English Reading Proficiency Research Articles

The mediating role of achievement emotions in the relationship between instructional clarity, English proficiency, and reading strategies

Reading ability has had a prominent role in English language education in Taiwan. The comprehension of materials and teacher instruction in English depends on students’ English proficiency, and their achievement emotions regarding competence-related activities may influence how they read and complete tasks in English. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of positive and negative achievement emotions in the relationship between instructional clarity, English proficiency, and reading strategies. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 640 university students in Taiwan. The findings corroborated control-value theory. The structural model revealed that the participants’ use of reading strategies was strongly influenced by teachers’ instructional clarity and students’ English reading proficiency. Only positive emotions mediated the relation between instructional clarity, English proficiency, and reading strategies. Negative emotions, though correlated with the two predictors and the reading strategies, did not mediate the relationship between them.

A longitudinal study on bidirectional relations between executive functions and English word-level reading in Chinese American children in immigrant families

This two-wave (1.5 years apart) longitudinal study examined the bidirectional relations between measures of executive function (EF; working memory, attention focusing, inhibitory control, and a comprehensive EF measure) and two types of English word-level reading (pseudoword reading and word reading) among 258 school-aged children (52.6% boys, age = 5.8–9.1 years, in 1st to 3rd grades at Wave 1) from Chinese American immigrant families. Cross-lagged panel analyses were conducted to test whether the four EF measures and English word-level reading proficiency predicted one another controlling for prior levels of EF or reading, as well as demographic characteristics and children's English and Chinese language proficiency. We found a positive bidirectional association between the comprehensive EF measure and pseudoword reading. By contrast, although the comprehensive EF measure positively predicted word reading over time, word reading did not predict comprehensive EF. Additionally, both word reading and pseudoword reading positively predicted working memory over time. The results provided partial evidence that English word-level reading is bidirectionally related to EF among early elementary school-age dual language learners.

An Evaluation of Getting the Message: A Reading Course for Schools—Based on Reading Theories

In the context of English as a foreign language (EFL), English textbooks are one of the most common and valuable materials to develop learners’ reading ability. So it is imperative for teachers to evaluate whether or not a textbook is helpful for learners to improve their reading comprehension. This study attempts to analyze Getting the Message: A Reading Course for Schools (Student’s Book One), a widely used reading material for junior middle school students, from the perspectives of schema theory, reading strategies, motivation, and vocabulary growth and grammar, all of which are believed to exert a significant effect on learners’ development of English reading proficiency. Furthermore, the strengths and weaknesses of this textbook are discussed. English teachers especially those who teach reading to EFL learners and English language teaching (ELT) materials developers will find this course book enlightening when selecting an appropriate intensive and extensive reading textbook.

The Effects of Suprasegmental Phonological Training on English Reading Comprehension: Evidence from Chinese EFL Learners.

This study aims to investigate the effect of suprasegmental phonological training on connected-text reading comprehension of Chinese university students with different English reading proficiency levels. A sample of 160 freshmen was recruited and randomly divided into experimental and control groups, and the experimental group was given a 12-week training on stress, intonation and rhythm in English. Comparison and analysis of the subjects' reading comprehension performance, involving overall accuracy and speed as well as literal and inferential comprehension, reveal that: (1) suprasegmental phonological training exerts positive effects on the subjects' overall reading comprehension, especially on reading time and literal comprehension; (2) lower-proficiency readers improve more remarkably than higher-proficiency readers in terms of overall accuracy and literal comprehension, while the effect of the training on reading time is significant regardless of the subjects' reading proficiency. The results indicate that with explicit instruction and intensive exposure to suprasegmental knowledge, students' automaticity in lower level processing, such as parsing and understanding propositional messages, can be increased. From a perspective of interaction among different cognitive and psychological processes of reading comprehension, this study can shed light on developing students' reading comprehension in EFL contexts.

