| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國語文研究所 === 99 === In this study, the researcher investigates the effects of reading strategies instruction on junior high school students’ reading comprehension in testing situations. Forty eighth graders in Changhua County participated. Data for the study were collected from three questionnaires, a pretest, and a post-test. After the pretest, the students were taught reading strategies following Cheng’s (2008) model: modeling, guided practice, independent practice, and application. By comparing the data collected from the questionnaires and the two tests, the researcher was able to estimate the extent of students’ improvement, the extensiveness of reading strategies employment on the pretest and post-test, and get a good idea of students’ attitudes toward the reading strategy instruction.
What follow are the findings of this study.
1. Students’ significant growth in their reading ability and testing scores and their obvious increase in reading strategies employment frequency all indicate that the explicit reading strategy instruction effectively improved participants’ performances on the reading comprehension tests.
2. The participants also increased their employment of the six target reading strategies. In general, the participants favored utilizing guessing word meanings, scanning, and skimming strategies. They also applied making inference and self-monitoring strategies, although less frequently.
3. The participants generally provided positive responses toward the explicit reading strategy instruction.
4. However, the participants also pointed out that they still had some difficulties after the instruction, especially in vocabulary, grammar, and content knowledge.
This study demonstrates that the reading strategy instruction can help the participants improve their reading comprehension, and suggests that instructors incorporate the reading strategy instruction in normal English curriculum. Moreover, instructors can also try to encourage learners to read more, in English or Chinese, to help them gain as much background knowledge as possible. In sum, the more tools the readers pick up for reading, the better comprehension they would have.
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