The effects of reading strategy instruction on the reading comprehension, reading process and strategy use of adult ESL readers

Abstract

This dissertation aimed to achieve two goals. First, it investigated the effectiveness of a Web-Based Reading Instruction Program to teach reading strategies to college-level ESL students. In particular, this study examined how such a program may help ESL students learn and practice reading strategies, and develop the academic reading skills, as well as the necessary skills to interpret literary works they are exposed to in their freshman composition courses, in order to improve their overall reading comprehension, strategy use, and reading efficiency. Second, it explored the potentials and limitations of using a web-based program for teaching reading strategies. The subjects of this study were 22 ESL adult university learners enrolled in a freshman composition course at the University of Arizona. The results of the Nelson-Denny Standardized Reading Test and the Reading Comprehension Tasks used to measure students overall reading comprehension or reading proficiency show significant differences before and after instruction. Significant differences were also found between pre- and post-treatment measures of the scores on the Reading Strategy Inventory indicating that as reading comprehension improved, strategy use was also affected in that students perceived themselves as using strategies more frequently following strategy instruction. Significant differences were found in the cognitive, memory, and affective areas of reading strategies. Qualitative analysis of the students' responses on the Reading Comprehension Tasks in terms of patterns of strategy use revealed that students used cognitive, compensation, memory, metacognitive, and textual strategies more frequently after strategy instruction. Responses on these tasks after instruction also demonstrated a greater understanding of the texts and textual features. These results render strong support for the relationship between reading comprehension and strategy use. As reading comprehension improves, students use more strategies, more effectively, and more frequently. Results of the Nelson Denny Standardized Reading Test, Reading Comprehension Tasks, and Reading Strategy inventory, indicate that computer-assisted strategy training in general and task specific strategies has positive effects on the reading comprehension of ESL learners. Finally, the students' responses to a post-survey questionnaire were generally positive, indicating the beneficial effects of computer-assisted strategy training in the area of reading.