Abstract-This study investigates the effectiveness of a proposed instructional strategy based on habits of mind and shared inquiry in developing reading comprehension and reading engagement among EFL learners at a KSA university. Integral to the study was the use of two main instruments: reading comprehension test and reading engagement survey. The experimental group received reading strategy and reading engagement training activities in addition to general reading practice, while the control group focused only on developing general reading comprehension skills. The data, coded in terms of a range of measures of literal, inferential, and critical reading skills as well as reading engagement, were subjected to t-tests. The results indicate that after the intervention, although some reading comprehension gains were achieved by the CG, the EG achieved higher levels in reading comprehension skills and engagement. Thus, findings revealed support for the proposed strategy. The findings have significant implications for EFL pedagogy, highlighting the effective impact of strategy based instruction on development of reading comprehension.

This study examines the effectiveness of a proposed English language program based on integrating two forms of children literature, mainly short stories and songs, in developing the needed life skills and language learning strategies of primary school students. Besides, it emphasized the importance of providing EFL fifth year primary students with activities and opportunities to raise their awareness of their learning, as it helped students understand how to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning. The study targeted ten life skills distributed under four main categories: cognitive, personal, social and linguistic skills. Ninety fifth grade primary students participated in the present study. Five instruments were used: the needed life skills and language learning strategies checklists, a criterion for selecting the stories and songs, the pre/post life skills measures (situation test, questionnaire, oral interpersonal communication test), language learning strategies questionnaire and the students' satisfaction/dissatisfaction questionnaire. The program was taught over a period of two months (two sessions per week). Data collected were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methodology. Qualitative methods were used to assess students' development over the 8 weeks. Results revealed that life skills and language learning strategies can be taught effectively through the medium of children literature. As a whole, this study contributed to the ESL/EFL field by providing information about the importance of skill building for life at young age and that fundamental changes needed for language instruction. Furthermore, the study presents a detailed teaching strategy for teaching life skills through children literature.

The present study investigated the impact of self-regulated strategy development reading intervention on improving Saudi female English majors’ reading skills and reading self-efficacy. The study is significant with respect to its implication for the pedagogy of English as a foreign/second language that hopefully may broaden insights into the self-regulated reading process and reading self-efficacy among Saudi female university students. The study addressed three main research questions: (1) What is the effect of self-regulated strategy development on enhancing first-year Saudi female English majors’ reading comprehension skills? (2) What is the impact of self-regulated strategy development on enhancing first-year Saudi female English majors’ reading self-efficacy? (3) What is the relationship between enhancing students’ reading comprehension skills and reading self-efficacy? Based on the quasi-experimental design, two intact classes of first-year EFL English majors at the college of languages and Translation, Imam University, were randomly assigned into two groups (control and experimental). The experimental group students (N=40) were taught using the self-regulated strategy development, while the control group (N=40) students were taught using the traditional teaching method. The research data were collected from two equivalent reading comprehension tests (pre-and post-tests) and a reading self-efficacy scale. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups’ mean scores on the post-tests in favor of the experimental group. Results also indicated an enhancement in the experimental group students’ reading comprehension skills and subskills, and reading self-efficacy. Pedagogical implications for reading instruction and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

With the large increase in online English language learners, there is a need to explore how those learners practise self-regulated writing in such an autonomous learning context. This article reports on an exploratory study of self-regulated learning strategies used by two writing-proficiency groups (low and high) of Saudi English majors within an online context. Data were collected from a total of 50 (high proficiency = 23 and low proficiency = 27) students using video-stimulated recall of two online writing tasks. Quantitative analysis of the students’ stimulated recall data revealed that students in both proficiency groups used 11 self-regulated strategies to complete the two online writing tasks. Results also revealed a positive correlation between self-regulated learning strategy use and the students’ writing proficiency level. The chi-square test analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups in six strategies overall favouring the high writing-proficiency group. Further qualitative analysis of the stimulated recall data within the framework of sociocognitive theory revealed that the high proficiency students stood out from their low-proficiency counterparts in how they self-regulated their personal, behavioural, and environmental processes. Implications for writing instruction to improve students’ writing performance in online learning contexts and future self-regulated writing strategy research are discussed.