The Effect of Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction on Facilitating L2 Learners' Reading Comprehension

Transcription

1 International society of academic and industrial research IJARAS International Journal of Academic Research in Applied Science 4(1): 70-77, 2015 ijaras.isair.org The Effect of Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction on Facilitating L2 Learners' Reading Comprehension Fariba Mollaee, Fatemeh Karampour, Akbar shanbedi Department of English literature, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr Branch, Bushehr, I. R. Iran Abstract This paper attempts to measure the effect of Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction on Facilitating L2 Learners' reading comprehension of Summit 1 Passages. The Oxford Placement Test used among 150 EFL learners in order to make sure of the homogeneity of the participants. To collect data on the participants reading comprehension, a reading proficiency test including six expository reading passages, ranging approximately from 120 to 150 words in length and the average readability index.80, selected and 36 items developed. Themes of the passages were related to the themes of the Summit 1 textbook readings. After the pretest, the experimental group received explicit reading strategy instructions for a period of eight weeks. Through these works we want to show there is a significant difference in L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension level between the control and experimental group after the intervention. Keywords Learning styles, Reading, Reading strategies

2 1. Introduction There is a dearth of study on exploring the issue more deeply by concentrating on numerous variables such as L2 upper-intermediate learners awareness of reading strategies and the efficiency of reading comprehension strategy instruction particularly in an EFL context such as Iran in which recently Top Notch book series have called lots of language institutes attention. The present study is more specifically intended to scrutinize the effect of teaching reading strategies on increasing the L2 upper-intermediate learners awareness of the strategies. The selected 90 upper intermediate participants, was divided into two groups of control and experimental. Numerous studies (1, 3, 7, 9, and 10) have arrived at a result regarding the positive effect of reading comprehension strategies instruction on L2 learners reading comprehension. Not only does mastering the rudiments of SLA facilitate L2 learners in enhancing the required linguistic and communicative competences, but it helps the L2 learners manage their own learning processes dynamically too (5). The findings of the present study may be beneficial to L2 pedagogy. In the last decade, reading comprehension strategy instruction has been more emphasized to have positive impact on L2 learners reading comprehension. However, L2 teachers need to not only teach reading comprehension strategies but also learn these strategies themselves to cooperate with L2 learners at the same time as reading a passage with them (11). 2. Literature review In higher education today, reading is seen as the most important skill to master for university students to gain knowledge of their own discipline. Reading, as a crucial skill in SLA, is a kind of written dialogue between the writer and the reader. A number of researchers (1, 8, and 7) have designated that reading strategies instruction is of a constructive importance to L2 learners knowledge of reading comprehension strategies and even their reading comprehension level. Moreover, Davis (2010) carried out a meta-analysis study to discover the effect of comprehension strategy instruction on upper elementary and middle school students in America. It was wrapped up that kind of instruction had a positive impact on students success. Nowadays, Top Notch series being extensively brought into play in English as an L2 contexts are communicative-based series of books. Shafiee Nahrkhalaji (2012) asserts that Top Notch series include lots of different topics and extend L2 learners consciousness on different cultures (e.g., American customs). In present day Iran, Top Notch series have been frequently used in approximately all of the institutes. However, the most obvious conclusion from the foregoing review of Literature is that reading comprehension strategies are the key factor to understand a passage or text for EFL students. Literature presented in the review shows evidence that authentic text use in English reading teaching has generally been effective on language learning. Nevertheless, there are some limitations and drawbacks in employing it with EFL learners in Reading lessons. 71

3 3. Methodology 3.1. Overall design of the study and sample The population selected for this experimental study was 90 upper intermediate L2 learners female, aged 18-26, from two language institutes in Mahshahr in the academic year 2014, 36 Experimental and 54 Control. They were all aged between 18_26 as shown in table 1 and figure 1 below. Table 1: Age distribution of participants Age EG CG Total Total Group 1 Gorup 2 Total Age 18 Age 26 Total Fig. 1: Age distribution of participants Group1: Experimental Group Group2: Control Group Since they came from the same country, it is reasonable to assume that they shared a homogeneous EFL background. They also matched each other in gender (Female) and age. The OPT used to measure the proficiency knowledge of the participants and their ability to communicate in English. A quasi-experimental pre-posttest design accommodating studies conducted in natural settings carried out. The reading proficiency test administered to all the participants in both the experimental and the control groups twice formerly as a reading comprehension pre-test prior to instruction and then as a post-test at the end of the study. 72

4 After the pretest, (Be aware that we didn t give the answer of pretest to students). The experimental group received explicit reading strategy instructions for a period of eight weeks. Descriptive and inferential statistics used to scrutinize the collected data. Afterward, the collected data analyzed inferentially using a paired samples t-test, an independent sample t- test, and Cohen s d to test for effect size. The experimental and the control group were selected according to the randomized. Fig.2 depicts the steps and instruments of the implementation. Pre-test Treatment Post-test Sample of research participants E. G Randomly assigned O1 XT O2 Pre-test Treatment Post-test C. G O1 XC O2 Fig 2: Pretest Posttest control group design (Adapted from Johnson & Christensen, 2004, p.283) Where: XT represents the treatment condition. XC represents control or standard treatment condition. O1 and O2 represent the pretest and posttest assessment of the dependent variable. Random assignment was used to form the two groups because of their equitable level of EFL reading proficiency. A pretest administered to both groups at the same time. Then experimental group received the reading comprehension's strategies in order to avoid any effects derived from the factors that influence strategy use and the control studied according to the traditional approach Treatment The independent variable used in this study consisted of two conditions: an experimental condition in which the students practiced reading skill based on the strategies and a control condition in which the students practiced reading skill according to the traditional methods. Both groups had the same number of hours of instruction. The dependent variable was the reading skill of both groups. We familiarized the students with some reading methods such as: Inferencing, summarizing, finding the main idea in passages, self questioning and drawing conclusion. The validity and reliability of the test were tested. 73

