The Explicit Instruction of Reading Strategies: Directed Reading Thinking Activity vs. Guided Reading Strategies

Mohammad Mehdi Yazdani ,Mojtaba Mohammadi

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.4n.3p.53

Abstract

Investigating the efficiencies and deficiencies of reading strategies is one of the noticeable issues in the related theory and research in reading comprehension instruction. This study was to examine the impact of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) and Guided Reading (GR) on reading comprehension. Sixty three Iranian students of grade one in Shahed high school in the city of Bojnourd took part in the study. They were assigned in three groups, one control and two experimental groups. The instruction lasted for ten weeks. This study utilized a pretest posttest control group in quantitative quasi- experimental design. The same reading comprehension test was administered as pre-test and post-test. The results were twofold: First, the instruction of learning strategies could foster reading comprehension skill. Second, while the explicit instruction of both strategies could improve the students' reading comprehension skill, Directed Reading Thinking Activity had a more significant positive effect than Guided Reading.

Highlights

The development of reading comprehension in learners has long been investigated for two basic reasons: Literacy and academic achievement
This study was to examine the impact of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) and Guided Reading (GR) on reading comprehension
Three groups were pre-tested in order to confirm that they were homogeneous regarding reading comprehension skill

Summary

Introduction

The development of reading comprehension in learners has long been investigated for two basic reasons: Literacy (reading to live) and academic achievement (reading to think). Reading comprehension is the basic need of a citizen to live and to act successfully in his professional and academic contexts. It is even viewed to be the core language skill to build the development of all other language skills and subskills such as Listening, speaking, writing, vocabulary and grammar (Anderson, 2012). The twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have been the time of numerous migrations around the world and the use of world languages increased. In the modern linguistically diverse societies, the level of expectation for a person to function well is higher than those in the past local communities (Grabe, 2009)

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Results

Conclusion