English Language Reading Research Articles

The Strategies of the High-performing Non-native English Language Readers with Structurally Difficult Texts

The Strategies of the High-performing Non-native English Language Readers with Structurally Difficult Texts

Effectiveness of Literature Circles in Developing English Language Reading Ability: A Systematic Review

English reading ability is essential to overall language proficiency because our learning depends heavily on written materials. As a highly evolved form of collaborative learning originating in the L1 context, literature circles can provide a perfect scaffolding for reading, discussion and sharing. Thus, this reading strategy has also been widely used in L2 learning. This systematic review examines the effectiveness of literature circles in improving English language reading ability. An analysis is conducted in reference to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. Based on the search keywords, a total of 19 articles related to the benefits of literature circles for English reading comprehension ability are identified from Scopus, Google Scholar, Dimensions and Education Resources Information Center databases. The findings from the synthesis show a trend among literature circles to integrate more modern technology and to adopt more diversified reading materials. The identified themes related to reading ability consist of six areas: self-regulation, reading skills, positive attitude, cultural awareness, critical-thinking skills and reading engagement. It is hoped this systematic review will inspire language instructors to implement literature circles to improve training students’ English reading ability.

INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE READING AND WRITING ANXIETY AMONG PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A CORRELATIONAL STUDY

The undertaken study investigated the correlation between English language reading anxiety and English language writing anxiety. A survey research design was employed, and a sample of 298 BBA students from a private university in Karachi was utilized. The students completed two anxiety-measuring questionnaires: The Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory (SLWAI). Descriptive statistics revealed that the majority of students experienced moderate to high levels of English language reading and writing anxiety. Pearson Product-Moment correlation analysis indicated a strong positive correlation between English language reading anxiety and writing anxiety. This means that students with high levels of reading anxiety were likely to also experience high levels of writing anxiety and vice versa. These findings suggest that teachers should not teach reading or writing in isolation. Instead, they should focus on reducing anxiety levels in reading and writing classrooms. Curriculum developers should also consider incorporating strategies for reducing anxiety into their programs.

Project-Based Learning as a Methodology to Improve Reading and Comprehension Skills in the English Language

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in enhancing English language reading skills among ninth-grade students in a school located in Quito. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, combining a descriptive nature with a comprehensive literature review from reputable sources such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, MDPI, Web of Science, and Springer. The analytical-synthetic method was utilized, incorporating an observation guide to diagnose students’ reading preferences and habits, along with questionnaires administered to 10 teachers and two institutional authorities to gather insights on their experiences with PBL. The main objective was increasing interest and competence in reading, reading, and comprehension. Following the implementation of PBL, the 20 participating students exhibited enhanced motivation and demonstrated advancements in their reading skills. They engaged in significant, relevant projects aligned with their social and educational environment. The results highlight the effectiveness of PBL as a teaching strategy for developing English language reading skills. The findings suggest that educators have a fundamental responsibility to stimulate and encourage the development of reading abilities, especially for students at the beginning of their schooling. PBL offers an active and innovative approach to foster student engagement and improve reading and comprehension skills. Therefore, this study demonstrates that implementing PBL can positively impact students’ English language reading skills. These results support the recommendation for the widespread adoption of PBL in English language learning contexts to enhance reading proficiency among students.

Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol

Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol

Living and Dying with Marcel Proust

Living and Dying with Marcel Proust

English foreign language reading and spelling diagnostic assessments informing teaching and learning of young learners

In order to inform English foreign language (EFL) diagnostic assessment of literacy, this study examined the extent to which 175 first-language Hebrew-speaking EFL young learners from fifth to tenth grade exhibited differences in single-letter grapheme recognition, sub-word, and word reading, and rapid automatized naming (RAN) of letters and numbers. In addition, this cross-sectional quasi-experimental quantitative study examined correlations between the aforementioned literacy components and oral reading speed, spelling, vocabulary, syntax, and morphological awareness. There were no differences between the grades for single-letter grapheme recognition, and participants demonstrated incomplete automatic recognition for this task. Sub-word recognition improved across grades. However, the results highlighted a lack of mastery. Sub-word recognition correlated with word reading and spelling throughout. RAN speeded measures and oral reading speed correlated with sub-word, word recognition, and spelling in the older grades illustrating the presence of accuracy and speed components. Correlations across grades between literacy components and vocabulary, syntax, and morphological awareness provided support for theories explaining how knowledge of multiple layers of words contributes to literacy acquisition. These results comprising EFL diagnostic assessment can inform reading and spelling teaching and learning.

