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明示閱讀策略教學對EFL學生閱讀焦慮
與理解的影響
Effects of Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction on
EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety and Comprehension
指導教授：鍾榮富 博士
研究生：李秋美
2011, May
Major Findings and Discussions
The First Research Question:
What are the major causes of the students reading
anxiety?
The Answer:
-- Statements in the FLRAS with a mean score of 3 or
more points (3 points means neither agree nor
disagree/neutral opinion) are considered the major
causes.
-- A total of 12 statements (Item 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 , 9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 17, and 18)
Major Findings and Discussions
-- The 12 items are categorized into five
aspects:
1. impaired comprehension of text meaning
2. lack of background knowledge
3. impaired comprehension of linguistic units
4. reading experience
5. self-evaluation of reading competence
(See table 4.1)
Table 4.1 The Mean Scores of the 12 Items
Item
1. I get upset when I’m not sure whether I
understand what I am reading in English.
Mean
3.69
3. When I’m reading English, I get so
confused I can’t remember what I’m
reading.
5. I am nervous when I am reading a
passage in English when I am not
familiar with the topic.
6. I get upset whenever I encounter
unknown grammar when reading English.
3.25
3.21
3.19
Item
Mean
7. When reading English, I get nervous
and confused when I don’t understand
every word.
3.52
9. I usually end up translating word by word
when I’m reading English.
3.57
10. By the time you get past the funny
letters and symbols in English, it’s hard
to remember what you’re reading about.
3.40
11. I am worried about all the new symbols
I have to learn in order to read English.
3.20
12. I enjoy reading English.
3.09
Item
Mean
13. I feel confident when I am reading
English.
17. I don’t mind reading to myself, but I
feel very uncomfortable when I have
to read English aloud.
18. I am satisfied with the level of
reading ability in English that I have
achieved so far.
3.34
3.08
3.92
Major Findings and Discussions
The Second Research Question:
Does the strategy instruction reduce the students’ reading
anxiety?
The Answer :
1. For the high-anxiety group and mid-anxiety group, the
answer is positive.
--10 significant post-test mean score decreases were found
for HRAG.
-- 8 significant post-test mean score decreases were found
for MRAG.
2. The low-anxiety group achieved comparatively less
significant decreases (2 items only).
(see the following table)
Categorization
FLRAS
Items
HRAG
MRAG
Impaired Comprehension of
Text meaning
Item 1


