Differences of Reading Strategy Use of Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Learners in English Test Type Texts

Transcription

1 Volume 118 No ISSN: (on-line version) url: Differences of Reading Strategy Use of Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Learners in English Test Type Texts Jyun Bang 1 and Hyeseong Ahn 2 1 Busan Metropolitan City Institute for Gifted Education and Promotion, 74, Togok-ro, Yeonje-gu, Busan, 47584, Korea 2 Busan University of Foreign Studies, , Geumsem-ro, Geumjung-gu, Busan, 46234, Korea Abstract The goal of the study was to explore the differences of reading strategy use among beginners, intermediate and advanced learners in English test type texts. In order to complete the goal, 60 university learners participated in the quantitative study and 6 ones took part in the in-depth interviews. Also, the learners read the English test type texts which were used in the TOEIC and TOEFL tests and were asked to report what difficulties and reading strategies they had and used during their reading. The questionnaire data was analyzed by one-way ANOVA and descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analyzed in terms of reading difficulties and reading strategies. The study found that advanced learners tended to use various reading strategies more frequently than beginners and intermediate learners during the reading of the English test type texts. In terms of the interview data, there were similar and different characteristics of reading strategies used among the three groups. Beginners and intermediate learners tended to rely on information processing at word or sentence levels. On the other

2 hand, advanced learners tended to use more reading strategies such as using background knowledge, finding the main idea, planning reading, and looking through the structure of the passage. The study provides educational implications for effective reading in second language classes. Key Words : EFL learners, L2 learners, Reading Difficulties, Reading English Text, Reading Strategy 1 INTRODUCTION READING is one of the most important skills in the second language learning since it is a more basic skill compared to listening, speaking, and writing abilities. Also, reading is necessary to master other linguistic skills such as speaking and writing. Even though reading is one of the primary abilities, many second language learners had difficulties reading in their second language learning because they tended to read the English test type like decoding passwords. For effective reading, learners should use the effective reading strategies. Reading strategy is defined as the comprehension processes that readers use in order to figure out what they read (Brantmeier, 2002). Ways to enhance reading strategies are of great interest in the field of reading research (Lau, 2006; Zare and Mobarakeh, 2011). Thus, many scholars have conducted the quantitative or qualitative studies to examine the strategies which successful second language learners used while they read English texts. Studies on reading strategies used in second or foreign language learning have been increased in ESL and EFL contexts. On the one hand, many studies on reading strategy have been qualified as successful or unsuccessful by readers by asking them what kinds of reading strategies they used the most or least frequently in ESL contexts (Carrell, 1989; Grabe, 1991; Shih, 1992; Shinghal, 2001; Hoang, 2016). On the other hand, there have been a few studies on reading strategy used in EFL and Korean contexts (Lee, 2004; Joh, 2013; Suh, 2013). These studies have drawn out several generalized results. First, successful readers tended to use more reading strategies than unsuccessful readers. In the similar vein, higher pro-

3 ficient readers used more reading strategies on comprehension tests (Suh, 2013). Also, it was found that successful learners tended to use top-down processes more frequently while low level learners used bottom-up processes more frequently than others (Carrell, 1989; Suh, 2013; Hoang, 2016). These previous studies on the reading strategy use have explored the effectiveness of reading strategy instruction on reading ability, the effectiveness of explicit English reading strategy instructions on the positive improvement of learners abilities (Song, 1999; Kim, 2006), and strategy use pattern of learners in English texts (Chang, 2012; Maeng, 2014). Moreover, most of the previous studies of reading strategy use have been conducted in quantitative or qualitative manners. However, there have been few attempts to examine the way in which Korean readers at all three levels, beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners, comprehended English test type texts, while applying their own reading strategies. Also, few studies on reading strategy use in the Korean contexts have been carried out in quantitative and qualitative ways. In order to find the nature of a learners reading strategy, it is necessary to explore how Korean beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners understand the English test type texts in terms of reading strategy use. This study aimed at finding out (1) while beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners read passages, what kinds of difficulties do they have? (2) What kinds of reading strategies do they use to overcome these difficulties? 2 RESEARCH METHODS A. Participants The participants of the study (ages ranged from 21 to 26, Mean =23.2) were 60 Korean EFL learners (Male=31, Female=29) for the questionnaire. All of them were university students, taking a course in English for academic purposes, which aimed at improving student s reading comprehension in TOEIC. The participants were from different departments such as Business Administration, Chinese, EU Area Studies, Hindi, International Trade, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. They studied English for at least 10

