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Reading Chinese is one of the most challenging tasks for learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL learners). Studies showed that effective use of strategies (e.g. inferring meaning from context) helps to enhance reading comprehension. However, so far, most studies about reading Chinese as a foreign language have focused on lower-level processing (e.g. word learning strategies, the effects of orthography on word acquisition, etc.). Studies about reading process and strategies of adult CFL learners engaging in independent Chinese text reading are extremely limited, and few studies compare reading strategies and perceptions of successful and less successful CFL readers. This study filled these gaps by investigating adult CFL learners’ reading strategies and comparing strategy use and perceptions of successful CFL readers and less successful ones. Using the Compensatory Model of Second Language Reading (Bernhardt, 2005; 2011) as the theoretical framework, this study answered three research questions with sub questions: 1. What are the reading strategies used by adult CFL learners? (a) What are overall reading strategies used by adult CFL readers? (b) What are effective strategy combinations used by adult CFL readers? 2. How do successful adult CFL readers apply and perceive reading strategies when reading in Chinese? 3. How do less successful adult CFL readers apply and perceive reading strategies when reading in Chinese? Qualitative research methods were used to collect and analyze the data. Twelve college level third-year Chinese learners were asked to read a Chinese text, finish a think-aloud task (verbally express their thought process), recall the content of the text, answer several text-related questions, and engage in semi-structured interviews. This study identified 14 bottom-up strategies and 12 top-down strategies. The effective reading strategy combinations used by CFL readers included 1) inferring word meaning by accessing context cues, character meaning, and mental lexical networks; 2) monitoring comprehension by using context information, rereading, summarizing, noticing text structure, paraphrasing, or translating difficult parts; 3) segmenting Chinese words by checking the dictionary, conducting grammar analysis, and referring to mental lexicons. Through comparing the cases of successful and less successful CFL readers, this study revealed that successful readers were good at using context information, monitoring comprehension, and distinguishing important text segments from less important ones. They showed confidence in applying reading strategies and consciously acquired and practiced using strategies while reading. Less successful readers, on the other hand, had more difficulties in decoding characters and words as well as understanding complicated sentence structures. They did not trust their ability to infer about words and phrases, and relied more on the dictionary and translation. In addition, compared with less successful readers, successful readers used more top-down strategies, and they had better metacognitive competences in applying a wide range of strategies effectively. The findings of this study provide useful pedagogical implications to improve Chinese reading instruction and a better understanding about reading Chinese as well as L2 reading.

Resultaten av PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) har i flera år visat en försämring av svenska elevers läsförståelse. I den senaste mätningen har trenden brutits och svenska elevers resultat indikerar på en förbättring. Fastän resultatet visar på förbättring görs statliga satsningar för att öka elevernas kunskaper i svensk skola. Därför är syftet med studien att utifrån didaktisk forskning undersöka användandet av olika lässtrategimodeller och deras gemensamma effekter på elevers läsförståelseutveckling i åldrarna 6–12. Studiens frågeställningar är: Vilka lässtrategimodeller används enligt det undersökta materialet i undervisningen, för att utveckla elevers läsförståelse? Hur används lässtrategimodellerna i undervisningen i de studierna? Vilka gemensamma effekter har lässtrategimodellerna på elevers läsförståelse? För att uppfylla studiens syfte och frågeställningar har en litteraturstudie genomförts. I litteraturstudien har internationella och nationella vetenskapliga artiklar publicerade mellan år 1995 och 2017 inkluderats. Resultatet visar att Reciprok undervisning, Transaktionell undervisning, Questioning the Author och Explicit comprehension strategy instructions används för att utveckla elevers läsförståelse. Lässtrategimodellernas gemensamma effekter identifieras och förklaras: strategimedvetenhet, strategianvändning, motivation och interaktion.

