Facilitating Reading Engagement by Foregrounding Students’ Voices through Epistolary Writing: A Case Study

Abstract

Engaging students in reading permits students to experience reading in a more meaningful manner as well as develop their identity as effective readers. Currently, the teaching of reading does not allow students to experience reading in an engaging and meaningful manner because the process of retrieving the required information at the end of the reading text has hindered them from experiencing reading in this manner. This exploratory study presents an approach to facilitate students" reading engagement through the employment of epistolary writing. The purpose was to explore the employment of epistolary writing in facilitating ESL students" reading engagement. The students wrote their understanding and interpretation of printed texts in the form of a letter to their instructor. Three third year students participated voluntarily in this case study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and documents such as students" letters, instructor's reflective notes, and pre-teaching and postteaching questionnaires. Findings showed that the students appreciated that their voices were being considered throughout the teaching and learning process. They also described how relating their ideas through epistolary writing contributed to personal changes of viewing reading as an active process. The research highlights the value of including students" voices in the teaching and learning process. Allowing students to voice and share their learning experiences with their peers and the instructor, enabled the instructor to construct a better instructional approach to assist the students in their progress as engaged readers. In addition, this study extends knowledge that writing plays a key role in L2 tertiary level academic literacy development.

The Profile of Indonesian Efl Teachers’ Reading Engagement Viewed From Behavioral, Affective, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions

“…When students encounter challenges in their reading due to low language proficiency or lack or personal relevance in the material, they are more likely to disengage as they do not enjoy the reading (Kamil et al, 2011). RE characterizes students' actions, interactions, and strategies in reading activities (Cantrell et al, 2017;Guthrie et al, 2012;Kamil et al, 2011;Klauda & Guthrie, 2015;Rahim & Hashim, 2015;Taboada et al, 2013;Yulia & Sulistyo, 2019). It involves cultivating students' curiosity which signifies emotionally positive interactions with texts to encourage reading achievement and growth and ultimately cultivate a literacy habit.…”

“…Engaged readers have strong motivation, effective strategies, and adequate knowledge for meaning construction from the texts they read, and they are socially interactive while reading (Guthri et al, 2012;Protacio, 2017). Students who are engaged in reading tend to be lifelong readers (Merga & Gardiner, 2018) as RE can stimulate certain actions, interactions, and strategies concerning reading activities (Cantrell et al, 2017;Guthrie et al, 2012;Rahim & Hashim, 2015;Taboada et al, 2013;Yulia & Sulistyo, 2019). RE is also believed to trigger appropriate strategies to improve literacy and achievement (Afflerbach & Harrison, 2017;Conradi et al, 2014;Gambrell, 2011;Guthrie & Cox, 2001;Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000;Jang et al, 2015;Kirby et al, 2011;Klauda & Guthrie;O'Brien & Dillon, 2014;Urfali-Dadandi & Dadandi, 2022;Schiefele et al, 2012;Taboada et al, 2013).…”

Reading engagement of Indonesian secondary EFL teachers as literacy indicators perceived over reading resources and pleasure reading

“…The idea of engagement traditionally associated with the academic domain has been attached to other specific learning aspects, including reading. Reading engagement has been empirically proven as an essential element to boost learning success as it emulates certain behaviors, interactions, and strategies students may take in accomplishing their reading activities and tasks (Cantrell et al, 2017;Guthrie et al, 2012;Rahim & Hashim, 2015;Taboada et al, 2013;Yulia & Sulistyo, 2019). It significantly contributes to students' academic engagement (Hassen, 2016;Yulia & Sulistyo, 2019;Zheng & Kang, 2014) and thus becomes one of the essential components in developing students' academic engagement (Akarsu & Harptulu, 2015;Jafari, 2012;Neugebauer, 2016).…”

“…It significantly contributes to students' academic engagement (Hassen, 2016;Yulia & Sulistyo, 2019;Zheng & Kang, 2014) and thus becomes one of the essential components in developing students' academic engagement (Akarsu & Harptulu, 2015;Jafari, 2012;Neugebauer, 2016). Furthermore, much research has revealed that academic engagement significantly contributes to the attainment of students' success in their academic life (Kim et al, 2019;Yulia et al, 2020); academic engagement correlates with students' academic performance (Alrashidi et al, 2016), contributes to the attainment of students' learning outcomes (Cantrell et al, 2017;Lee, 2014;Rahim & Hashim, 2015), builds up students' motivation for learning and self-efficacy to cope with problems (Zhen et al, 2019), nurtures students' good personality traits such as perseverance, diligence, and resilience (Pietarinen et al, 2014), and prevents students from negative behaviors (Wu et al, 2010). Therefore, efforts need to be intentionally made to enforce the development of students' reading engagement, as good reading engagement may result in good academic engagement.…”

Enacting Projects-Based Learning (PjBL) to Promote EFL Students’ Reading Engagement In Online Academic Reading Class

“…Besides the implementation of technology and ICT elements, the role of activities which can trigger students' active learning is need for students need activities enabling them to engage well in the classroom. Reading class is one of the language skill classroom where engagement is very much needed for this will be able to enhance reading success [10] [11]. Such engagement is useful for students to deal with academic reading in any levels of education because it will enable them to boost their spirit, spend longer time, and make more efforts in the act of reading.…”