4 years before they were admitted into a university. For this study, they were divided into beginners, intermediate and advanced groups based on their TOEIC score (Beginner=12, Intermediate=30, Advanced=18). As shown in <Table 1>, among the 60 students, six participants (Male=3, Female=3) were chosen as a focus group for in-depth interviews. Two students were selected from each group. The personal information was in Table 1. B. Procedure and Date Analysis The study had been conducted from March 20, 2017 to July 20, The pre-test was taken to assess participants levels for 50 minutes on February 21st, The test consisted of two passages taken from the TOEIC and TOEFL test type texts and 10 multiple-choice questions in total. Right after the completion of the pre-test, the participants were asked to complete the questionnaire on March 3rd, The questionnaire was made and revised for the participants in this study based on an interview guide for reading strategies (Hosenfeld et al., 1981). There were 30 items used on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1(Never), 3(Sometimes) and 5 (Always). Third, the in-depth interviews had been carried out for

5 the participants in the focus group twice. Interviews lasted about 60 minutes and used the English Passage. The questions for the interviews were as follows: (1) How did they read the English texts? (2) What kinds of difficulties did they have during their reading? How did they overcome the difficulties? (3) Did they have any difficulties with unknown words? How did they manage the unknown words? (4) Did they have any difficulties with understanding the sentence structures? How did they manage the difficulties with sentence structures? (5) Did they have any difficulties with understanding the meanings of sentences, despite familiarity with the words or sentences used? (6) How did they manage the sentences that were unclear, as in the above cases? The think-aloud protocol was utilized to get the detailed reading strategy used while reading since it was useful to obtain in-depth information from students (Anderson, 1991). It was conducted in Korean because it was essential for participants to express themselves thoroughly. In order to analyze the differences in the reading processes and reading strategies by groups based on the quantitative data, a series of oneway ANOVA and descriptive analysis were mainly used. Also, the interview data were audio-taped and transcribed. All transcribed data were read by the researchers line by line and coding was used to categorize the recurring themes related to reading processes and reading strategies which the participants used during their reading. 3 RESULTS AND FINDINGS C. Differences in Reading Strategy Use among Three Groups in Quantitative Data The reading strategies among three groups were analyzed by one-way ANOVA to examine the differences in reading strategy use among three groups while they read English texts. The results were as follows.

6 Table Using background knowledge, 2. Rereading the difficult parts, 3. Skimming, 4. Scanning, 5. chunking, 6. Rereading word by word, 7. Making predictions, 8. Guessing the genre, 9.

7 Inferencing, 10. Evaluating and correcting misunderstanding, 11. Integrating information, 12. Analyzing paragraph structures, 13. Analyzing sentence structures, 14. Looking for connecting words, 15. Inferencing the meaning of unknown words, 16. Paraphrasing, 17. Understanding authors intention, 18. Translating a word or phrase into L1, 19. Skipping unknown words, 20. Analyzing the sentence back and forth, 21. Analyzing the grammatical category of words, 22. Reading the title, 23. Keep reading without understanding, 24. Looking for the sentences which have similar meaning, 25. Analyzing word meaning, 26. Analyzing paragraph meaning rather than word meaning, 27. Using visual aids, 28. Skipping unimportant words, 29. Using the evidence, 30. Looking backward from time to time. As Table 2 showed, there were differences in beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners reading strategy use. First of all, there were the statistically significant differences of many reading strategies such as using background knowledge (F=12.957, Sig=.000), re-reading difficult parts (F=4.915, Sig=.011), scanning (F=3.998, Sig=.024), making prediction (F=6.404, Sig=.003), guessing the genre (F=5.700, Sig=.006), inferencing (F=17.902, Sig=.000), evaluating and correcting misunderstanding (F=10.851, Sig=.000), integrating information (F=2.585, Sig=.034), analyzing paragraph (F=5.809, Sig=.0005), analyzing sentence structures (F=6.567, Sig=.003), paraphrasing (F=4.210, Sig=.020) skipping unknown words (F=5.700, Sig=.006), reading the title (F=7.720, Sig=.001), looking for the sentences which have similar meaning (F=9.391, Sig=.000), using visual aids (F=3.876, Sig=.026) and looking backward from time to time (F=6.369, Sig=.003). The reading strategies such as using background knowledge of the topic (M=4.11, SD=1,410), rereading the difficult parts (M=4.56, SD=1.294), scanning (M=4.56, SD=.856), making prediction (M=4.33, SD=.970), guessing the genre (M=4.11, SD=1.410), inferencing (M=4.33, SD=.970), evaluating and correcting misunderstanding (M=3.44, SD=1.617), integrating information (M=3.44, SD=1.294), analyzing paragraph structure (M=4.11, SD=1.410), analyzing sentence structure (M=4.11, SD