Research into reading strategies and strategy instruction has indicated their effectiveness and beneficial effects on reading improvement. However, additional effort and support is needed in real-world teaching environments for students to benefit from these research findings. This report reviews research on the effectiveness of the use of L2 reading strategies and strategy instruction. Based on research conclusions, this paper discusses the patterns of strategy use adopted by both proficient and less proficient readers to shed light on what kinds of strategies should be taught and how. It argues that teachers have important roles to play in selecting strategies for instruction and teaching them; teachers need to consider such factors as proficiency levels, text type and task goals. This paper concludes with pedagogical implications, suggesting teachers play roles as coaches and scaffolders, and offering nine strategies for instruction. / text

A study of four teachers´ verbal scaffolding in explicit reading comprehension Reading is an absolutely crucial skill to cope with everyday life in Sweden as well as other information societies. Therefore reading comprehension becomes the core of the entire educational system. Instruction in reading comprehension is to give pupils the opportunity for lifelong learning, but this important process will not come easy and natural for everybody. Reading instruction places greater demands on students as they move up the grades. In the lower grades teaching is centered on learning to read but there is a shift from the fourth or fifth grade, when students encounter more and more advanced texts and thereby need to acquire the skill of reading to learn. The current curriculum in Sweden states that teachers shall educate their pupils how to use efficient reading strategies when encountering new texts. Many scientific studies have shown that explicit reading strategy instruction is more advantageous than implicit. Despite this notion, implicit reading strategy instruction is predominant in Swedish schools. The purpose of this study is to examine how four teachers in Stockholm, scaffolds their pupils through explicit reading strategy instruction and how these teachers reflect on benefits and potential difficulties in their way of teaching. By analyzing the methods and models these teachers use and what problems they face, more teachers might learn new ways to approach this more effective way of teaching. Four teachers from three different schools in Stockholm were observed while teaching explicit reading strategy instruction. Focus was directed towards their use of scaffolding followed by interviews to find out what advantages and difficulties the teachers saw in their way of teaching. The result showed examples of different types of talk used in explicit reading instruction from the models En läsande klass and Chambers model for book talks. Depending on the model the teachers took on different roles in their way of scaffolding their pupils. All teachers invited the pupils to participate in conversations and to learn from each other’s thoughts. The two teachers’ only using En läsande klass saw no obstacles in using that method to scaffold their pupils in explicit reading strategy instruction, while the other two explained some difficulties.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education (Research Methodology) in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2017 / Given the need to employ effective reading strategies in the primary school, this article sets out to address the question of primary school educators’ experiences with the National Reading Strategy (NRS). The study focuses on six (6) primary schools in the Mbabane Circuit at Ingwavuma in UMkhanyakude District of South Africa. Forty (40) primary school educators from the selected schools within the circuit took part in a quantitative survey. Pearson’s chisquare was employed to explore the relative effects of teachers’ biographical data and their experiences with the NRS. The findings suggest that teachers’ gender, job title, teaching phase, experience in years and qualifications had an influence on their experiences with the NRS. On the other hand, teachers’ age was shown to have no relationship with their experiences with the NRS. The study confirms the appropriateness of understanding how teachers’ biographical data relate to and impact on reading intervention strategies.

Today Swedish society is surrounded by the English language, more so the importance to know how to read English is therefore essential. Students in consequence need the support from teachers to find suitable strategies to master their reading.This degree project’s aim is to find out if teachers use different methods to teach reading, and if so, why. This paper will present the reader with the theories and literature on the definition of reading strategies. Initially, various researchers will be present the two most commonly used strategies, the cognitive and the metacognitive. Although different researcher claim different This study is based on interviews with two teachers in elementary school, grade 4-6. The results and conclusion of this study is that the combination of different methods and the teachers’ adaption to each class and individual is what provides the students with the confidence to learn. Not only does this make it easier for the students to reach the requirements set for them, but this also gives them a willingness to learn. Furthermore, the study provides information on if the teachers working experience does have an impact on the methods they using when teaching L2 learners reading strategies.

