A Study of English Reading Strategies Used among the High-achieving Junior High School Students in Taiwan:The Analysis of Three Schools in Yunlin County and Tainan City

• Main Authors: Huei-chun Yang, 楊惠鈞
• Other Authors: Tung-lung,Peng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/14301047685788469715

碩士 === 雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系碩士班 === 97 === The purpose of the current study is to investigate the reading strategies used by junior high school students in Taiwan. The main research questions explored in the study are: (1) What are the least and most frequently used reading strategies used by the high-achieving students in three junior high schools in Taiwan? (2) What are the differences in strategies use in terms of background variables such as genders, grades, experiences of living abroad, time of studying English and English certificates high-achieving students ever got? (3) How do they use reading strategies in the process of reading articles? The participants were 150 junior high school students in Yunlin and Tainan, Taiwan. There were two instruments used to gather both quantitative and qualitative data: the questionnaire adopted from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford & Chamot, 1990), and the semi-structured interview edited by the researcher utilized to interview 15 participants. Results point out that among the six reading strategy groups “social strategies” were the most often used by the participants, and “memory strategies” were the least often used. Moreover, in terms of the participants’ background variables, “experiences of living abroad” is the most significant differences, such as in cognitive strategies, social strategies, and metacognitive strategies. And in the “grades” variable, there is the least significant difference in affective strategies only. Based on the interview, the researcher found that they used most of the reading strategies effectively. However, in metacognitive strategies and affective strategies, they needed some improvement in strategies used. Finally, the researcher suggests that teachers encourage their students to use active reading strategies and build a better environment for learners to practice reading strategies naturally.