Identifying Reading Strategies to Teach Literal, Reorganisation and Inferential Comprehension Questions to ESL Students

Abstract

Reading strategies assist English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers to teach reading comprehension effectively to ESL students in developing their reading comprehension abilities. This study aimed at identifying reading strategies used by teachers that help them teach literal, reorganisation and inferential comprehension questions to ESL students. The target population was the ESL teachers teaching at the secondary school level in Penang, Malaysia. The ESL teachers from ten secondary schools who were teaching English to Form Four students were selected through convenient sampling. A questionnaire consisting of reading strategies that help ESL teachers teach literal, reorganisation and inferential comprehension questions developed by the researchers was used to collect data. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics to determine the frequency of reading strategies used by the ESL teachers. The findings, based on the quantitative analysis of data, revealed that the ESL teachers use different reading strategies for teaching literal and reorganisation comprehension questions but a small repertoire of reading strategies was employed for teaching inferential comprehension questions. Therefore, the researchers suggested a productive means of reading strategies to employ for teaching reading comprehension, particularly for teaching inferential comprehension questions in order to enhance ESL students’ higher order thinking skills and reading comprehension abilities.