Systemic functional linguistics-legal genres and their configurations in the Islamic law and jurisprudence textbooks at a university in Indonesia

The great importance of textbooks in the English language in the academic, pedagogic, and scientific world is uncontested. Acquiring holistic knowledge of legal transdisciplinary is of great importance to Islamic law students in Indonesia. Nevertheless, English reading proficiency of Indonesian students is problematic. The present research was to identify the genre types and unfold them through what patterns the genres are mostly structured. Data of the study were one Islamic Law textbook and one Jurisprudence textbook used as teaching resources and required reading at Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara, Indonesia. Based on the five main Systemic Functional Linguistics-based genre frameworks for the analysis, findings from the Islamic Law textbook showed 18 genre types including three proposed ones under four genre families of which History genres are the most frequent ones followed by Explanation, Report, and Argument genres. On the other hand, 16 genre types including three new ones belonging to four genre families were identified in the Jurisprudence in which Report genres are the most frequent ones followed by Argument, Explanation, and History genres. The commonalities and discrepancies of the findings between the two legal textbooks are assumed to be the logical results of the ideological differences and the resource aspects from which the legal discipline is oriented. The findings of the study would be useful to design teaching of reading legal English texts that can facilitate students which is unfortunately neglected by both English and Law teachers.

The application of S2R strategies in English reading comprehension by university students in Vietnam

Reading plays a vital role in academic development, particularly when learners have to work over a huge amount of foreign language materials for their own specialist subjects (McDonough & Shaw, 2013). Strengthening English reading ability is necessary for students to promote individual ability in university education. One of the most important factors affecting students’ English reading proficiency is their use of reading strategies. This study is taken to explore how Vietnamese university students applied Self-strategic regulation (S2R) strategies in their English reading comprehension. 963 students from 6 universities in the North of Vietnam participated in the study. The results of the study through questionnaire and semi-structure interviews show that the participants used reading strategies at medium level of frequency (M=2.9) when they read general English materials. Cognitive strategies were reported being used the most frequently, followed by Affective strategies, Socio-cultural Interactive and Metastrategies. Of the six most frequently used strategies five fell into the category of Cognitive strategies. All the five least commonly used strategies were of medium and low usage falling into Metastrategy subscale. From the research results some pedagogical recommendations were also proposed to educational administrators, English teachers, students, and English textbook writers as well.

The Effect of Teacher Attitudes on Students’ English Reading Proficiency

One of the most important language skills of a literate person is the skill to read. They are reading means ‘reading and understanding’ (Ur, 1999). Students in Bangladesh go through a long process of education but still do not attain this skill proficiently; even at the secondary level of education, they are unaware of the importance of reading. The English reading proficiency of students is dependent on the instruction they receive. Students do not realize that comprehension is the most important part of reading. The relationship between education and language is interdependent, and failure to acquire language skills leads to failure in education. This study has focused on the attitude of teachers towards teaching English reading, how it affects their mode of instruction, and how, in turn, this affects the reading proficiency of students. Analysis of results revealed thata negative teacher attitude towards reading produces low proficiency readers of English. The research was carried out on both teachers and students. The results have shown that neither the students nor the teachers are aware of the reading strategies or sub-skills that they are required to employ while reading. Students do not know how to approach their reading materials, nor do they apply the reading strategies necessary for comprehension. The study has shown that the teachers themselves are not aware of these strategies, and thus, they cannot apply them to their teaching.

English Reading Proficiency of Engineering Undergraduates in Malaysia: Implications on Professional Training and Career Development

This paper reports the English reading proficiency of a sample of engineering undergraduates in a public university of Malaysia. A standardized online reading comprehension assessment, called Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS) was administered with 189 first year engineering students during their enrolment into six different engineering faculties in the university. The results showed that only 7.9% of the engineering students were able to perform above secondary school level of English reading comprehension proficiency. Specifically, the students were found to perform poorer in questions related to critical thinking than those related to literal comprehension and reorganization. The implications of the findings on the English language education and the professional training of future engineers in Malaysia were discussed.

