Does reading strategy instruction improve students’ comprehension?

  • Christianah Oluwatoyin Oyetunji
Keywords: reading strategy, reading strategy intervention, explicit instruction, L2 reading comprehension

Abstract

This paper describes the effect of reading strategy instruction on Second Language (L2) students’ reading comprehension in a Botswana College of Education. The intervention programme was implemented based on the observation that some trainee teachers failed to improve on their L2 proficiency after spending a year in the L2 classroom. Prior to the intervention, difficulty in reading and comprehending had been identified as one of the contributing factors to their failure to improve on their proficiency level. A reading comprehension test was used to collect data from participants who were trainee teachers at a College of Education in Botswana before and after the intervention. The six-week intervention programme focused on seven reading strategies, namely the use of background knowledge, self-questioning, inferencing, rereading, drawing conclusions, identifying main ideas and summarising. The findings suggest that strategy training can increase L2 students’ reading comprehension. Based on the findings, it is recommended that strategy training be introduced into the L2 syllabus of the primary school teacher trainees in all Botswana Colleges of Education.

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Author Biography

Christianah Oluwatoyin Oyetunji
Christianah Oyetunji [B.Ed. (Lang. Arts); B.A., M.A. (Applied Linguistics); M.Ed.., D.Ed. (Educ. Management]. Christianah taught for many years at secondary and tertiary levels in different countries. She is currently a lecturer at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Gaborone, Botswana. Her hobbies include reading and fashion design.E-mail address:  ctoyetunji@yahoo.co.uk
Published
2013-12-14
Section
Articles