The Effect of Using the Six Thinking Hats Method on the Development of EFL Female Eleventh- Grade Students' Reading Comprehension Skills in Petra Directorate of Education

The study aimed to explore the impact of using the six hats method on reading comprehension skills of female EFL eleventh-grade students in Petra Directorate of Education during the academic year 2022/2023. The study's goal aimed to assess the influence of a teaching technique based on six thinking hats on the development of English language reading comprehension compared to a conventional method. The research was guided by the books of Dr. Edward de Bono, who coined the phrase "lateral thinking," produced many books on thinking, including Six Thinking Hats, and pushed for teaching thinking as a subject in schools. The quasi-experimental design was used to achieve the above objective. The study sample consisted of (54) female eleventh grade students from Wadi Mousa Secondary School for Girls, who were selected purposefully and assigned randomly to two groups: an experimental group of (27) students and a control group of (27) students. To achieve the objectives of the study, all of the text topics were chosen from the eleventh grade textbook for the first semester, the instrument of the study was designed according to the characteristics of the six thinking hats, and then it was assessed for validity and reliability, to guarantee the equivalence of the two groups, the researcher administrated a writing ability pre-test, and then the experimental group was taught using the six thinking hats, whereas the control group was taught according to the conventional method. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and One Way ANOVA. The findings of the study revealed statistically significant differences at (α≤0.05) between students' mean scores in reading comprehension as a result of using the six thinking hats method compared to the conventional method and in favor of the experimental group, which indicates that the six thinking hats method was effective. Based on the findings, the study recommends that supervisors should encourage teachers to use the six thinking hats method to help them produce successful questions based on good question specifications and write and create models that simulate Tawjihi exams. Keywords: The Six Thinking Hats Method, Reading comprehension, Eleventh Grade, Conventional Method DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-12-03 Publication date: April 30 th 2023

Night Truck Driver / Kierowca nocnej ciężarówki

Night Truck Driver / Kierowca nocnej ciężarówki

Extensive Reading and its Impact on Malaysian Undergraduate ESL/EFL Learners’ Reading Proficiency and Reading Motivation

English language reading skills are important for tertiary students. In Malaysia, tertiary students are required to master the English academic reading for their tertiary studies. However, Malaysian tertiary students’ reading proficiency in English is often found below par, which is attributed to poor reading skills and habits, as well as a lack of motivation to read. The authors believe that extensive reading (ER) should be used to complement intensive reading practiced in tertiary education reading. It is important to learn from past studies the potentials as well as problems with ER, so that teachers and researchers alike can better approach the use of ER in the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) reading. This article reports on the systematic literature review of 32 studies on ER programmes, particularly on its impact on ESL students’ reading proficiency and reading motivation, that were published between 2003 and 2019 and obtained through established research databases. The results of the review found that there are positive impacts of ER on ESL reading, particularly on reading rate and reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and reading motivation, as well as the importance of goal setting and monitoring to ensure the success of ER in ESL reading. The authors suggest implications for teacher practitioners, future researchers and course developers to plan how ER would be a valuable addition to their respective programmes and also provide them with ideas in designing their own unique ER programmes to cater to their students’ needs.

Strengthening the English language reading comprehension by using inferring meaning strategy

Introduction. The English language has become one of the most spoken languages all around the world. English teachers must face the challenge of achieving significant learning and for doing so, it is essential to use some strategies that facilitate the learning process. When teaching reading, which is one of the four language skills, there is a great number of strategies to apply depending on the aim of the reader. One of the most useful is Inferring Meaning Strategy. Objective. The aim of this research is to analyze the efficacy of this strategy when developing reading comprehension in 28 students from the 5th semester of Pedagogy de los Idiom’s nationals y estrangers (PINE) at Universidad Técnica de Ambato. Methodology. At first it was necessary to apply a diagnostic test to check students’ previous knowledge. For this, the second and fourth part from the reading section of the Preliminary English Test (PET) were used. Students had the opportunity of practicing the strategy for a month. During this period, they had to complete some comprehension activities related to readings. Finally, the experimental group took a post- test from PET to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy. Results. The results obtained were analyzed using the student’s t-test. Conclusion. They evidenced that the Inferring Meaning Strategy contributes to the development and improvement of the reading comprehension

