Thu, 2012-11-22 17:46 | 
This study investigates the impact of reading strategy instruction on EFL students' performance. In particular, it aims to explore whether a) Greek- speaking elementary school learners are taught to use reading strategies to derive meaning from EFL written texts b) explicit strategy instruction can improve students' reading comprehension performance c) this improvement in students' reading performance persists after treatment withdrawal. The sample consists of 103 Greek- speaking elementary EFL learners drawn from four different schools in a provincial city of central Greece, Trikala. The study, quasi-experimental in design, involved a control group and an experimental group, in which a three-month reading strategy instruction was implemented. Two different measures, a standardized and a researcher- made test, were taken of EFL reading comprehension, before and after the intervention as well as three months after treatment withdrawal and findings were compared with the students of the control group that did not receive the training; a second researcher-made test was administered in the subsequent measurement to further investigate the maintenance effects of the training. In addition, prior to the teaching intervention an intentional observation of the classes that constituted the sample and a semi- structured interview with the EFL teachers were carried out in order to examine whether these EFL students were taught to use reading strategies while interacting with EFL texts. The results of this study indicate that Greek EFL students are not taught how to deploy reading strategies. Moreover, the results show that an explicit reading strategy training is effective in enhancing EFL students' reading achievement and that the effectiveness of the training can be maintained in a subsequent measurement.
Ph.D Candidate:
Manoli Polyxeni
Department:
Department of Pre-School Education
School:
School of Humanities
Supervisor:
Assistant Professor Maria Papadopoulou(mariapap@uth.gr)
Supervising Committee:
(1)Domna Kakana (2)Panagiota Metallidou (3) Maria Papadopoulou Παραδοτέα έργου δημοσίως προσβάσιμα:
