Think-Aloud with Teacher Intervention on the Reading Comprehension of EFL Technological University Students

• Main Authors: Wen-ling Chung, 鍾文玲
• Other Authors: Feng-ming Chi
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/91465858218604442847

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國文學所 === 94 === ABSTRACT Think –Aloud with Teacher Intervention on the Reading Comprehension of EFL Technological University Students The purpose of this study is to explore how the teacher applied the think aloud to intervene in students’ reading processes to promote their reading comprehension and the effectiveness of the think aloud as teacher intervention. It also aims to investigate when to intervene, what intervention strategy to use to help students overcome their reading difficulties, students’ improvement and students’ perceptions of the think aloud as teacher intervention. The subject of this study is six technological university students, majoring in Applied Foreign Languages Department. Before and after the intervention, each student had to read an article with the think aloud independently and received a comprehension test. During the intervention, the teacher first modeled how to use the main idea, prior knowledge, and repair strategy with the think aloud to construct the meaning of the context. Then, each student read two articles, when the student had reading difficulties, the teacher provided the intervention or support appropriately. After that, each student had to complete two comprehension tests. Finally, each student was required to answer the oral interview respectively. Data collection was mainly based on students’ think aloud transcription data, comprehension tests, and students’ oral interviews, while the teacher’s reflection was served as the minor data in the present study. Data analysis was conducted by transcribing, coding, categorizing the intervention strategies into the two different timing interventions, and comparing students’ improvement and students’ perceptions. The research finding indicated that teacher intervention should be based on students’ prior knowledge so as to relate to their past experiences and help them overcome their reading difficulties through the interaction. The timing of teacher intervention can be divided into two parts: (1) students’ prior knowledge was insufficient (2) students lacked prior knowledge. To scaffold students’ problems, seven intervention strategies were used: praising, suggesting, prompting, linking, reinforcing, discussing, and telling. The results of this study are summarized as below: 1. When students’ prior knowledge was insufficient, the teacher only needed to provide some scaffolds or interventions such as: praising, suggesting, prompting, linking, and reinforcing, to increase students’ monitoring and metacognitive awareness so as to help them remediate their problems by themselves. 2. When students lacked prior knowledge, the teacher needed to provide more scaffolds or explicit explanation such as: suggesting, prompting, linking, reinforcing, discussing, and telling, to guide students’ to interpret the meaning of the context. 3. In the first intervention, the teacher should provide more encouragement and supports to the students. In the second intervention, the teacher should release the scaffolds and encourage students to take more responsibility. In other words, the teacher should guide students’ reading step by step when they encountered the reading difficulties so as to help them become independent readers. 4. All the students showed progress in their reading comprehension, global strategy use, and metacognition, especially the students who scored lower on reading comprehension tests. 5. All the students expressed positive attitudes toward the think aloud with teacher intervention. When students encountered the problems, the students who scored lower wished to get more intervention or even the direct answers from the teacher, while the students who scored higher wished the teacher to provide more clues and step by step instruction instead of direct answers. The results of this study indicate that the think aloud with teacher intervention is an effective method in English Remediation, and the think aloud with teacher intervention facilitated students’ monitoring and enhanced their reading comprehension. The researcher suggests that the teacher could design the pre-reading activity, such as: providing pictures, to create an environment for activating students’ prior knowledge. When students encounter reading difficulties, the teacher should provide indirect intervention and more waiting time for the students to apply rereading or rechecking on the context so as to increase their monitoring comprehension. If teachers accurately diagnose students’ prior knowledge, apply the teacher intervention strategies appropriately, and guide the students’ reading step by step, students’ reading will be promoted more effectively.