statistically significant improvements in their reading comprehension. The more anxiety a student expressed over reading, the more his comprehension ability was improved by the instruction. Besides, the strategy instruction was of significant benefit in enhancing their ability to answer different patterns of multiple-choice reading questions. 5. Most students gave positive responses to their acquisition of the instructed strategies, except for the strategy of deriving word meanings in context, which they found especially difficult to acquire and apply. 6. Most students expressed fondness for the teaching method and materials. Besides, they acknowledged the effectiveness of the strategy instruction in helping them read with more fluency and answering reading questions with more accuracy. 7. Most students reported boosted confidence and decreased anxiety for English reading after the strategy training. However, they were still not interested in English reading after the instruction. The above findings suggest some pedagogical implications. First, effective reading strategy instruction should be given explicitly to help students lower their affective filter and achieve better comprehension. Second, the instruction should be highly integrated into the normal English course activities to help involve students into long-term application of multiple strategies in different settings with different materials. Third, teachers should take students’ fear for oral reading into consideration and minimize the common instructional practice of reading aloud in class. Fourth, teachers should choose texts which coincide with the students’ linguistic competence because part of the ability to use the strategy of guessing word meanings from context is determined by students’ vocabulary knowledge. Last, specific time in the school curriculum should be devoted to pleasure reading to cultivate students’ interest and trigger their motivation for English reading.