CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
In foreign language teaching, the most concern of teachers and researchers is training good language learners, and reading, among four basic skills-listening, speaking, reading and writing, is the skill that is most emphasized in traditional English Language classroom (Susser & Robb, 1990). Through reading, students have the opportunity to know different cultures, languages, knowledge and so on. Anderson (2003) considers reading as "a necessary skill which is the most important to master for most of English learners in order to ensure success in learning". Reading is a course that develops gradually as the reader does not become fluent suddenly or immediately, which suggests that reading is very complicated and it requires an amount of time and resources to develop, that is, it cannot be taught only in a short time or limited courses. Moreover, Hammadou (2000) conceives reading comprehension as "a complex construct, over which researchers have struggled to understand the process by which people come to comprehend what they read, and educators have labored long and hard to help novice readers to become more proficient". In China, English is learned by learners as a foreign language and reading is by far the most significant methodology for people and students to increase their English proficiency. As a basic skill for English foreign language students, reading plays a vital role in general English proficiency. Furthermore, it is necessary to improve the learners’ competency in English reading for both academic and occupational success. Meanwhile, English is a compulsory course for all the university or college students in China, and one of the main targets is to improve learners’ English reading proficiency. The primary assignment of teaching reading is to cultivate reading skills. Nevertheless, different students have different reading levels because of personal facters, such as the age, gender, interest, culture background, etc. Therefore, reading and teaching reading are a quite complicated process (Zhu Chun，2006). Besides, numerous materials for academic goal are written in English in the circumstance of second language teaching and learning, particularly in an institution of higher education and other programs, so reading is of high importance. In other words, without high reading proficiency, the EFL learners are unable to read effectively and even do not have competition with the native English-speaking counterparts. No matter what tests that are held at home, reading always holds a vital position.
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1.2 Research Purpose
A quantitative investigation of reading strategies in reading comprehension will be conducted in this paper. This empirical research attempts to investigate the use of English reading strategies among English majors and intends to reveal the relationship between them, which are designed to provide bases and inspirations for English reading teaching in China. In addition, the differences of reading strategies use between undergraduate and postgraduate students are going to be presented by means of statistical data which includes frequency description, ANOVA and correlation. Ultimately, the relationship between the reading comprehension and reading strategies will be further interpreted. Based on the research, abundant statistical data will be presented to account for use of reading strategies among EFL learners and teaching enlightenments also will be proposed. The teachers and students should be apprehensive of the significance of applying appropriate reading strategies in EFL reading. Consequently, teachers can differentiate learners with different English proficiency in order that they can offer appropriate advice to learners for better achievements in EFL reading.
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CHAPER II LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 The Related Theoretical Rationale on Learning Strategies
The learning strategies research began in twentieth century, and the American psychologist Bruner (1956) first put forward the theory of cognitive strategy, which is the base of the concept of following learning strategies proposed by some psychologists (Newell; Shaw; Simon, 1958). The real rapid development of learning strategies began 1970s, such as Rubin and Stern (1975), Nainman (1978), they pointed out that in learning a second or foreign language certain learners are more successful than others in spite of their same teaching surroundings. Thus, the language learning strategies are vital important, and then various definitions of learning strategies had been presented for consideration by researchers and experts from their different perspectives. According to Wenden (1987), language learning strategies can be defined specifically from language learning behavior (learning and adjusting the second or foreign language), cognitive theory (the terms of the significance of language learning learners to define strategic knowledge) and emotional point of view (learner’s motivation, attitude). Nevertheless, the O’Malley, Chamot and their colleagues were typical representatives, and they conducted a special study of the learning strategies of English learners in the United States (Chamot and O'Malley, 1987; O'Malley et al, 1985). Based on the result of their research, three categories were contained in the language learning strategies, meta-cognitive, cognitive and social-emotional strategies. Chamot (1987) gave definition of learning strategies as “techniques, approaches or actions with deliberation that students take or use so as to promote the learning and recall of both linguistic and content area information”.