This study investigated the effects of foreign language reading anxiety on Korean ESL learners’ reading strategy use and reading comprehension. Data were collected from forty-five Korean students who were enrolled in either ESL programs or graduate programs at UT. The students took the foreign language reading anxiety scale (FLRAS) followed by a background questionnaire. Based on their FLRAS scores, six participants who were classified as high, mid, and low anxiety were invited to an individual reading study. Various types of data were collected from a reading comprehension task, a strategy inventory for reading comprehension, the Cognitive Interference Questionnaire, and interviews. The results showed that there is a fair amount of FL reading anxiety among Korean ESL learners. Although it seems at first glance that reading in a FL is not anxietyprovoking, the result indicated that it can indeed arouse anxiety in some learners due to distinct features of FL texts including a different orthography, textual organizations, and cultural topics. In addition, the results of reading processing of six participants representing different anxiety levels indicated that anxiety can affect learners’ reading processing in terms of their strategy use and cognitive interference. The results showed that highly anxious students who were occupied with off-task thoughts tended to use more local strategies while less anxious students employed more global strategies and background knowledge strategies. Lastly, the highly anxious students showed lower reading comprehension scores than their less anxious peers, suggesting that anxiety can play a detrimental role not only in reading processing but also in comprehension. / text

In an experimental study the attempt was made to examine the effects of the Reciprocal Teaching method on measures of metacognition and try to identify the effective features of this method that are necessary for the learning gains to occur. Reciprocal Teaching, originally developed by Palincsar and Brown (1984), is a very successful training program which was designed to improve student's reading comprehension skills by teaching them reading strategies. In the present study the tasks and responsibilities assumed by 5thgrade elementary students (N = 55) participating in a 16-session reading strategy training were varied systematically. Not only the students who participated in the training program in one of the three experimental conditions were compared with respect to knowledge and performance measures, but there was also a comparison to their control classmates who did not participate in strategy training (N = 86). Detailed analyses of video-taped sessions provided additional information. <br><br> The strategy training was most beneficial for measures of knowledge and performance more closely related to the content of the training program, namely knowledge about specific reading strategies taught in training and application of those strategies. No significant effects were observed for more distal measures (general strategy knowledge, reading comprehension). As for the features of the program, it could be shown that students of the two experimental conditions where the students were responsible for giving each other feedback on performance (with respect to both content and strategy application) and guiding the correction of the answer outperformed both the experimental condition in which the trainer was responsible for those tasks and the control group. <br><br> It is concluded that it is not merely the application of strategies, but the combination of strategy application with concurrent teaching and learning of metacognitive acquisition procedures (analysis, monitoring, evaluation, and regulation) in an inter-individual way as the precedent of these processes occurring intra-individually that seems to be an efficient way of acquiring metacognitive knowledge and skills. It was also shown that strategy training does not necessarily have to include the precise kind of interaction that characterizes the Reciprocal Teaching method. Instead, the tasks of monitoring, evaluating, and regulating other children's learning processes - i.e., tasks associated with the "teacher role" - are the ones that promote the acquisition of metacognitive knowledge and skills. Generally, any strategy training program that not only provides children with plentiful opportunities for practice, but also prompts them to engage in these kinds of metacognitive processes, may help children to acquire metacognitive knowledge and skills. / In einer experimentellen Studie wurden die Effekte der Methode Reziprokes Lehren auf verschiedene Maße von Metakognition sowie die Frage, welche Merkmale dieses Trainingsprogramms für die Lernzuwächse verantwortlich sind, untersucht. Beim Reziproken Lehren, einem sehr erfolgreiches Trainingsprogramm das von Palincsar und Brown (1984) entwickelt wurde um das Leseverständnis von Schülern zu verbessern, erlernen die Schüler verschiedene Lesestrategien. In der vorliegenden Studie wurden die Aufgaben und Verantwortlichkeiten von Schülern der 5. Klassenstufe (N = 55) in einem 16-stündigen Training systematisch variiert. Es wurden nicht nur das Wissen und die Leistungen der Schüler, die in einer der drei experimentellen Bedingungen an dem Lesetraining teilgenommen hatten, miteinander verglichen, sondern auch mit denen ihrer Klassenkameraden, die nicht an dem Strategietraining teilgenommen hatten (Kontrollgruppe, N = 86). Detaillierte Analysen der auf Video aufgezeichneten Trainingssitzungen lieferten zusätzliche Informationen. Die größten Trainingseffekte zeigten sich vor allem bei Wissens- und Leistungsmaßen, die einen engeren Bezug zum Strategietraining haben (spezifisches Strategiewissen über die im Training erlernten Strategien und Anwendung der Strategien). Für trainingsfernere Maße wurden keine signifikanten Effekte gefunden (Allgemeines Strategiewissen, Leseverständnis). Die Schüler der beiden experimentellen Bedingungen, bei denen die Schüler sich gegenseitig Rückmeldungen sowohl auf den Inhalt als auch auf die Anwendung der jeweiligen Lesestrategie bezogen gaben und im Anschluß dann den anderen Schüler bei der Verbesserung der Antwort anleiteten, erbrachten bessere Leistungen und erwarben mehr metakognitives Wissen als Schüler der experimentellen Bedingung, in der der Trainer für diese Aufgaben zuständig war, und Schüler der Kontrollgruppe. Die vorliegenden Befunde sprechen dafür, daß nicht die bloße Anwendung der Lesestrategien, sondern erst die Kombination von Strategieanwendung und der gleichzeitigen Vermittlung und Übung von metakognitiven Erwerbsprozeduren (d.h. Analyse, Überwachung, Evaluation und Regulation) auf inter-individueller Basis als Voraussetzung für das Auftreten dieser Prozesse im Individuum selbst (intra-individuell) eine effektive Methode für den Erwerb metakognitiven Wissens und metakognitiver Kompetenzen darstellt. Es konnte auch gezeigt werden, daß in einem Strategietraining die Interaktion nicht notwendigerweise auf die spezielle Art und Weise, wie das beim Reziproken Lehren der Fall ist, gestaltet werden muß. Stattdessen scheinen die Aufgaben der Überwachung, Evaluation und Regulation der Lernprozesse anderer Schüler - d.h. die Aufgaben, die die Kinder in der "Lehrer"-Rolle erfüllen - diejenigen zu sein, die den Erwerb von Metakognition unterstützen. Generell kann jedes Strategietraining, bei dem die Schüler nicht nur ausreichend Übungsgelegenheiten zur Anwendung von Strategien haben, sondern auch angeleitet werden, metakognitive Aufgaben zu übernehmen, hilfreich beim Erwerb metakognitiven Wissens und metakognitiver Fähigkeiten sein.

