foreign language reading anxiety-4 misconceptions about reading - lee (1999) hypothesized that...
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Foreign Language Reading Anxiety-4
Misconceptions about Reading - Lee (1999) hypothesized that misconceptions about
reading can lead to learner anxiety.
Successful reading equals answering comprehension questions.
Reading is a private act that takes place outside the classroom by an isolated reader.
Reading is a linear process that begins with the first word on the page and proceeds directly to the last word on the page.
Comprehension is an absolute.
Reading strategies-1
Selected Reading Strategies
Identifying the Text Structure
Text structure generally refers to how the ideas in the text are interrelated to convey a message to the reader (Chen,2005). Awareness of text structure is useful in helping readers comprehend texts more easily.
Skimming for the Topic and Main Idea
Skimming is a specific reading technique necessary for quick and efficient reading (Grellet,1981). Skimming is high-speed, purposeful skipping that can save readers lots of time.
Reading strategies-2Scanning for Details
Scanning is looking quickly and selectively through the text for a specific piece of information such as name, date, or number. This skill helps readers skip unimportant words, so that they can read faster (Grellet, 1981; Mikulecky & Jeffries, 1996; Miller & Orozco, 2001; Sotiriou &Phillips, 2000).
Drawing Inferences
Making inferences effectively may bring four primary positive outcomes (Borne et al.,2004)
- leads to better overall comprehension
- leads to more engagement with text
- makes sophisticated reader
- helps reader be metacognitive
Reading strategies-3
Deriving Word Meaning in Context
Smith (1971) argued that the best way to identify an unfamiliar word in a text was to draw inferences from the rest of the text rather than looking it up in the dictionary. Through utilization of contextual information to guess word meaning, the reader’s attention can remain on the text and the possibility of interrupting the reading process, such as looking up words in the dictionary, can be reduced.
Explicit Comprehension Instruction-1
Explicit Explanation
The teacher explains and the class discusses why learning and practicing strategies are important.
Teacher Modeling
Teachers explain the mental reasoning involved in performing various reading tasks. Teacher think-aloud is typically conceived of as an effective form of teacher modeling.
Guided Practice
The teacher first explains how to use the strategy and then gives students more and more independence in practicing and applying the strategy over time.
Explicit Comprehension Instruction-2
Independent Application
As readers accept full responsibility for making sense of the texts, they begin to use these strategies and practices independently.
Explicit Comprehension Instruction-3
MethodologyMethodology
Participants
Instruments
Study Procedures
Data Aanalysis
Participants
Item Content
School Kaohsiung Municipal Senior High School
Grade First-grade
Age The average age of 16
Numbers 84 from 2 classes of equal English proficiency (mean scores of the first monthly exam, t =.383, p > .o5)
Gender Male
Groups Based on the responses to the Chinese version of FLRAS
High-anxiety - 22, mean scores were top 27% (68-88)Low-anxiety - 22, mean scores were bottom 27% (35-55)Mid-anxiety - 40, the rest (56-67)
— Book One of Nan-I Senior High School English Textbook
— Articles in English learning magazines and newspapers
— Drills in exercise books concentrating on training reading skills
— Handouts and worksheets edited according to Duke and Pearson’s (2002) model of explicit comprehension instruction
* Part A — Explanation
* Part B — Modeling
* Part C — Guided practice
* Part D — Independent practice
Materials for Instructing Each Reading Strategy
Instruments-1
— 30 multiple-choice reading questions, with four reading passages from the college entrance examinations (CEE) of the academic year of 94, 95, 96 and 98, five passages from the GEPT Intermediate Level Test, which were published by The Language Training & Testing Center
— The possibility that students might have had access to those test question was excluded
* All the subjects were freshman students. * None of those who had passed the GEPT Intermediate Level Tests (6) had taken exactly the same test questions.
Reading Comprehension Test (RCT)
Instruments-2
— Prior to selecting reading passages for tests, students’ reading ability should be taken into serious account. Therefore, the researcher randomly chose 6 texts from students’ textbook and computed the readability grade level according to Fry’s readability formula ( 1968 )
— The researcher categorized the 30 question items into four types.
* main idea questions * detail questions * inference questions * word-in-context questions
Reading Comprehension Test (RCT)
Instruments-3
— The FLRAS designed by Saito, Horwitz and Garza (1999) was used.
— The Chinese version of the scale, which modified the statements by Huang (2001), was administered to the subjects.
— The FLRAS consisted of 20 items, and each was answered with a five-point Likert-type scale.