Review: Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union

Review: <i>Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union</i>

Assimilation or Detention

How are the migration of people and of poetry, through literary translation and translational literature, linked or alike? What can the poetry of migration teach about the translation of form in poetry? What is the role of the text in understanding the politics of poetry in politicized contexts? Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910–1940 is an important collection and translation of poems etched in the walls of the Angel Island detention center. Though the Angel Island poems were mostly composed after the 1919 vernacular revolution in Chinese literature, they were written in classical Chinese and premodern forms. Island translates them into stiff free-verse academic English, asking English-language readers to imaginatively project poetic beauty onto the originals. Other translations, such as Teow Lim Goh's Islanders (2016) and Jeffrey Thomas Leong's Wild Geese Sorrow (2018), render the poems with more attention to the dominant styles of contemporary American poetry. This article argues for a retranslation of the Angel Island poems—not into free verse but with formalist attention to meter and rhyme in English. Such translations could blur the dichotomy between the former's target-oriented poetics and the latter's source-oriented translations and also offer a stronger migration into English for the poetry of these migrants.

Learning Difficulties of English Language Reading Skill for the First Three Grades from Teacher’s Perspective in Amman

The study aimed to reveal the degree at difficulties in learning English language reading skill for the first three grades from teacher’s perspective in the capital Amman. To meet the study’s goals, the researchers used descriptive survey-based approach. The sample consisted of (214) female teachers who were chosen randomly. To collect data, a questionnaire of 55 items was developed. Divided into 6 domains: (difficulties related to the content of the textbook, difficulties related to the teacher, difficulties related to the learner, difficulties related to English language and its characteristics, difficulties related to the family and society, difficulties related to evaluation methods). The results showed that the students of the first three grades face and with a high degree, difficulties in learning the reading skill in English language, such as: The focus in the content of the subject on quantity rather than quality, and the lack of teacher competencies in the methods of teaching reading skill, and the presence of similarities in pronunciation between some letters, the study also found that there were no statistically significant differences in the difficulties of learning the reading skill in English language for the first three grades due to the supervisory authority variable. The study recommended providing English language teachers and those interested with a list of the difficulties that the first three grades’ students face in reading to be taken into consideration during the teaching process.

The Writings

The Writings Christopher T. Begg, Richard A. Taylor, Fred W. Guyette, and Mathias Winckler 973. [Gregory the Great: Moral Reflections on the Book of Job] Gregory the Great (tr. Brian Kearns, OCSO), Moral Reflections on the Book of Job, Vol. 6, Books 28–35 (Cistercian Studies 261; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022). Pp. 574. $59.95. ISBN 978-0-87907-261-2 (vol. 6). With this volume, the sixth in a series, the five previous installments of which appeared during the course of the years 2014–2019, K. brings to conclusion a truly monumental scholarly project: his "one-man" English translation of Gregory the Great's multifaceted and long-influential Moralia in Job (which in the Latin critical edition comes to a total of 1,880 pages!). This final volume covers Books 28–35 of Gregory's opus, which themselves treat Job 38:1–42:17. As he did for the preceding volumes in the series, Mark DelCogliano provides an introduction to the portion of Gregory's work featured in this volume. The volume concludes with K.'s afterword, which offers reflections on his extended engagement with Gregory and his oeuvre and a comprehensive Scripture index for all six volumes. Given its dimensions, one might venture the relatively safe prediction that K.'s rendering is not likely to be superseded for the foreseeable future among English-language readers. In any case, it represents a welcome resource for anyone interested in Gregory and the interpretive history of the Book of Job.—C.T.B. 974. [The Sequence of Psalms 33–34–35] Edwin Rodrigues, Psalm of Praise for the Rescue of the Throat: Concatenation and lectio continua of Pss 33–34–35 (ÖBS 54; Berlin/Bern/Brussels/New York/Oxford/Warsaw/Vienna: Peter Lang, 2022). Pp. 459. $93.95. ISBN 978-3-631-86374-9. R.'s monograph, the published version of his 2021 dissertation done at the Sankt Georgen Hochschule, Frankfurt, Germany, under the direction of Dieter Böhler, S.J., picks up on a prevailing interest of contemporary Psalms scholarship, i.e., the "concatenation," at the micro and macro levels, of individual psalms, the reasons behind their linkage and the joint message that emerges from their being arranged as they are. More specifically, R. focuses on the sequence of the three psalms, 33–34–35, to each of which he devotes an extensive chapter that addresses, e.g, the given psalm's text, structure, genre, and vocabulary. These three psalms represent different genres: Psalm 33 is a sapiential hymn, Psalm 34 a thanksgiving song, and Psalm 35 an individual lament. Nevertheless, the three psalms share a number of terms in common as well as a common overarching theme, i.e., Yhwh's rescue of those in distress (the term "throat" in R.'s title is his rendering of the term npš, "life," which recurs in each composition). These commonalities help to explain why a compiler chose to group the three psalms in the sequence in which we now find them, thereby constituting a psalmic "triad" within Book 1 of the Psalter (Psalms 1–41), which, taken as a whole, presents a multifaceted "praise" (thlh) of Yhwh as the rescuer of individuals and the people as a whole.—C.T.B. 975. [Ecclesiastes] John Goldingay, Ecclesiastes (The Bible in God's World; Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2021). Pp. xvi + 321. $55. ISBN 978-1-7252-7316-0. The Bible in God's World Commentary series seeks "to provide clear interpretation of biblical texts for students, scholars, preachers, and pastors." G.'s commentary on Ecclesiastes accomplishes this goal in admirable fashion. A brief introduction of thirty-two pages summarizes the historical background of Ecclesiastes, treats the composition and [End Page 350] authorship of the book, its text, theology, and contemporary relevance, and provides an outline of the book. G. attributes authorship of the book to an unknown Jewish thinker (male or female) of the Second Temple period, perhaps around 200 b.c.e. On matters of textual criticism, G. seldom departs from the MT. His translation of the Hebrew text can be characterized as literal and word-for-word, "so that someone who does...

