本研究旨在探討大學生的學習動機與閱讀策略間的相關。台灣南部的英語教師能借此研究進而了解學生之學習狀況與閱讀過程間所帶來之障礙。本研究探討在學生的閱讀過程中，影響學生學習動機之閱讀問題與閱讀策略。本研究的參與對象為二十四位國立屏東教育大學英語系二年級學生。在學期初與學習末時，受試者均接受前後測問卷調查、閱讀測驗、以及訪談。研究者依據受試者所填寫之問卷結果進行訪談，所有訪談皆對話錄音。最後，所有收集資料皆使用量化與質化分析。以下為本研究之研究發現： 一、 學生之學習動機與閱讀策略有相關。 二、 學生之閱讀策略與閱讀表現有相關。 三、 學生經常使用之閱讀策略為： 1. 我會先掌握文章的大綱，然後再仔細閱讀內容。 2. 我的腦海會出現文章內容的畫面。 3. 我會跳過不懂的部分並且透過可以理解的文章內容來幫助閱讀。 四、每位受試者對於閱讀練習之回應為正向態度。 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between college students’ learning motivation and reading strategies that may affect their reading comprehension. In order to help English teachers in southern Taiwan, this study may help these teachers to understand students’ learning situations and obstacles that may affect their reading. This study explored college students’ reading problems that influenced their learning motivation and reading strategies in their reading process. The participants of the study were twenty-four English-majored sophomores of National Pingtung University of Education. In the beginning and the end of the semester, participants were received the pre-study and post-study questionnaires, reading comprehension tests, and interviews during the semester. The researcher interviewed every participant based on the questionnaire results completed by themselves, and all interviews were audio-recorded. Finally, all of the data collected during the study were analyzed both qualitatively andquantitatively. The followings are the finding of the study: 1. There is correlation between students’ learning motivation and reading strategy. 2. There is correlation between students’ reading strategies and reading performance. 3. The most frequently reading strategies used by individual participants are (1) I will catch the article’s theme, than read the content carefully. (2) While reading, the pictures of context often show up in my mind (3)I will ignore the unreadable parts, and figure out the whole content through the readable parts. 4. Individual participant’s response toward their reading practice belonged to positive attitude. / Chinese Abstract……………………………………………………..…i English Abstract………………………………………………....……..ii Table OF CONTENTS………………………………………………...iii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION…………………...……….…….1 Background and Motivation……………………………...….…….1 Purpose of the Study………………………………………………..2 Research Questions…………………………………………………2 Significance of the Study……………………………………………3 Definitions of Terms………………………………………………...4 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW………………………….6 Research on Learning motivation……………………….………..……6 Research on Reading Strategies………………………………………10 Research on Learning Community…………………………………...12 Related Studies in EFL Context……………………………….......….14 Research on Learning motivation………………………….…..……..14 Research on Reading Strategies……………………………..…….….18 The Present Study…………………………………………..…….…....22 CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY……………………………..23 Research Design……………………..……………………………..23 Participants and Background……………..………………………24 Procedure…………………………………………………………..25 Instruments………………………………………………………...27 Questionnaires……………………………………………………..27 Reading Comprehension Tests……………………………………28 Interviews……………………………….……….….……..……….28 Data Collection and Analysis…………………………….….……….29 CHAPTER FOURRESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………….30 The correlation between students’ learning motivation and reading strategies……………………………………………………………….30 The correlation between learning motivation and reading strategiesscores in the pre-test (the highest 8th scores)…………………………………………………………...….30 The correlation between learning motivation and reading strategiesscores in pre-test (the lowest 8th scores)………………………………………………………...…….32 The correlation between learning motivation and reading strategiesscores in the post-test (the highest 8th scores)……………………………………………………...……...…33 The correlation between learning motivation and reading strategiesscores in the post-test (the lowest 8th scores)…………. 35 Summary…………………………………...………………………36 Discussion………………..…………………………………..……..36 The correlation between students’ reading strategies and reading performance……………………………………………………………37 The correlation between reading strategies and reading performance scores in pre-test (the highest 8th scores)………………………………………………………..……..37 The correlation between reading strategies and reading performance scores in pre-test (the lowest 8th scores)………………………………………………………………38 The correlation between reading strategies and reading performance scores in post-test (the highest 8th scores)…………………………………………………......