Constructivist pedagogy in strategic reading instruction: exploring pathways to learner development in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom

Abstract

The study explored English as a Second Language (ESL) learner development.In particular, it focused on investigating learners' understanding of reading and their willingness to be engaged in strategic reading in participatory classroom activities. It also examined possible effects of such pedagogy on reading performance. The context was a two-month strategy-based reading instruction program, set within a constructivist framework. The program emphasized developing students' academic reading proficiency. The study, quasi-experimental in design, involved a control group and an experimental group, both of whom were ESL students from the People's Republic of China (PRC). The students were expected to satisfy an intensive English communication skills requirement in order to be successfully matriculated into English-medium universities in Singapore. The results showed that the teacher's strategy-based instructional intervention evolving around participatory activities affected changes in the ESL students' use of reading strategies and improvement in comprehension. These findings are discussed in relation to PRC students in study-abroad contexts, especially the cultures of learning that they bring along with them. Recommendations for further research are also made.

The Relationship Between Reading Self-efficacy Beliefs, Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension Level of Iranian EFL Learners

“…Results of the present study demonstrated that students usually employ various reading strategies in English reading process. Such results support findings in the literature (Chamot, 2005;Grenfell & Harris, 1999;Wenden, 1998;Zhang, 2008), suggesting that it is more effective for students to reach their learning goals if they have a higher frequency of employing a variety of strategies in their reading process. The information obtained from the results showed that Iranian senior and jounior EFL learners with high reading self-efficacy levels got better scores than those with low reading level and also correlation coefficient between reading self-efficacy and reading strategies according to these data (reading self-efficacy and cognitive = 0.68 , reading self-efficacy and meta-cognitive = 0.49 , reading selfefficacy and compensation = 0.42 and reading self-efficacy and testing = 0.63) showed that students with high selfefficacy most frequently used cognitive and least frequently used compensation.…”

“…Many studies (Chamot, 2005;Zhang, 2008) have attended to the importance of understanding the type of reading strategies used by good readers and the differences in reading strategy use between more and less effective readers. The description of good readers and successful language learners exist but it is unclear whether there is any direct relationship between Iranian EFL learners reading comprehension, reading self-efficacy and the use of those strategies employed by successful learners.…”

The Relationship between Language Learning Strategies, Language Learning Beliefs, Motivation, and Proficiency: A Study of EFL Learners in Iran

“…Magogwe & Oliver, 2007;Oxford, 1990;Sheorey, 1999). One possible explanation for the different findings found in the studies mentioned above and many others might be related to the context of learning situation, which could have a strong influence on learners" choice of language learning strategies (Chamot, 2005;Cohen, 1998;Zhang, 2008). Some studies argue that the strategies frequently used by proficient language learners in an Asian FL (foreign language) context differ drastically from those in the North American SL (second language) context (Gu, 1996;LoCastro, 1994;Takeuchi et al, 1999;Takeuchi & Wakamoto, 2001).…”

Improving reading fluency and comprehension in adult ESL learners using bottom-up and top-down vocabulary training

“…Zhang (2008) describes it in the following way: "learners should be made aware that the use of reading strategies is essential to successful reading and some socalled bottom-up strategies such as 're-reading' and 'checking the exact meaning of words' are important" (p. 112). Specifically, this bottom-up and linguistically oriented approach involves recognition and recall (Breznitz & Share, 1992) with readers breaking words into syllables, using sentence syntax, matching synonyms or phrases, paraphrasing, and using a dictionary while reading (Abbott, 2005).…”