8 =1,410), paraphrasing (M=3.67, SD=1.372), reading the title (M=4.78, SD=.647), using visual aids (M=4.11, SD=1.023) were used by advanced learners the most. Also, the strategies looking for the sentences which have the similar meaning (M=3.80, SD=1.243) and looking backward from time to time (M=2.73, SD=1.461) were utilized intermediate learners more frequently than beginners and advanced learners. Lastly, a strategy, skipping unknown words (M=5.00, SD=.000) was used by beginners the most. However, there is no statistically difference of reading strategies like skimming (F=3.09, Sig=.054), chunking (F=1.57, Sig=.215), reading word by word (F=1.35, Sig=.265), looking for connecting word (F=6.95, Sig=.002), inferencing the meaning of the unknown words (F=1.38, Sig=.259), understanding authors intention (F=.95, Sig=.391), translating a word or a phrase into L1 (F=2.38, Sig=.101), analyzing the sentence (F=1.36, Sig=.264), keep reading without understanding (F=.15, Sig=.860), analyzing word meaning (F=.89, Sig=.413), analyzing paragraph meaning rather than word meaning (F=2.42, Sig =.097), skipping unimportant words (F=1.15, Sig=.323), and using the evidence (F=2.41, Sig=.098). The reading strategies which advanced learners used the most were skimming (M=3.89, SD=1.02), looking for the connecting words (M=4.33, SD=1.37), inferencing the meaning of unknown words (M=4.33, SD=.97), understanding author s intention (M=3.67, SD=.97), translating a word or a phrase into L1 (M=4.56, SD=.85), analyzing the sentence (M=4.33, SD=.97), analyzing the grammatical category of words (M=3.67, SD=1.68), analyzing word meaning (M=3.00, SD=1.68), analyzing paragraph meaning rather than word meaning (M=4.33, SD=.97), and using the evidence (M=4.11, SD=1.02). The strategies which intermediate learners utilized more frequently than others were chunking (M=4.20, SD=1.21) and keeping reading without understanding (M=4.47, SD=.09). The strategy such as reading word by word (M=3.33, SD=1.43) was employed by beginners the most.

9 D. Differences in Reading Strategy Use among Three Groups in Qualitative Data Data from the participants interviews were transcribed and coded in order to elucidate recurring themes related to reading strategies which beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners used while reading the English test type texts. The reading strategies which the learners employed during the reading English testtexts were as follows.

10 As shown in Table 3, beginners tended to read the passage first and read the question. When beginners faced words they understood in the passage, they circled or underlined them. In order to infer the meaning of the unknown word(s), they utilized words they understand from the example questions, the similar words which were in the passage and the questions, words which they already knew from time to time, and prefixes or suffixes. At first, I thought I learned the word deaf when I prepared for the Korean SAT. However, I misunderstood the word because I confused deaf for deep. I tried to get the meaning of the word by using the meaning of deep. But I failed. I did not know the word, deaf. I found the word sign language. (An excerpt from the interview with a beginner) Unfortunately, beginners did not have enough knowledge about English grammar. They could not find the subject or the verb in the sentence, especially, in complex sentences. In order to overcome