……..…40 The correlation between reading strategies and reading performance scores in post-test (the lowest 8th scores)………………………………………………………………41 Summary………………………………...……..…………………..42 Discussion…………………………………..……………………....43 The reading strategies most frequently used by individual participants………………………………………………………...…..43 What kinds of reading strategies do you use while reading?.......44 When you reading interestingarticles, which reading strategies do you use……………………………………………………………...45 When you read uninterestingarticles, which reading strategies do you use?................................................................................................... 47 When you read an easy article, which reading strategies do you use?.....................................................................................................48 When you read difficult article, which reading strategies do you use?.....................................................................................................50 The individual participants’ responses toward their reading practice............................................................................................52 The high level participants ‘responses…………………………..52 The middle level participants’ responses…………………….….53 The advancing participants’ responses…………………...….….54 CHAPTER FIVECONCLUSIONS…………………….……………56 Pedagogical Implications………………………………..………..60 Limitations and Suggestions………………………………..……..61 REFERENCES………………………………………………………...62 Appendix……………………………………………………………….66 Appendix A……………………………………………………………..66 Appendix B……………………………………………………………..72 Appendix C……………………………………………………………..79 Appendix D……………………………………………………………..86 Appendix E……………………………………………………………..96 Appendix E……………………………………………………………108 Appendix G………………...…………………………………………109 Appendix H…………………………………………………………...110 Appendix I…………………………………………..………………...111 Appendix J…...……………………………………..………………...112

Jag har som syfte med den här studien att belysa hur undervisande svensklärare i årskurs 4-6 beskriver hur de kartlägger och undervisar eleverna i läsförståelse. Studien är en kvalitativ studie där jag har använt semistrukturerade intervjuer. Fem lärare från fyra olika skolor har deltagit. Analysen av mitt empiriska material grundas på ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Resultatet av den genomförda studien visar att samtliga lärare har en bred definition av begreppet läsförståelse. Avkodning och ordförståelse är viktiga komponenter. Att kunna dra slutsatser, sammanfatta, interagera med texten genom att använda förförståelse och koppla texten till egna erfarenheter är även de viktiga komponenterna i begreppet läsförståelse Resultatet visar även att lärarnas undervisning är explicit där de modellerar olika lässtrategier. Alla lärare använder delar av forskningsbaserade undervisningsmodeller men inte modellerna i sin helhet. Lärarna talar om att undervisningen måste motivera och engagera eleverna. Resultatet visar även att lärarna använder inlästa texter som en viktig del i undervisningen, eleverna kan lyssna  för att utveckla  läsförståelse. Lärarna menar också att eleverna utvecklar sin läsförståelse gemensamt med andra. / My purpose with this study is to highlight how Swedish-language teachers in the grades 4-6 describe how they map and teach students reading comprehension. The study is a qualitative study in which I have used semi-structured interviews. Five teachers from four different schools have participated. The analysis of my empirical material is based on a sociocultural perspective. The results from the completed study show that each teacher has a broad definition of the concept reading comprehension. Decoding and word comprehension are the most significant components. To be able to draw conclusions, summarize, interact with the text by using preexisting knowledge, and to connect the text with personal experiences are also important components in the term reading comprehension. Furthermore, the results show that the teachers are very explicit in their teaching when they model different reading strategies. Each teacher uses parts of research based teaching models but not the models in their entirety. The teachers say that the lessons must motivate and engage the students. The results also show that the teachers use recorded texts as an essential part of the lessons; the students can improve their reading comprehension by listening. The teachers also claim that the students improve their reading comprehension collectively with others.

