READING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES AND READING STRATEGIES OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL EFL STUDENTS IN TAIWAN

• Main Authors: Hsu Su-ching, 許素卿
• Other Authors: James Oladejo
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/54517895298556846163

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 92 === The main purposes of this study are to identify reading comprehension difficulties encountered by junior high school students in Taiwan, to investigate their reading strategies and to compare the differences between good and poor readers. This investigation is focused on reading comprehension difficulties they encounter and reading strategies they use at the three stages — pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading. The subjects of this study were 315 ninth-year students from Ma Dou Junior High School in Tainan County. They were classified into three groups — HPG, IPG and LPG — according to the scores they obtained on three English simulated examinations in school. They were required to fill in the questionnaires designed by the researcher. Totally, 315 valid questionnaires were collected and used for data analysis. The major findings of this study are summarized as follows: (1)The major difficulties encountered by the subjects when they read English texts were a lack of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, and inability to employ effective reading strategies. (2)The frequencies of the difficulties that the HPG subjects encountered were lower than the LPG subjects. Though the major difficulties encountered by both the LPG and the HPG subjects were similar, more LPG subjects had difficulties in other difficulties, such as a lack of sufficient background knowledge, inability to integrate what they have learned into the text, and limited interest in the text. Besides, they also had serious attention problems. (3)The subjects appeared to pay much attention to the meanings of words when they read English texts. The most frequent strategy used by the subjects in the three stages of reading was the use of Chinese translation. Therefore, it was found that they applied their native language to process the target language and they seldom made use of the contextual clues to guess or construct the meanings of the text. (4)Compared with the LPG subjects, more HPG subjects employed reading strategies during the three stages of reading. Their differences in the frequencies of strategy use achieved the significance level (p < .05). Moreover, the HPG subjects tended to implement comprehension monitoring and problem identification as they use post-reading strategies more often than the LPG subjects. Besides, the LPG subjects tended to do nothing at the three stages of reading. Based on the main findings of this study, some suggestions are provided. (1)JHS English teachers should put more emphasis on the teaching of reading comprehension and offer students with systematical and sequential training in reading comprehension, such as enhancing vocabulary development, providing more English materials to read extensively and intensively, instructing the use of reading strategies, and doing more English comprehension practices. (2)Teachers should provide students, especially those who cannot use reading strategies effectively, with practical guidance in how to get reading comprehension effectively from English reading programs at school. Then they may be able to read independently at home. (3)English teachers should provide various types of reading comprehension practices and associated reading materials to help students extend their interest in reading comprehension.