11 these difficulties, they tended to ignore the sentence or put the slash before that-clause, comma, and prepositions. I just put the slash without any ideas about (English grammar). I just put the slash before the relative pronoun that, before comma, and before the prepositions. I am not sure what kinds of prepositions there are. I just put the slash before the prepositions that I knew. (An excerpt from the interview with a beginner) Beginners were likely to find the main topics by realizing the type of the passages, the title of the passage or the words which were above the passages or words in the passage. They had a tendency to read the first sentence very carefully because they thought the first sentence were likely to be the main topic of the passage. Even though they could interpret the individual parts of the sentence such as subjects and verbs, they had difficulties integrating them to figure out the meaning of the whole sentence. They guessed the meaning of the whole sentence by using several words in the sentence they could just figure out. Finally, beginners tended to read the parts and before or after the parts including the same word which were used in the passages and in the question. I tried to find the words which were similar to in the example of the question in the passage. I checked whether or not similar words in the example were in the paragraph. If I read the examples roughly and found the word, Japanese, I thought that the paragraph was about Japan. Then, I just could see the words Tokyo and Japan in the example to answer the question. (An excerpt from the interview with a beginner) Biginners compared these parts with the question to find the answer. They tried to find the same words that were represented in the passage repeatedly or the words which were similar to the words in the passage. Intermediate learners had limited knowledge about English vocabulary and English grammar. They had difficulties translating

12 the sentence even though they could understand the structure of the sentence because they had some unknown words in the sentences. In order to infer the meanings of the unknown words, they re-read the sentences, before or after the sentences including the unknown words. They used the grammatical components such as conjunctions and the main verbs, various different meanings of the words, and the words they already knew. Intermediate learners also did not have enough understanding of the English grammar. They could understand the structure of the sentences by counting the number of the subjects, the verbs and the conjunctions, like that. I practiced it many times. I practiced finding subjects, verbs, and conjunctions. Based on the number of the conjunctions, I found the number of the verbs. I practiced a lot. I checked how many conjunctions or verbs there are depending on the number of the conjunctions. (An excerpt from the interview with an intermediate learner) However, they still had difficulties finding subjects and verbs in the complex sentences. Furthermore, intermediate learners attempted to find out the main topic of the passage at first and read the whole passage roughly circling or underlining the important parts. After reading, they read before or after the parts which they circled or underlined again. They used the type of the passage or the title of the passage to decide which parts were important or not because they thought that the type of the passage could be background knowledge to figure out what the passage said about. They circled prepositions, whether or and proper nouns because they thought that they (preposition, whether or and proper nouns) were important. Then they read the passage through focusing on the parts they circled. Interestingly, they skipped the sentences which they could not interpret. They never read the part which they had difficulties understanding again. When they encountered the sentences they could not figure out, they tried to interpret the sentence from the end of the sentence to the beginning of the sentence.

13 I skipped over the parts in the sentence which I could not translate. At that time, I gave up making sense of the sentence. I jumped into the next sentence. I did not translate and read the whole sentence. I started reading the next sentence immediately. (An excerpt from the interview with an intermediate learner) They interpreted the sentence from the beginning of the sentence again. The reason why they thought this was because the word order in Koran was different from that in English. Therefore, they could interpret the sentence naturally if they translated it from the end of the sentence. When they encountered the unknown words, advanced learners attempted to think whether or not the words were in important parts. If the words were in the unimportant sentences, they were inclined to skip to infer the meanings of the words. If the words were in the sentences including the important information, they utilized various strategies such as using the sentences before or after the sentences including the unknown words or using the meaning of another word in the same sentence to infer the meaning of the words. When I came across an unknown word which was in the sentence including important information, I tried to get it. When I thought that it was not important, I just skipped it. When I faced the words which I didn t know, I tried to get the meaning of the word in different ways. I read the sentence before and after the word and found the main idea of the passages...and then I tried to get the meaning of the word, little by little... I could have the meaning... (An excerpt from the interview with an advanced learner) Also, advanced learners did not analyze or chunk the sentences because they had enough knowledge about the English grammar and they could understand what the passage said and they thought the sentences were not complex.