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2.2 An Overview of the Related Studies on Learning Strategies
In the past few decades, a growing interest and attention had been aroused in exploring the role of learning strategies in student learning (Bialystok, 1981; Huang & Van-Naersson, 1987; Lai, 2009; Macaro, 2001; Politzer & McGroarty, 1985; Wen & Johnson, 1997; Wen & Wang, 2004). Among many researchers, it was firmly believed that learning strategy was a significant factor for successful language learning as they were used effectively, and that students might need a series of strategies to regulate their own learning (Marsh, Hau, Artelt, Baumert, & Peschar, 2009; Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1990). Instead of mechanically putting learning strategies into use, researchers had found out that students need to have a better understanding of when and how to use them to take control of their learning more efficiently in language learning (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). Zimmerman (2000) put forward that learning strategies should be merged into the framework of self-regulated learning (SRL), which refered to autogenetic thoughts, feelings, and actions aiming to the achievement of personal goals. The application of learning strategies, therefore, can be viewed as a sub-construct of SRL. As Oxford (1990) stated strategies were those that could fulfill these conditions “make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations”. Learning strategies, meanwhile, could also capacitate students to become more independent, autonomous, and lifelong learners (Allwright, 1990; Little, 1991). However, students do not always realize the power of using L2 learning strategies automatically so that it made learning quicker and more effective (Nyikos & Oxford, 1993). Hence, as the students are learning second or EFL language, skilled teachers should help their students develop an awareness of using learning strategies and encourage them to put a wider range of appropriate strategies into use.
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CHAPER III METHODOLOGY ......... 22
3.1 Research Questions ......... 22
3.2 Research Participants ...... 22
3.3 Research Instruments ...... 23
3.4 Research Procedure ......... 23
CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......... 26
4.1 Overall Use Frequency of Reading Strategies by English Learners ....... 26
4.2 Difference in Reading Strategies Use Between Undergraduates....... 28
4.3 Correlation Between English Learners’ Use of Reading Strategies....... 31
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ..... 39
5.1 Findings in the Research ......... 39
5.2 Implications for the Future Research ...... 42
5.3 Limitations of the Study.......... 43
5.4 Suggestions for Future Research .... 43
CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter focuses on the analysis of statistical data acquired from the experiment process only to find the characteristic of English major in using reading strategies in English reading comprehension. To demonstrate results of the three research questions, the author use a few of statistical data such as means, standard deviations, ANOVA, and correlation. The overall situation of reading strategies used by the subjects is described in section one. In section two, the researcher compares the difference in reading strategies between undergraduates and postgraduates, and explained what main factors have contributed to these differences. Section three reveals the relationship between reading comprehension and the use of reading strategies.
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CONCLUSION
As it was illustrated and discussed above, findings of the research, firstly, are summarized by the author in this chapter. Then some pedagogical implications for English reading are demonstrated. Lastly, limitations and suggestions of the research have been also exhibited. This paper makes an attempt to find out the reading strategy use of the English majors. Findings revealed that English majors are high strategy users. It was also concluded that the use of reading strategies had a positive and strong correlation with reading comprehension achievement among English major learners. This correlation indicates that the frequent and wide use of strategies influence reading comprehension achievement. In other words, those ESL learners who employ more strategies and use them as frequently as possible would show higher success in reading comprehension. Finally, it was concluded that high-level ESL learners significantly outperformed low-level learners in terms of strategy use. The following summarizes the significant results through the research. Depending on the frequency scale (Oxford: 1990), the average score represents the frequency of reading strategies to use. If it is between 2.5 and 3.4, the strategy is sometimes used at a medium level. The overall frequency of reading strategies use is at the medium level with the average score 3.35. And then, the author also attempts to identify the use of three categories English reading strategies and they are meta-cognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies. The results demonstrate that English majors use cognitive strategies most frequently at a high level with high mean score, and cognitive and social/affective strategies at a medium level. Cognitive strategy refers to the direct impact on reading activities to solve the problem in reading process.
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The reference (omitted)