Empowering Learners With Autonomous Learning Strategies in EFL Classroom Through Extensive Reading Strategy Training

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effects of extensive reading strategy training (ERST) on autonomous learning strategies (ALSs) that English language learners use in an EFL context. Sixty-one undergraduate first-year social science university students participated in the study. These samples were assigned to two modalities: a control group, which involved 31 students, and an experimental group, which involved 30 students. During the experiment, the participants in the control group took only the institute's regular communicative English language course, and the participants in the experimental group received ERST intervention in addition to the existing procedures of the communicative English language course. The intervention focused on extensive reading strategies training integrated with learner autonomy framework to induce them to work with ALSs. To conduct the study, the current researcher employed the concurrent triangulation design and collected the data within ten week-period via questionnaire and interview designed for comparable groups. By controlling for any pre-existing differences and analyzing the quantitative data, the current researcher employed one-way ANCOVA and analyzed the interview data thematically. Finally, the study reveals the potential of ERST for increasing ALSs used by EFL learners and affords practical guidelines to language teachers on how to incorporate ERST into EFL classrooms.