Young Korean EFL Learners’ Reading and Test-Taking Strategies in a Paper and a Computer-Based Reading Comprehension Tests

ABSTRACT This study investigated whether young Korean students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) engage in similar processes when responding to reading comprehension questions delivered in two different test-presentation modes: paper and computer. It examined the relationship between the two modes and test-takers’ reading comprehension strategies, as well as the degree to which the test-takers’ reading proficiency moderates this relationship. Eighty-four Korean middle school EFL learners took both paper-based and computer-based reading comprehension tests and filled out a questionnaire of reading and test-taking strategies as well as a background questionnaire and a posttest survey. Results revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the participants’ scores on the reading tests delivered on paper and computer, and there were very few statistically significant differences in strategy use between the two modes. On the other hand, there were clear differences in the strategies used by learners with different levels of English reading proficiency. Despite the similarities in test performance and strategy use between the two modes, the majority of participants preferred taking the test on paper and reported difficulties with the computer mode – a finding that might be due to the participants’ lack of familiarity with reading English on a computer screen.

An Empirical Study of Application of Multimodal Approach to Teaching Reading in EFL in Senior High School

English Reading skill is one of the most important skills for senior high school students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). However, the present ELF teaching method is still teacher-centered which neglects students’ learning interest and their participation in the process of teaching. In 1990s, Western scholars proposed multi-modal theory which suggests that semiotic resources (sound, images, video, animation, motion, color, facial expressions, etc.) can be used to stimulate different senses of students so as to improve their learning efficiency. The present study is intended to apply the multi-modal approach to EFL reading teaching in senior high school and tries to find out whether the multimodal teaching can stimulate students’ interest in English reading and improve their reading proficiency. In this study, with students of a high school in Anhui in China as the research subjects, an English reading teaching experiment was carried out. The analysis of data collected from reading tests and questionnaires indicates that the application of multi-modal teaching approach in high school EFL reading teaching can stimulate students’ interest in English reading and improve students’ English reading proficiency, and that most students take a positive attitude towards multimodal teaching approach.

The Effects of Parental Reading Socialisation on the Reading Skill Performance of Rural Primary School Students in Sarawak

Extant research on home literacy practices such as parental reading socialisation have demonstrated positive impacts on children in terms of academic performance. A particular aspect that sparks pedagogic importance is the scaffolding potential of reading at home to the learning of English language in non-native English Language contexts. This study aimed to examine the effects of mother’s involvement in home-reading sessions on students’ English reading skill performance in Bau, Sarawak. Prior to carrying out the intervention of reading at home with their children, 31 mothers of Bidayuh ethnicity voluntarily attended a one-day workshop to orient them to the intervention and the use of logbooks to record details of their shared readings. However, only 18 mothers conducted reading sessions with their children and submitted a total of 21 logbooks detailing the frequency and material selection for reading. Their children, consisting of primary 1 to 4 students were required to sit for a pre-test and a post-test that measure their English language reading proficiency. The test scores were analysed using the paired-sample T-test. There was a significant increase in the students’ post-test scores following the reading intervention. The results revealed that despite the low frequency of mother-child shared reading sessions, the sessions positively affected the students’ reading performance. This finding suggests that parental reading socialisation can facilitate students’ literacy development. However, the use of materials in Bidayuh as a native language as opposed to Malay or English may increase the rural parents’ participation in home-literacy activities, and encourage early literacy in children.

On the Use of Prediction Strategy in Korean EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Despite the widespread understanding about the facilitative role of strategy use in reading comprehension, there has been little research evidence regarding the potential contribution of the readers’ actual performance on a specific strategy, especially prediction strategies, to their reading comprehension. Moreover, although second/foreign language readers’ strategy use may be related to their reading abilities and language proficiency in the target language, not many studies have controlled for such effects in identifying the relationship between strategy uses and reading comprehension. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the Korean middle school EFL learners’ actual use of prediction strategy and their reading comprehension. Furthermore, it examines whether such relationships may differ as a function of their English reading abilities and proficiency. One hundred thirty three Korean EFL middle school readers’ performance on the tests of English reading comprehension, prediction abilities, vocabulary and oral comprehension abilities was analyzed. The findings not only demonstrated the positive relations prediction strategy has with reading comprehension, but also identified different predictive roles it plays in the reading comprehension of good versus poor readers.