The Role of School Libraries in Enhancing Extensive English Language Reading Skills

Extensive reading enhances language ability. School libraries should expose English language learners to a range of interesting materials to promote language learning. The paper presents findings from a study on role of school libraries in enhancing extensive reading skills. It draws from the Tanzania context that represents English foreign language learning contexts. The objectives of the study included exploring the availability of school libraries and assessing how teachers and students use the school libraries to promote extensive English language reading skills. The respondents of this study were twelve English language teachers, one librarian and seventy-two students. Data were collected using interview, focus group discussions and observations. Krashen’s comprehensible input theory informed the study. Findings showed that school libraries are available in some schools. School libraries available are not used by teachers and students to enhance learning of extensive reading skills in English language. Most of the school libraries do not have authentic materials to encourage interest in reading but old books, past papers and subject specific books. School libraries should be improved and built where necessary. They should be functional and well-equipped. This will encourage students to read extensively to improve their learning of English language through exposure to various language input. English subject teachers will consequently integrate the use of the school library to teach extensive reading skills.

A Study of Construct Validity of English Language Reading Test of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Examination in Bangladesh

The aim of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the English Language reading test of secondary school certificate examination in Bangladesh. A qualitative research method was incorporated to collect and analyze the data followed by a retrospective and introspective interview. For conducting the research, the eight SSC candidates of session 2021-2022 and three teaching and testing experts were invited. The students were asked to participate in an instant English reading test and the experts were invited to make judgments on three reading strategies and students’ reading performances. The study found a little agreement among specified reading strategies of secondary education curriculum, experts’ judgments and students’ used reading strategies for establishing the construct validity of the English reading test of secondary school certificate examination in Bangladesh.

Jephthah’s Daughter, Sarah’s Son: The Death of Children in Late Antiquity. By Maria E. Doerfler

Maria Doerfler takes on the cheerless topic of childhood mortality in her first book, winner of the AAR’s Best First Book Award for 2022. Doerfler writes gracefully and sensitively, opening up a world unfamiliar to many of us: Syriac Christian theological treatises, homilies, and sermons, particularly the work of Ephrem Graecus, Jacob of Serugh, Narsai, and other eastern Christian writers from the fourth to sixth centuries. Some of these sources have long been available but have not yet been mined for the particular focus that consumes Doerfler; others, she makes available to English-language readers for the first time. She deftly weaves together fragments of a hidden phenomenon: despite its ubiquity, the death of children—not to mention societal responses to it—remains largely absent from both the literary and the archaeological record. Death in childhood was all too common in antiquity, but for most of us, it remains something to which we mercifully cannot relate. It is that emotional distance that made this topic one that was, prior to Doerfler’s book, uncharted territory within scholarship, and it is that same emotional distance that makes this issue possible to bear today. Like the authors she discusses, Doerfler never succumbs to sentimentality nor to morbid description.

