Reading for different goals: the interplay of EFL college students' multiple goals,reading strategy use and reading comprehension

This study explored the effects of achievement goals on English as a foreign language (EFL) college students' reading strategy use and reading comprehension from the perspective of multiple goals. Fifty‐seven participants verbalised their thoughts while reading an English expository essay. They also completed assessments on their reading goal profiles and reading proficiency. The results of stimulated recall indicated that participants with profiles characterised by strong mastery and strong performance goals used intra‐sentential, inter‐paragraph, intra‐paragraph and monitoring/evaluating strategies significantly more frequently than did their counterparts. In contrast, participants with profiles characterised by strong mastery but weak performance goals utilised these strategies more often than those participants with weak mastery but strong performance goals. The strong‐mastery–strong‐performance goal profile served as a significant, positive predictor for degrees of reading comprehension. In line with these findings, suggestions for EFL reading pedagogy are provided.     

Measuring college students' reading comprehension ability using cloze tests

Recent investigations challenge the construct validity of sustained silent reading tests. Performance of two groups of post‐secondary students (e.g. struggling and non‐struggling) on a sustained silent reading test and two types of cloze test (i.e. maze and open‐ended) was compared in order to identify the test format that contributes greater variance in reading comprehension. One hundred participants were recruited from students enrolled in a preparatory course for a high‐stakes statewide reading examination. Our results suggest that all three measures have good concurrent validity. There was no evidence that open‐ended cloze performance was more related to verbal ability than any other reading measure. Maze performance did the best job at discriminating between our struggling and non‐struggling readers. Implications for reading comprehension assessment in post secondary‐aged adults are discussed.     

Deaf college students' comprehension of relational language in arithmetic compare problems

In this study of deaf college students' performance solving compare word problems, relational statements were either consistent or inconsistent with the arithmetic operation required for the solutions. The results support the consistency hypothesis Lewis and Mayer (1987) proposed based on research with hearing students. That is, deaf students were more likely to miscomprehend a relational statement and commit a reversal error when the required arithmetic operation was inconsistent with the statement's relational term (e.g., having to add when the relational term was less than). Also, the reversal error effect with inconsistent word problems was magnified when the relational statement was a marked term (e.g., a negative adjective such as less than) rather than an unmarked term (e.g., a positive adjective such as more than). Reading ability levels of deaf students influenced their performance in a number of ways. As predicted, there was a decrease in goal-monitoring errors, multiple errors, and the number of problems left blank as the reading levels of students increased. Contrary to expectations, higher reading skills did not affect the frequency of reversal errors.     

Improving students' reading comprehension skills: Effects of strategy instruction and reciprocal teaching

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three different forms of strategy instruction on 210 elementary-school students' reading comprehension. Students were assigned to any one of three intervention conditions or to a traditional instruction condition (control condition). Training students were taught four reading strategies (summarizing, questioning, clarifying, predicting) and practiced these strategies in small groups (reciprocal teaching), pairs, or instructor-guided small groups. At both the post- and follow-up test the intervention students attained higher scores on an experimenter-developed task of reading comprehension and strategy use than the control students who received traditional instruction. Furthermore, students who practiced reciprocal teaching in small groups outperformed students in instructor-guided and traditional instruction groups on a standardized reading comprehension test.     

Goal orientation and reading comprehension strategy use among students with and without reading difficulties

Our aim in this paper was to provide an analysis of goal orientation parameters with respect to reading comprehension strategy use for students with and without reading difficulties (RD). Non-RD students appeared to be more mastery oriented and less performance avoidant compared to RD ones. Also, non-RD students used, more, deeper, more sophisticated and complex ones compared to those of RD students (who used fewer and more surface strategies). Non-RD children appeared to metacognitively monitor their comprehension process while their RD classmates were either ignorant of the existing comprehension problems or bridged meaning gaps in inappropriate ways.     