The project was concerned with action research aimed at improving the range and effectiveness of reading-to-learn. Students (Advanced Level and Undergraduates) report reading-to-learn problems but they are only vaguely aware of the cognitive organisation (intuitive tactics and strategy) which underlies and structures their reading behaviour. The research emphasis was therefore primarily learner oriented. 2. This approach clarified such issues as: (i) Learner interpretation of instructional directives to learn for specific tasks. (ii) Learner methods of translating the task definition into an operational plan for reading. (iii) The systematic relationship between the tactics and strategies of reading (the time-structure of reading behaviour), and the variety of reading outcomes, within sentence, paragraph and chapter sized texts. (iv) Training procedures (incorporating feedback of performance) by which a student can explore now tactics of reading-for-learning. 3. This approach has required the development of three now techniques: a) A method for recording reading behaviour. b) A method by which the ‘structure of a text’ can be systematically described. c) A system of training procedures for encouraging students to develop more effective methods of reading-for-learning. 4. The empirical data showed that there were two related aspects in developing more effective reading-for-learning; the first was to develop a clearer definition of instructional directives and the second was the ability to translate these into effective operational plans. As a result of individual differences in cognitive structure and skill, students differ in their operational task definition in relation to specific learning outcomes. The plans of a 'beginner' or an 'expert' may bring about the same outcome but they differ considerably. Students also differ in their training needs within a training procedure for reading-to-learn effectively. This emphasises the need to level a hierarchically organised learner-controlled programme of self-diagnosis and training. 5. The theoretical outcome of the research was a tentative model of the student learning by reading. This model is based on the concept of a dynamic interaction between the learner's cognitive structure and skill, the learner's task definition and how this becomes operational, and the syntactic and semantic structure of the text. The model can be considered as a hierarchically organised multi-level description of the reading process. The reading strategy formed of the tactics and the learning outcome, represent the observables of this interaction. The model was influenced by the theories of J. Bruner, G. Miller, N. Chomsky and R. Gagné. 6. The research was directed towards the identification of strategies and outcomes of reading-to-learn, with the double aim of investigating these areas and training students to increase their skill; both these aims were in line with endeavours to increase self-organisation and individual autonomy in learning. 7. Whilst the goals of the research were largely achieved, the results have illuminated a number of practical and theoretical issues that need further investigation.

The aim of this study is to investigate the reading strategies used by Chinese English major students in the reading component in standardized national tests of TEM-4 with regard to reading efficiency. The research questions include: 1) what strategies are used by the students in TEM-4 test context; 2) whether there is a significant correlation between strategy use and efficient reading in the test; 3) what kinds of reading problems are revealed in the students’ use of processing strategies; 4) what can teachers do to promote efficient reading in classrooms. The data were collected from 25 English major students, including their reading efficiency indicated in the test performance, a reading strategy checklist and a questionnaire about the students’ perception of reading strategy and obstacles to their efficient reading. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used for comparisons between proficient students and non-proficient students. The findings indicate that the students in general rely on metacognitive and test-wiseness strategies in their reading practice. There is no significant relationship between strategy use and test performance. The difference between proficient and non-proficient students lies in the automaticity and fluency at lower-level skills rather than a mere use of metacognitive strategies. The reading problems common students are facing include inadequate language proficiency with limited vocabulary and a lack of automaticity, low reading speed and a lack of background knowledge. Suggestions are given for future reading teaching to promote efficient reading in these aspects.

Doctor of Education / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Mickey L. Losinski / Students with emotional and behavioral disorders frequently display deficits in reading. One emerging method for addressing these deficits is known as self-regulated strategy development (SRSD). One specific SRSD reading strategy is TWA (Think before reading, think While reading, and think After reading), which teaches students to self-monitor and self-evaluate while reading. The purpose of this study was to determine if TWA is effective in increasing reading comprehension of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students with or at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders, using a randomized control trial pretest-posttest design. Results suggested no statistical significance between the reading comprehension of the treatment and control group following the intervention. Limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are presented.