Mobile devices are more and more popular in recent years. As a result, many educational applications were developed to support learning activities on mobile devices. The portability of e-book readers allows learners to read anytime and anywhere they like to read. Because of these features, an e-book reader can be an ideal reading environment for supporting learners¡¦ reading activities. However, there is still a lack of proper instructional designs for making an e-book reader such a reading environment. In this study, we integrated the reading strategy of SQ3R into the reading environment of e-book readers to support learners¡¦ reading processes. Earlier studies showed that SQ3R is an effective strategy to improve learners¡¦ reading comprehension. But we have to consider whether learners are able to follow the steps of SQ3R when they are new to this strategy. If learners were not aware of the reading strategy when reading, the effect of applying SQ3R would be limited. Therefore, we proposed a SQ3R guiding mechanism to support every stage of SQ3R and embedded it into the reading environment of e-book readers. Learners could follow the guidance of SQ3R to read effectively and improve reading comprehension. A quasi-experiment and survey were conducted to evaluate the effect of the SQ3R guiding mechanism. The results showed that, given no guidance, there was no significant difference in learners¡¦ reading comprehension scores whether they read with SQ3R or not. However, if the SQ3R reading strategy was implemented together with the guiding mechanism, this combination of guidance and strategy positively and significantly contributed to learners¡¦ reading comprehension. Relevant issues and future research to improve this study was then suggested.