Deaf college students' perspectives on literacy portfolios

The study examined how literacy portfolios were used as tools in a college developmental English class in which deaf students assessed their reading comprehension as well as their writing processes and products. The students' reading and writing assignments involved reflective thinking and were grounded in authentic tasks. Immediate feedback was provided. The study was multidimensional, longitudinal, and ongoing. A variety of field research techniques were used to ascertain the uses and influences of portfolios in regard to students' reading, writing, and reflective thinking. The results support the idea that the use of literacy portfolios can positively influence students who are deaf when they assess their reading and writing abilities.     

Structures of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy use for reading comprehension of geometry proof

In this study, we explored the structural relationship between the students’ perceived use of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies (CMRS) and their reading comprehension of geometry proof (RCGP), and we also examined the differences in students’ perceived use of reading strategies among the poor, moderate and good comprehenders. A sample of ninth graders (N = 533) completed a RCGP test and then the CMRS questionnaire. In the exploratory factor analysis with one subsample (n = 150), principal component analysis was used to extract factors of CMRS use for improving the CMRS instrument. Another subsample of students (n = 370) participated in the study on the confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modelling method. Results revealed that the use of metacognitive reading strategies exerts an executive function over that of cognitive reading strategies, which directly influenced students’ RCGP. Our interesting findings were that good comprehenders tended to employ more metacognitive reading strategies for planning and monitoring comprehension and more cognitive reading strategies for elaborating proof compared with the moderate comprehenders, who in turn employed these strategies more often compared with the poor comprehenders.     

Deaf college students' mathematical skills relative to morphological knowledge, reading level, and language proficiency

This study of deaf college students examined specific relationships between their mathematics performance and their assessed skills in reading, language, and English morphology. Simple regression analyses showed that deaf college students' language proficiency scores, reading grade level, and morphological knowledge regarding word segmentation and meaning were all significantly correlated with both the ACT Mathematics Subtest and National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) Mathematics Placement Test scores. Multiple regression analyses identified the best combination from among these potential independent predictors of students' performance on both the ACT and NTID mathematics tests. Additionally, the participating deaf students' grades in their college mathematics courses were significantly and positively associated with their reading grade level and their knowledge of morphological components of words.     

The influence of topic knowledge,external strategy use,and college experience on students' comprehension of controversial texts

This study examined the influence of three personal factors, namely, prior knowledge about the text topic, external strategy use during reading, and experience in college, on students' comprehension of the relations among controversial texts. Eighty-six 1-year and 80 3-year undergraduate students answered a questionnaire assessing topic knowledge. One week later, they read two controversial texts and then completed two tasks assessing their comprehension of intertextual relations and recall of intratextual arguments respectively. The results indicated that topic knowledge influenced the comprehension of intertextual relations through enhancing the processing of intratextual arguments. The production of summary notes during reading had indirect and direct positive effects. Longer experience in college led to a better understanding of intertextual relations.     

昌吉学院非英语专业少数民族大学生元认知策略使用情况调查

本研究通过对昌吉学院非英语专业少数民族大学生元认知策略使用情况的调查,分析了学生元认知策略的总体及各个构成因素的使用情况及大学英语四级成绩优、中、差学生在元认知策略总体及各个构成因素上存在的差异和男女学习者在使用元认知策略存在的差异。结果表明,民族大学生使用元认知策略的频率偏低;成绩优良的学生对元认知策略的使用明显大于成绩差的学生,且差异显著;不同性别的学生使用元认知策略的频率和方式也有所不同,但在元认知策略的使用上不存在显著性差异。     

Deaf college students' perceptions of their social-emotional adjustment

This study examined differences between deaf and hearing students' perceptions of their social emotional adjustment as they transition to college. The 16PF-Adolescent Personality Questionnaire Life Difficulties Scale was completed by 205 deaf students and 185 hearing students. A multivariate analyses of variance and subsequent univariate tests found that deaf students rated themselves as experiencing significantly higher home life difficulties than hearing students, and deaf students rated themselves as having fewer coping difficulties than hearing students. Results also revealed a hearing status by gender interaction with deaf females rating themselves significantly higher on worry than deaf males, hearing females, and hearing males. An exploratory factor analysis of the Life Difficulties subscales yielded three factors of life difficulties for deaf college students but only two factors for hearing college students. These findings suggest that there are differences between deaf and hearing students who are transitioning to college with regards to their social-emotional adjustment.     