* negative statements (5 4 3 2 1) * positive statements, such as item 12, 13, 14, 18 ( 1 2 3 4 5 )
Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS)
Instruments-4
The Questionnaire (QSRERSI)
Instruments-5
five- level agreement scale (21)
。 Students’ acquisition of the instructed strategies ( 1-5 )。 Students’ fondness for the strategy instruction ( 6-7)。 Students’ feedback to teaching method and materials ( 8-13)。 Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategy instruction (14-16) 。 Students’ application of the instructed strategies in tests (17-21)
two open questions
The Questionnaire on Students’ Responses toward the Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction
QSRERSI
。 Students’ comments about the benefits of receiving the strategy instruction
。 Students’ comments the difficulties they encountered in the training process
Study ProceduresPhase 1: Recruiting forty-two students excluded from the experiment to answer the Chinese version of the FLRAS in the pilot study
Phase 2: Revising and adjusting the pilot FLRAS
Phase 3: Asking the eighty-four subjects to take the FLRAS and the RCT
Phase 4: Instructing the five selected reading strategies for 10 weeks
Phase 5: Guiding the subjects to practice the instructed reading strategies in combination for 2 weeks
Phase 6: Encouraging the subjects to apply their strategies in independent reading situations for 3 weeks
Phase 7: Asking the subjects to answer the post-test QSRERSI, answer the FLARS again, and take the RCT again
Phase 8: Collecting, computing, and analyzing the data
SPSS: paired-samples t-test ★ - to see if any significant differences in the subjects’ reading anxiety and reading comprehension were related to the explicit reading strategy instruction
★ paired-samples t-test - to compare students’ pre-test and post-test scores of each question pattern
Data Analysis
★ eta squared statistics - to compare the magnitude of intervention’s effect on (1) students with different levels of reading anxiety (2) the scores of different question pattern
★ frequencies and percentages - to see how the students responded to the explicit reading strategy instruction in the post-test questionnaire e
The qualitative analysis was used to examine the open-ended questions in the questionnaire.
Results & DiscussionsResults & Discussions
Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Comprehension
Students’ Responses to the Strategy Instruction
Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety-1
Limited reading proficiency Item Mean
1. I get upset when I’m not sure whether I understand what I am reading in English.
3.69
3. When I’m reading English, I get so confused I can’t remember what I’m reading
3.25
Lack of sufficient prior knowledge Item Mean
5. I am nervous when I am reading a passage in English when I am not familiar with the topic.
3.21
Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety-2
Unfamiliar linguistic feature Item Mean
6. I get upset whenever I encounter unknown grammar when reading English. (grammar)
3.19
7. When reading English, I get nervous and confused when I don’t understand every word. (vocabulary)
3.52
9. I usually end up translating word by word when I’m reading English. (vocabulary)
3.57
10. By the time you get past the funny letters and symbols in English, it’s hard to remember what you’re reading about. (writing system)
3.40
11. I am worried about all the new symbols I have to learn in order to read English. (writing system)
3.20
Major Causes of EFL Students’ Reading Anxiety-3
Reading experience Item Mean
12. I enjoy reading English. 3.09
13. I feel confident when I am reading English. 3.34
17. I don’t mind reading to myself, but I feel very uncomfortable when I have to read English aloud.
3.08
Low self-efficacy of reading competence Item Mean
18. I am satisfied with the level of reading ability in English that I have achieved so far.
3.92
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-1
Comparisons of the Causes of Reading Anxiety Concerning Limited Reading Proficiency Between Pre-test and Post-test
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-2
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-3
Comparisons of the Cause of Reading Anxiety Concerning Lack of Sufficient Prior Knowledge Between Pre-test and Post-test
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-4
Comparisons of the Causes of Reading Anxiety Concerning Unfamiliar Linguistic Features Between Pre-test and Post-test
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-5
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-6
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-7
Comparisons of the Causes of Reading Anxiety Concerning Reading Experience Between Pre-test and Post-test
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-8
Effects of the Strategy Instruction on Students’ Reading Anxiety-9
Comparisons of the Cause of Reading Anxiety Concerning Low Self-Efficacy of Reading Competence Between the Pre-test and Post-test
The Investigate the Major Causes of My Students’ English Reading Anxiety
Group Item
84 male (senior) 1, 3, 5,6,7, 9,10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18
37 male (senior) 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18
17 female (senior) 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18
29 male (junior) A 1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18
20 female (junior) A 1, 6, 10, 18
33 male (junior) B 1, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13
16 female (junior) B 1, 6, 17, 18
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