An investigation of the possibility of assessing general language proficiency and reading proficiency in English as a foreign language through scrambled-lettered texts

Reading Scrambled-Lettered Texts (SLT) is a complex activity, related to many factors, including language proficiency. This study investigates the possibility of using SLT as an integrative method to assess language and reading proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). A SLT reading test in English was applied to ten Brazilian EFL learners and the results were compared to their global and reading scores in the TOEFL ITP. Despite the limitation of the sample size, a negative correlation between the TOEFL scores and the number of errors in the SLT test was found. The results were significant in terms of p-value in four out of six cases and the presence of an outlier suggested an even higher correlation and relevance. A Portuguese SLT test was also applied to the sample, and the participants, who had a similar level of education, presented homogeneous results, contrasting with those found in the English test.

Developing English L2 Critical Reading and Thinking Skills through the Pisa Reading Literacy Assessment Framework: A Case Study of Thai EFL Learners

This study aimed to investigate the use of the PISA reading literacy assessment framework (PRF) to improve EFL learners’ critical reading and thinking skills. The sample group, selected by the random sampling technique, included 36 EFL learners from a university in Northeastern Thailand. The instruments consisted of 8 PRF-based reading lessons, a 27-item-PRF-based reading test used as a pre-test and a post-test, and a questionnaire of their attitude toward the designed lessons. The statistics used for data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, and a paired sample t-test. The results revealed that before the intervention, the students’ English reading proficiency was low as is evident from their low pre-test scores (M=14.00). They did fairly well for the literal questions (M=6.11), but poorly for the interpretative questions (M=4.89) and the critical questions (M=3.00), respectively. This means that the students could comprehend the texts but they could hardly interpret or evaluate them. However, after the intervention, they could do much better as their post-test scores were significantly higher (M=18.01). They could comprehend (M=6.78), interpret (M=6.00) and evaluate (M=5.25) well. The paired sample t-test results also confirmed this as the students’ post-test scores for overall, literal, interpretative, and critical questions were significantly higher than the pre-test scores at p<0.001. This indicates that after the intervention, their reading skills had improved. In terms of their attitude, most students were satisfied with the lessons and the instruction, particularly because they were given background information of texts and knowledge about different types of the PRF questions. It may thus be concluded that the designed lessons can help improve students’ English critical reading proficiency and may be used as a teaching model for improving EFL learners’ critical reading and thinking skills. Keywords: critical reading; critical thinking; reading proficiency; PISA reading framework; reading literacy

English Reading Proficiency and Academic Performance Among Lower Primary School Children in Ghana

There have been several issues about the reading skills and abilities of children in Ghana, and how reading proficiency might influence the academic performance of children. In view of the above, this study examined the influence of reading proficiency on the academic performance of lower primary school children in Accra. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 383 participants (Grades 1-3) were sampled in Accra. The children were administered questionnaires that measured their English reading proficiency, paternal involvement, maternal involvement, financial situation, and demographic characteristics as well as their academic performance. Results showed that reading proficiency was significantly and positively related with children’s performance on all standard performance tests after controlling for paternal involvement, maternal involvement, financial situation, and age. Type of school significantly affected academic performance, however, no gender differences were observed in the children’s academic performance. The implications for educational practice and research are espoused.

EFL Learners’ Metacognitive Strategy Use in Reading Tests

Reading comprehension, an important ability in second language acquisition, is believed to take place at the metacognitive level where planning, monitoring, and evaluating are involved. Metacognitive strategies carry out an executive function over cognitive strategies, which, in turn, impact reading test performance. Whereas most research has focused on general language learning strategies rather than those in testing situations, this study investigates the metacognitive strategies used by high- and low-proficiency readers in testing situations. Four university EFL learners were selected based on their English reading proficiency, and data were collected using a think-aloud protocol, stimulated recall, and a follow-up interview. Results show that while the number and variety of metacognitive strategies used by both groups were not of a striking difference, the effectiveness and flexibility of strategy use during testing situations seemed to determine reading performance. Finally, pedagogical implications for teachers wishing to assist EFL learners to employ effective reading strategies are discussed.