Forty Lost Years by Rosa Maria Arquimbau

Reviewed by: Forty Lost Years by Rosa Maria Arquimbau Estefanía Tocado Arquimbau, Rosa Maria. Forty Lost Years. Translated by Peter Bush. Fum d’Estampa Press, 2021. Pp. 156. ISBN 978-1-913744-01-4. The revival of several twentieth-and twenty-first-century female authors, whose literary production has been ignored or disregarded due to the Spanish Civil War and Francoism, has become predominant in the last few years. The work of Rosa Maria Arquimbau i Cardil (Barcelona, 1909–92), mostly unknown until quite recently, has experienced a growing interest by scholars and students in the Catalan literary field. The nowadays well-known Catalan writer, a [End Page 642] contemporary of Mercè Rodoreda, has been brought back into the light thanks to the work of several academics whose efforts to underline Arquimbau’s feminist and political literary production have finally been rewarded. Among those, the detailed work of Julià Guillamon’s L’Enigma Arquimbau: Sexe, feminisme i literatura a l’era del flirt has been a milestone to make her work available to a broader audience, underlining her engagement with women’s rights as a journalist, feminist, and suffragist. Along these lines, Arquimbau’s Quaranta anys perduts (1940) has found its way to English-language readers through Peter Bush’s translation Forty Lost Years (2021). Bush’s straightforward translation makes the reading easy while capturing the spirit of the informal dialogues that are both abundant in the novel and still relevant. In a direct way, Bush facilitates the reader to enter Arquimbau’s world while he opens the door to the early years of the Republic in Barcelona through to the establishment of Francoism, all through the eyes of its protagonist Laura Vidal, a working-class seamstress. As the war and the fall of the Republic starts, Laura chooses exile since her views of an independent and feminist woman clash with the Francoist patriarchal and restrictive views of women’s role in society. The reduction of women’s rights and the acute class differences are prevalent throughout the novel that, despite starting as a bildungsroman, evolves into a more complex narrative where politics, sex, and social climbing surround the life of the protagonist. Once Laura decides to return to Barcelona to open her own business as a seamstress, her new clientele are the women of Catalan high society whose lifestyle is far from following the dogmatic control that Francoism and the Feminine Section used to impose on working-and middle-class women. The high-class women show a more liberal attitude towards sexuality, and it is often used as a social ladder, while most women suffer the coercive control of a fascist society. As those long forty years of Francoist government pass by, she grows older and often she feels disconnected from her modest origins as well as those who support her leftist political views, being critical with both sides. Clearly, Laura’s criticism of capitalism, politics, and social hierarchy are not far from those we encounter today making this novel still significant to the world we live in since she deals with universal issues. Forty Long Years is a novel that scholars as well as the general audience will enjoy for its up to date look at unresolved problems that are still prevailing since its first publication in 1940. Many of her reflections are as contemporary and as pertinent as they first were through the eyes of her protagonist, pointing out the importance of rediscovering the work of silenced women writers, such as Arquimbau, that were once forgotten and now are newly revived. Estefanía Tocado Georgetown University Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Inc

Histories of the Unsayable: Reinhart Koselleck’s Aesthetic Anthropology

Abstract This essay reviews Sediments of Time: On Possible Histories (2019), a collection of essays by the German historian and theorist of history Reinhart Koselleck (1923–2006), edited by Sean Franzel and Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann. Written during the last three decades of Koselleck’s life and drawn from three German-language books of essays that came out in the new millennium, Sediments of Time introduces English-language readers to Koselleck’s historical anthropology—a central dimension of his oeuvre so far largely unavailable in translation. This essay argues that Koselleck’s historical anthropology is always also an aesthetic anthropology, which helps explain Koselleck’s recurring engagement with literary writers such as Shakespeare, Kleist, and Melville. At the core of Koselleck’s work lies an argument about the mutual interdependence of history and fiction. Herein resides Koselleck’s provocation for literary studies: if, for the historian, fiction provides insights into historical experience in condensed form, the reverse of this claim may engage literary scholars; for them, Koselleck suggests, the extraliterary, extralinguistic realm of historical experience is of crucial importance as a necessary condition for fiction.Koselleck’s plea to our field, committed to historicism as it is, is to return to the aesthetic in order to dive more deeply, more fundamentally into the historical.