Item 3

Background Knowledge
Item 5


Impaired Comprehension of
Linguistic Units
Item 6


Item 7



Item 9



Item 10


Item 11


Item 12
×
×
Item 13


Item 17
×
×
Item 18


Total
10
8
Reading Experience
Self-evaluation of Reading
Competence
LRAG
×
×
2
Major Findings and Discussions
＊Point for Discussion: Why did the low-anxiety group
achieve comparatively less significant decreases in their
reading anxiety?
Possible Explanation: Two Viewpoints
(1) The traditional English learning context of Taiwan
is inherently anxiety-provoking since English is a
required subject, learned and tested in school
settings. It is natural for students to experience a
more or less amount of anxiety in such a
competitive classroom, where tests are usually
adopted as a primary tool for evaluation (Chung,
2011).
Major Findings and Discussions
(2) Maybe “a state of attentiveness”, “positive
incentive”, “a little bit of an edge” (Young,
1991, p.9, p 23) is still necessary in FL
learning or students will be too relaxed to
absorb anything. If their reading anxiety level
is lowered to zero, chances are that they will
make slower progress towards a higher level
of proficiency.
Major Findings and Discussions
＊Point for Discussion: Why was no significant
difference found for Item 12?
Possible Explanation:
A short period of strategy instruction was not enough for
students to feel the fun of reading English. The result is
consistent with Chen’s (2005) finding that for senior high
school students, reading English is difficult and not
interesting either before or after the intervention of
strategy instruction. Students’ fondness for English
reading can not be cultivated in such a short period of
time. More time must be devoted to developing students’
motivation and turning them into independent and happy
readers.
Major Findings and Discussions
＊Point for Discussion: Why was no significant difference
found for Item 17?
Possible Explanation:
During the teaching experiment, the common practice of oral
reading was not deliberately reduced or avoided because the
reading mode of silent reading or public reading was not the
focus of the study. According to Kern (1989), “not only can
reading aloud short-circuit comprehension processes by
shifting available attentional resources to phonological
encoding, but it can also cause anxiety which often thwarts
the reader’s attempts to synthesize meaning” (p. 145). The
result indicated that their fear of being publicly evaluated
could not be easily erased only with the administration of the
explicit comprehension instruction.
Major Findings and Discussions
The Third Research Question:
Does the strategy instruction facilitate the students’
reading comprehension?
The Answer:
(1) As a whole, students’ English reading comprehension
development was significantly improved after the
reading strategy training.
(2) Students with higher levels of reading anxiety
benefited more from the strategy instruction than
those with lower levels of reading anxiety.
(see Table 4.8 and 4.9)
Table 4.8
Means, Standard Deviations, and Comparisons of
the RCT Pre-test and Post-test Scores
Measure
N
M
SD
Pre-test
84
17.84
4.95
Post-test
84
21.10
4.49
***p<.001
t
p
-8.817 .000＊＊＊
Table 4.9
Means, Standard Deviations, Comparisons and Eta Squared of RCT
Pre-test and Post-test Scores of Each Group
Group
Measure
N
M
SD
t
HRAG
Pre-test
22
15.45
4.75
-7.374
Post-test
22
19.36
4.11
Pre-test
40
17.52
4.09
Post-test
40
20.92
4.66
Pre-test
22
20.81
5.26
Post-test
22
23.18
3.86
MRAG
LRAG
-6.333
p
Eta
squared
.000＊＊＊
0.65
.000＊＊＊
0.58
-2.727
.013＊
0.20
(1) *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001
0.65>0.58>0.20
(2) eta squared values: .01 = small effect, .06 = moderate effect,
. 14 = large effect
Major Findings and Discussions
＊Point for Discussion: Why do students with higher levels
of reading anxiety benefit more from the strategy
instruction than those with lower levels of reading
anxiety?
Possible Explanation:
High-anxiety readers
Low-achievers in
comprehension, unable to make flexible use of reading
strategies
They responded more favorably to clear
instruction.
Low-anxiety readers
High-achievers in
comprehension
Because they had developed
adequate strategies on their own, they didn’t benefit that
much from instruction.
Major Findings and Discussions
The Fourth Research Question:
Does the strategy instruction enhance students’ ability to
answer different types of reading comprehension
questions, including main idea questions, detail questions,
inference questions, and word-in-context questions?
The Answer :
(1) The strategy instruction was of significant help in
enhancing the subjects’ ability to identify main ideas,
search for detailed information, draw logical
inferences and derive contextual meanings of
unfamiliar words.
(2) The eta squared values revealed that the strategy of
deriving word meanings from context was considered
as the most difficult strategy to command.
(see Table 4.10 )
Table 4.10
Means, Standard Deviations, Comparisons and Eta squared of the
Pre-test and Post-test Scores of Each Question Type
Type of
Questions
Measure
N
M
SD
t
p
Eta
squared
Main Idea
Questions
Pre-test
4.01
7
1.653
-5.563
.000＊＊＊
.51
Post-test
4.86
Pre-test
7.03
-7.665
.000＊＊＊
.66
Post-test
8.53
Pre-test
4.02
-4.252
.000＊＊＊
.38
Post-test
4.58
Detail
Questions
Inference
Questions
1.437
12
2.500
2.402
6
1.202
1.121
.998 -2.922
Word-inPre-test 2.72 5
.004**
Context
3.11
1.079
Post-test
The
hardest
Questions
reading skill
(1) **p<.01, ***p<.001
(2) eta squared values: .01 = small effect, .06 = moderate
effect, . 14 = large effect
.22
Major Findings and Discussions
＊Point for Discussion: Why was the strategy of guessing
meanings of unfamiliar words in context viewed as the
hardest reading strategy to acquire and apply?
Possible Explanations:
(1) It is difficult to determine the meaning of a word
with multiple definitions.
(2) There are still difficult words in the context
surrounding the target word.
(3) The presence of unfamiliar words in the choice
items makes the decision even complicated.
Major Findings and Discussions
The Fifth Research Question:
What are the students’ responses to the explicit
strategy instruction?
The Answer:
A. According to the result of the first section of the QSRERSI,
1. A majority of subjects had a positive response toward their
acquisition of the instructed strategies, including
-- identifying the text structure
-- skimming for the topic and main idea
-- scanning for details
-- drawing inferences
However, only 57.1% of the subjects agreed that after the
instruction, they had acquired the strategy of guessing word
meanings in context.
Major Findings and Discussions
2. Most of the subjects got pleasure from learning
reading strategies, and recognized the effectiveness
of the strategy instruction.
3. Most of the subjects showed a high degree of
acceptance for the teaching method and materials
used in the explicit reading instruction.
4. Most of the subjects considered the five instructed
strategies as practical and useful in taking a
reading comprehension test.
Major Findings and Discussions
B. According to the open questions of the QSRERSI,
the findings are demonstrated as follows.
First Question: How does the reading strategy
instruction benefit you?
Responses:
1. Better comprehension of the text structure, the main ideas,
details, and unstated implications
2. More accuracy and efficiency in answering reading
questions
3. Decreased anxiety for long articles
4. Fortified confidence to ignore the unfamiliar
Major Findings and Discussions
Second question: What is the most difficult part
while you are learning the strategies?
Responses:
Vocabulary problems paralyzed their application of
the instructed strategies, especially the strategy of
guessing word meanings from contextual clues.
Implications
1.
2.
3.
4.
Effective reading strategy instruction should be given
explicitly to help students lower their affective filter and
achieve better comprehension.
The instruction should be highly integrated into the normal
English course activities.
Teachers should administer a program in which students are
gradually guided to read with the flexible use of both topdown and bottom-up strategies to achieve better
comprehension proficiency.
Teachers should take students’ fear for oral reading into
consideration and minimize the common instructional
practice of reading aloud in class
Implications
5. Teachers should choose texts which coincide with the students’
linguistic competence because part of the ability to make use of
the strategies is determined by their vocabulary knowledge.
6. Specific time in the school curriculum should be devoted to
pleasure reading to cultivate students’ interest and trigger their
motivation for English reading.
Thanks for Attention!