14 I did not need to put the slash in the sentence because I could understand the whole passage. Even though I faced many unknown words, I could understand them because the sentences were not complex and I could understand it using my background knowledge and I could infer the meaning easily. Thus, I did not chunk the sentence or put the slash in the sentence. (An excerpt from the interview with an advanced learner) However, they often circled or put star mark on the conjunctions to understand the flow of the passage. More interestingly, they read the passages focusing on verbs, nouns, or conjunctions because they thought that adjectives and adverbs were not important when they read the sentences. Further, advanced learners read circling the part of the main topic to find it easily after reading the passage. In order to find the main ideas, they used the structure of the passage and the title of the passage, and read the first sentence or the last sentence of the passage with care. They attempted to find out the author s intentions or keywords because they thought that they could infer the meanings of the sentences which they had difficulties figuring out by using the intentions and the key words. When the authors wrote the paragraph, she or he chose one main topic and tended to describe the whole passage focusing on the main topic like telling a story. The keyword which the authors would like to describe in the paragraph was grammar. I think that the author told us a story about the grammar. I felt. (An excerpt from the interview with an advanced learner) They read through the whole passage many times when they had difficulties figuring out the flow of the passages or the contents of the passage. Interestingly, they skipped the sentences which included unimportant information. Finally, they used background knowledge to infer the meaning of the sentence. Finally, advanced learners tended to read the questions before reading the passage because they could figure out what they should read carefully. They read the whole passage through from time to time when they encountered the inferential questions. They read the sentences before or after the key sentence including the main idea or information

15 or to figure out or find the main topic because they thought that these sentences included the main idea of the passage. Finally, they underlined the important words or phrases of the questions to find out the answers quickly. 4 CONCLUSION The purpose of this study was to examine the similarities and differences in reading strategy used among beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners during their reading of English test type texts. As a result, the synthesized findings of the participant s pattern of reading strategy use reveal a common characteristic. Three groups used the title or the type of the paragraph to find the meaning of the passage. Also, they circled or underlined the words, phrases, and sentences which were important, they thought. However, beginners and intermediates circled and underlined words or phrases primarily. On the other hand, advanced learners did the sentences including the main topics. It was noticeable that three groups relied on different reading strategies. Advanced learners in this study seemed to use more reading strategies and use a greater variety of them than beginners and intermediate learners because English proficiency might be responsible for advanced learners frequency of reading strategies. Many researchers demonstrated that less proficient learners appeared to rely more on information processing at the sentence level or the word level. In the same vein, the finding of this study did support this idea that beginners and intermediate learners frequently focus on word-centered strategies like using prefixed or suffixed to infer the meaning of the unknown words, the words which they already knew, using grammatical components to find the meanings of the unknown words and analyzing the words or the sentences, utilizing repeatedly represented words to find the main ideas due to their limited knowledge about the English vocabulary and grammar. Beginners and intermediate learners in this study attempted to translated the sentences which they had difficulties figuring out from the end of the sentences.

16 Advanced learner in this study skipped to infer the meanings of the unknown words which were not important. Interestingly, intermediate learners tended to skip the words or the sentences which they had difficulties understanding or translating the sentences which is not relevant to the managing time allocation. Additionally, Advanced learners browsed the whole passage, read the first and the last sentence, thought about the main idea, and used the background knowledge for their better understanding. Also, they found the clues to the meanings of the unknown words from the context. Further, re-reading the sentence was the different reading strategy between proficient learners and less proficient learners to find the answer. Intermediate and advanced learners in this study tended to read the sentences which were related to the question, especially inferential question many times until They found the answer. Teachers and learners should identify what reading strategies are needed for reading English test type texts effectively. Even though teachers know learners individual differences, they might fail to apply the differences to the actual L2 teaching. Thus, they should recognize their learners individual differences through self-reports which helps learners enhance their reading abilities. In order to do so, teachers should appropriate instructions with learners depending on their prepare. For advanced learners, teachers should give them more opportunities to realize their own reading strategies which they already utilized and to use them more. Also, teachers should give intermediate learners appropriate instructions to practice the reading strategies. Finally, teachers should help beginners the chances not only to prepare English grammar but also to expand their English vocabulary. References [1] Anderson, N. J., 1991, Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing. The Modern Language Journal, 75(4):

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