The Relationship Between English Reading Proficiency and Academic Achievement of First-Year Science and Mathematics Students in a Multilingual Context

This study reports on a conceptual model that provides insight into the relationship between English reading proficiency and academic performance of first-year science and mathematics university students in Ghana, and an empirical test of that model. Longitudinal data were acquired from a sample of 133 students. Using three different mediation analyses, the study demonstrated significant medium-sized effects of English reading proficiency on students’ grade point average (GPA) by the end of year 1 and a small but significant indirect relationship between reading proficiency and the final GPA scores by the end of year 4, mediated by the GPA scores after year 1. These findings show that the academic English reading proficiency of students in a non-western multilingual academic context is important for their academic achievement. It also found that academic results obtained by students in their first-year at University were a sound predictor for success at the end of their studies. Results from this study confirm the need for universities in multilingual settings to invest in L2 students’ English reading proficiency at the start of their academic programs. Instructional recommendations are made, along with suggestions for further study.

Using comprehension strategies for students' self-efficacy, anxiety, and proficiency in reading English as a foreign language

We examined whether or not instructing Taiwanese students in the use of comprehension strategies when they are reading English as a foreign language, reduces their English reading anxiety and increases their English reading self-efficacy and proficiency. We used a quasiexperimental design and conducted a 15-week course. The experimental group (n = 31) received instruction in reading comprehension strategies and the control group (n = 31) received instruction by traditional teaching methods. The results show that the experimental group had less anxiety when reading English and higher proficiency than the control group. In regard to self-efficacy when reading English, the experimental group also performed better than the control group in terms of self-affirmation, perseverance, verbal persuasion, and performance overall. However, there was no statistically significant difference for learning attitude between the groups.

The effects of integrating goal setting and reading strategy instruction on English reading proficiency and learning motivation: A quasi-experimental study

AbstractAn English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading class was transformed by integrating goal setting with reading strategy instruction for one academic year. This intervention class was compared to a traditionally taught class to determine whether any differences in terms of motivation towards learning English and reading proficiency would be found. The goals set by the intervention class were analyzed to determine (1) whether they were met and (2) what actions were performed to reach those goals. In addition, it was further investigated whether adolescent Taiwanese students are willing to be taught English reading using an approach incorporating goal setting and reading strategy instruction. Results indicate that goal setting integrated reading strategy instruction seems to be more effective in increasing reading proficiency and learner motivation than the traditional approach as well as encouraging learner autonomy and self-efficacy. Analysis of the actions performed by the intervention group to meet goals revealed two sub-groups of learners: static action students and dynamic action students. Data analysis further indicated the actions performed by dynamic action students consisted of more diverse and concrete learning strategies whereas static action students performed mostly classroom-centered review. Pedagogical implications of the results and future research directions are discussed.

Attitude Toward Reading: L1 or L2 or Both

L2 reading attitude has been the subject of more recent studies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), and many have attempted to define this construct and find its correlates such as gender and L1 and L2 proficiency level. This study builds on the previous studies and aims at highlighting the connection between L2 and L1 reading attitudes and the degree L2 reading attitude contributes to L2 reading achievement in Iranian EFL context. Participants of the study included 230 male and female Iranian language learners roughly at intermediate level of English reading proficiency. L2 and L1 reading attitudes were measured using reading attitude questionnaires, and data were analyzed by employing descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, and regression analysis. Results showed that L1 and L2 reading attitudes were highly correlated ( r = .71); L1 reading attitude significantly explained 51% of the variance in L2 reading attitude, but between the L1 and L2 reading attitudes, only L2 reading attitude made unique significant contribution to L2 reading achievement. Findings suggest the importance of developing positive attitude among L2 learners generally and L2 readers particularly.