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At every educational level reading is a powerful tool for academic success because it provides students with access to information. Comprehension is crucial to reading. Many students at Lobatse College of Education, Botswana, have problems comprehending L2 reading materials and thus struggle academically because English is the medium of instruction. To some extent, methods of teaching L2 reading contribute to students’ reading failure. It is said that how we teach is as important as what we teach. Thus, how L2 reading is taught is important for improving students’ understanding of texts and their L2 academic performance. This study focuses on teaching reading as a process which involves an application of reading strategies in order to facilitate comprehension of texts. The overall aim of the research is concerned with the improvement of methods of teaching L2 reading comprehension in Botswana Colleges of Education. The specific objective was to implement reading strategy instruction programme (RSI) to see what effect it would have on (i) on L2 students’ use of strategies during reading (ii) on L2 students’ reading comprehension, and (iii) on L2 students’ English academic performance. Using a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design, an explicit RSI programme was implemented over six-week period in a Botswana College of Education. Two intact cohorts of second-year teacher trainees were randomly assigned to a control and intervention groups. A reading strategy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were used to examine the relationship between strategy use and level of comprehension. A discrepancy emerged between the self-reports responses of the participants and their actual performance in reading text. Although they claimed to be strategic readers the results suggested that they were not in fact reading strategically.The Cohen’s d analysis yielded a large effect size. This corroborates the significant differences that emerged between the two cohorts in their posttest comprehension results. The intervention group showed significant gains in strategy use and reading comprehension after the six-week intervention period. This suggests that even a short period of intervention can be beneficial to L2 students. However, these effects did not manifest themselves in the students’ English academic performance. This suggests that students need more exposure and more opportunities to practice applying strategies to texts that they read before the effect spill over into academic performance in general. The findings from this study have important implications for the teaching reading in Botswana in both L1 and L2 context. This research also point to further avenues for reading research in Botswana, and cautions against a reliance on questionnaire data alone in reading research; the triangulation of data is important to gain an accurate and deeper understanding of reading practices and reading performance. / Linguistics / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

At every educational level reading is a powerful tool for academic success because it provides students with access to information. Comprehension is crucial to reading. Many students at Lobatse College of Education, Botswana, have problems comprehending L2 reading materials and thus struggle academically because English is the medium of instruction. To some extent, methods of teaching L2 reading contribute to students’ reading failure. It is said that how we teach is as important as what we teach. Thus, how L2 reading is taught is important for improving students’ understanding of texts and their L2 academic performance. This study focuses on teaching reading as a process which involves an application of reading strategies in order to facilitate comprehension of texts. The overall aim of the research is concerned with the improvement of methods of teaching L2 reading comprehension in Botswana Colleges of Education. The specific objective was to implement reading strategy instruction programme (RSI) to see what effect it would have on (i) on L2 students’ use of strategies during reading (ii) on L2 students’ reading comprehension, and (iii) on L2 students’ English academic performance. Using a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design, an explicit RSI programme was implemented over six-week period in a Botswana College of Education. Two intact cohorts of second-year teacher trainees were randomly assigned to a control and intervention groups. A reading strategy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were used to examine the relationship between strategy use and level of comprehension. A discrepancy emerged between the self-reports responses of the participants and their actual performance in reading text. Although they claimed to be strategic readers the results suggested that they were not in fact reading strategically.The Cohen’s d analysis yielded a large effect size. This corroborates the significant differences that emerged between the two cohorts in their posttest comprehension results. The intervention group showed significant gains in strategy use and reading comprehension after the six-week intervention period. This suggests that even a short period of intervention can be beneficial to L2 students. However, these effects did not manifest themselves in the students’ English academic performance. This suggests that students need more exposure and more opportunities to practice applying strategies to texts that they read before the effect spill over into academic performance in general. The findings from this study have important implications for the teaching reading in Botswana in both L1 and L2 context. This research also point to further avenues for reading research in Botswana, and cautions against a reliance on questionnaire data alone in reading research; the triangulation of data is important to gain an accurate and deeper understanding of reading practices and reading performance. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Thesis (MPhil (Modern Foreign Languages))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / It is widely recognized that learning to read is one of the most crucial learning processes in which children are involved at primary school. However, becoming a proficient reader is not equally easy for all learners. When it comes to the development of reading comprehension many children appear to have persistent problems. In order to meet the reading needs of students in the 21st century, educators are pressed to develop effective instructional means for teaching strategies to improve reading comprehension. The ability to read academic texts is considered one of the most crucial skills that students of English as a Second Language need to acquire. Reading comprehension has become the “essence of reading” (Dreyer & Nel, 2003:349). Literacy, and more specifically reading, is one of many areas where research has provided evidence of the potential impact of technology such as multimedia and hypermedia. If one looks broadly at the issue of technology and literacy, one of the more rewarding issues for educators is the role of technology in literacy acquisition and instruction, especially for primary grade learners (Pearson et al, 2005:3). This study aims to support the growing trend of an increasingly “paired” literacy, namely that of general literacy and computer (or technological) literacy. The study proposes that through implementing an overall blended-learning methodology for teaching learners how to use reading strategies, it will be possible to improve learners’ general reading comprehension levels.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo elaborar uma proposta de ensino de língua portuguesa que vise direcionar alunos do 9° ano do Ensino Fundamental II a aplicar estratégias de leitura tendo como foco o texto literário, mais especificamente a estratégia de observar as escolhas lexicais realizadas por um escritor, para que possam fazer uso dessas observações na interpretação textual. Para isso, partimos da análise das escolhas lexicais de Lygia Fagundes Telles, observando o papel dos recursos expressivos encontrados em três contos da autora: Natal na Barca, Verde Lagarto Amarelo e A caçada. Procurou-se dar ênfase ao papel das palavras que exercem função caracterizadora na construção de elementos descritivos nos contos literários estudados. Com base na análise estabelecida, apontam-se direcionamentos para a prática pedagógica, que visem repensar o ensino da língua presente nos currículos escolares atualmente, buscando-se observar estratégias do ensino da leitura que refletem sobre questões linguísticas, discursivas e estéticas do texto. Na análise dos contos, procurou-se mostrar como a construção da caracterização do ambiente e das personagens por meio das escolhas lexicais ajuda a criar a atmosfera do texto, imprimindo uma imagem que se agrega à produção de efeitos de sentido, assim como a averiguar como os elementos expressivos no texto podem colaborar com seu entendimento, possibilitando leitura crítica e apreciação estética. Para se atingir o objetivo proposto, esta pesquisa se baseou na Morfologia, na Lexicologia, na Estilística e na Semântica, tanto para a análise do corpus quanto para a elaboração da sequência didática. Após a aplicação da sequência didática em sala de aula, verificou-se que os estudantes têm dificuldade em sistematizar conceitos gramaticais e utilizá-los na análise textual. Pôde-se observar, ainda, que quando existe uma estratégia clara e delineada para o aluno, este pode ser conduzido a compreender um texto com mais autonomia. / This research aims to develop a Portuguese Language teaching proposal to direct students of 9th grade of elementary school to apply for reading strategies focusing on literary text, specifically the strategy to observe the lexical choices made by a writer, so that they can make use of these observations in textual interpretation. For this, we start from the analysis of lexical choices of Lygia Fagundes Telles, noticing the role of some expressive resources found in three short-stories by the author: Natal na barca, Verde lagarto amarelo and A caçada. The study of these short-stories tries to emphasize the role of words which have important functions in the construction of descriptive elements in the literary texts. The established analysis intends to give some directions to the pedagogical practice, rethinking the teaching of this language in school curriculum, seeking for reading and teaching strategies that could reflect on language, discursive and aesthetic issues in the text. In the analysis of the short-stories, we tried to show how the construction of the characterization of the environment and the characters help to create the atmosphere of the text. Resulting on an image that adds to the meaning of the text and its impression effect, and also find out how the expressive elements in the text can collaborate with their understanding, enabling critical reading abilities and aesthetic appreciation. To achieve this purpose, this research was based on Morphology, Lexicology, Stylistics and Semantics for the analysis of the corpus and also for the elaboration of didactic sequence applied in the classroom. After the research application in the classroom, it was found that students have difficulty in systematize grammatical concepts and use them in textual analysis. It was also observed that when there is a clear and definite strategy for the student, it can leads to understand the text with more autonomy.