5 3.3. Data analysis and Summary An independent sample t-test was then run to see if the two groups performed significantly differently on the reading comprehension pre-test or not. After implementing the 8 weeks training program, all the participants in the two groups were given reading comprehension post test. In order to see whether the treatment given to the experimental group had caused any significant change in this group and to see if the performance of the students in this group was significantly different from that of the control group, an independent t-test was run between the scores of the reading comprehension post-test of both groups. 4. Discussion 4.1. Results The current chapter attempts to explain the results of the statistical analyses of the data obtained through the SPSS (version 17). First, descriptive statistics were computed to find Iranian L2 upper-intermediate learners pretests and the posttests scores on reading comprehension test. Second, to discriminate whether or not L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension improved significantly between the two testing periods, a paired samples t test was run. Third, an independent samples t test was carried out to show whether there was any significant difference in L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension of Summit 1 reading passages between the control and the experimental group after the intervention. Finally, to test the effect size, Cohen s d was applied to the data Descriptive Statistics of Iranian L2 Upper-intermediate Learners Pretests and the Posttests Scores on Reading Comprehension Test To have a general description of the data, descriptive statistics were calculated for Iranian L2 upper-intermediate learners pretests and the posttests scores on reading comprehension test. Table 2 shows the results of the descriptive statistics for the participants scores: Table 2: Descriptive Statistics of Iranian L2 Upper-intermediate Learners Pretests and the Posttests Scores on Reading Comprehension Test (N = 90) Control Group Experimental Group No. Strategy of N = 54 N =36 Q.s Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Identifying Main Ideas Inferencing Background Knowledge Drawing Conclusions Self-questioning Summarizing

6 Overall Mean Overall Score As Table 2 depicts, both the control and experimental groups mean scores in reading comprehension test were low at pretest, with means of and 18.54, respectively. In order to identify whether or not the control and experimental groups reading comprehension level were similar at pretest, Levene s test of homogeneity (2) was calculated for the pretest comprehension mean scores. So Levene s F =.001 (df = 52), p =.965 signifies that there was equality of variance between the control and experimental groups at pretest The Results of the Paired-Samples t Test In order to probe whether the L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension improved significantly during the 8-week period of instruction, a paired-samples t test was conducted. Table 3 shows the results of the test for the experimental group and Table 4.3 shows the results of the test for the control group: Table 3: Results of the Paired-Samples t Test for the Experimental Group Pair 1 Reading Comprehension Time 1 Reading Comprehension Time 2 Mean Std. Deviation t df Sig. (2-tailed) As Table 3 depicts, there was a highly significant difference between the experimental group s pretest and posttest scores from Time 1 (M = 18.54, SD = 3.77) to Time 2 (M = 26.62, SD = 2.93), t (29) = , p <.05 (2-tailed). The mean increase in reading comprehension scores was Table 4: Results of the Paired-Samples t Test for the Control Group Pair 2 Reading Comprehension Time 1 Reading Comprehension Time 2 Mean Std. Deviation t df Sig (2-tailed) As Table 4 demonstrates, there was no significant difference between the control group s pretest and posttest scores from Time 1 (M = 17.89, SD = 3.96) to Time 2 (M = 18.58, SD = 2.10), t (29) = -1.76, p <.05 (2-tailed). Thus, to deal with the first research question regarding whether L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension improved significantly between the two testing periods, it can be concluded that only the L2 experimental group s reading comprehension improved significantly. 75

7 The Results of the Independent Samples t Test With respect to the second research question, an independent samples t test was conducted to see whether there was any significant difference in L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension of Summit 1 reading passages between the control and the experimental group after the intervention: Table 5: Reading Comprehension Scores of Summit 1 Reading Passages Means for the Experimental and Control Group Reading Comprehension Posttest Scores Group N Mean SD t Sig. Experimental Control As Table 5 shows, there was a significant difference in reading comprehension posttest scores for the experimental group (M = 26.62, SD = 2.93) and the control group (M = 18.58, SD = 2.10); t = 8.20, p =.001. That is, the Iranian L2 upper-intermediate learners in the experimental group performed differently on the reading comprehension test in comparison with the learners in control group. These results suggest that strategy instruction does indeed have an effect on the Iranian L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension level of Summit 1 reading passages. Finally, to find the effect size, Cohen s d with pooled standard deviation was measured. The result was 3.15 and designated a very strong effect. The pretest and posttest scores of the Iranian L2 upper-intermediate learners reading comprehension also provided the evidence of the impact the explicit instruction of reading strategies had on the experimental group. 5. Conclusion The results show that reading strategy Instruction can lead to the use of an extended range of reading strategies by the learners. The results pointed to the fact that learners' awareness of strategies and their ability to use them while reading did increase. References [1]. Davis, D. S. (2010).A meta-analysis of comprehension strategy instruction for upper elementary and middle school students.unpublished doctoral dissertation, Vanderbilt University, America. [2]. Gastwirth, J. L., Gel, R. J., & Miao W. (2009). The Impact of Levene s Test of Equality of Variances on Statistical Theory and Practice. Statistical Science, 24(3), [3]. Gill, S. R. (2008). The comprehension matrix: A tool for designing comprehension instruction. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), [4]. Mehrpoor, S. (2004).A causal model of factors affecting reading comprehension performance of Iranian learners of English as a foreign language.unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. ShirazUniversity, Iran. 76

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