Development and transfer in reading ability : a study of Zairean EFL learners

• Main Author: Mukengeshay, Djeh Katombe
• Published: University College London (University of London) 1993
• Subjects: 428.0071; Lifelong and Comparative Education
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.630747

In general, educational practices in Zairean secondary schools point to a positivistic orientation to literacy, in spite of the fact that one of the stated aims of secondary education is to encourage independent thinking in students. For this reason, one of the aims of the present study was to promote greater independence in students by presenting a humanistic-interpretive approach to reading, as demonstrated by the practice of sustained silent reading. For this purpose, some of the students involved in the study (the experimental subjects) were presented with graded readers in English, in a 20h (1h/week) experimental reading programme. Moreover, in keeping with the view of reading as a unitary process, transferable across languages, a second aim of the study was to explore the possibility of transfer in reading ability between French as a L2 and English as a FL. Data were supplied by experimental and control subjects from questionnaires and cloze passages in French, and in English, that were administered before and after the reading programme. These data failed to provide unequivocal evidence for the expected transfer and improvement, and reasons are offered for this outcome. Nonetheless, the experimental subjects performed as well as the control subjects at the second administration of the measurement instruments. In other terms, one hour of sustained silent reading in English, along with 4 hours of traditional EFL teaching, appeared to be as educationally beneficial as the usual 5 hours/week orally driven, teacher-directed EFL classroom practice.