浅谈如何提高学生的英语阅读理解能力

提高英语阅读理解能力,必须掌握足够的词汇量和正确的阅读技巧和方法。本文从词汇、理解技巧及阅读方法三个方面阐述了提高英语阅读理解能力的方法。     

教育信息化背景下元认知策略培训对大学英语听力学习的影响

随着中国计算机网络辅助外语学习条件的普及,大学英语听力学习不再局限于课堂变得更具开放性。笔者提倡在大学英语听力学习中向学生推广元认知的学习策略,改进学生大学英语听力学习的自觉醒和主动性,给英语听力学习提供动力,促使学生由被动学习转向自主学习。     

Deaf college students' perceptions of communication in mainstream classes

Fifty deaf and hard-of-hearing students who were mainstreamed in postsecondary classes rated their classroom communication ease with hearing instructors, hearing peers, and deaf peers. A subgroup of these students participated in an in-depth interview that focused on perceptions of communication ease, support services, and attitudes of teachers and students toward deaf students in mainstreamed classes. Quantitative analyses indicated that students more comfortable in using speech in this setting reported being able to receive and send a greater amount and a higher quality of information than did students who were less comfortable in using speech. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that students varied considerably in their communication with hearing peers and professors, in their relations with deaf peers, and in their concerns about access. It is a challenge for interpreting and other support services to serve these various needs, especially when it is not unusual for these variations to occur in the same classroom.     

Classical Chinese reading instruction: Current practices and their relationship with students' strategy use and reading motivation

The study examined current practices in Classical Chinese (CC) reading instruction in Hong Kong and the relationship between different instructional practices and students' strategy use and motivation in CC reading. A total of 519 secondary students voluntarily responded to a questionnaire that measured their perception of CC reading instruction, strategy use, and motivation. The findings indicate while teachers frequently teach both the language and content aspects of CC reading, the teacher-centered approach they are now adopting is ineffective in facilitating students' CC reading development. Relations between different instructional approaches and students’ strategy use and motivation in CC reading are discussed.     

大学英语阅读教学与语篇分析

阅读理解是一种复杂的语言与思维的相互作用过程，理解的层次涉及到语言知识、非语言知识和阅读技能等方面的知识和能力。本文主要从微观结构分析、宏观结构分析和文化背景知识的学习等三个方面论述了教学中如何运用语篇分析提高阅读理解能力的方法和技巧。     

阅读策略培训对学生阅读理解能力影响的元分析

国内外有关阅读策略培训对学生阅读理解能力影响的研究众多,但研究结果不尽相同。本研究以Comprehensive Meta-analysis V2软件为工具对国内外27项此类研究进行了元分析。研究结果如下:1)阅读策略培训对学生阅读理解能力影响的总效应值为0.816,达到大效应值;2)可能存在多种因素共同作用影响阅读策略培训对学生阅读理解能力影响的效果;3)语言环境和培训的策略类别对研究结果无显著影响,而实验周期和阅读理解能力测试方式对研究结果具有显著影响。     

Effects of self-questioning training on college students' comprehension of lectures

Previous research has shown that self-questioning is an effective strategy for improving reading comprehension. The present study extended this line of research by investigating the use of self-questioning strategies with orally presented material. The study examined the relative effectiveness of four learning strategies on college students' comprehension of lectures and on their feelings of control over their success in learning. The four strategy conditions were self-and peer-questioning in small cooperative groups, independent self-questioning, review in small cooperative groups, and independent review. Students in the self-questioning conditions were trained to use a self-questioning procedure to process information presented in lecture. Results indicated that both of the self-questioning strategies significantly improved lecture comprehension over time. Significant differences were also found among the strategies with the self/peer questioners as well as the self-questioners showing post-treatment comprehension superior to that of participants using either of the review strategies. No significant change was found for students' feelings of control. These results suggest that practice in this self-questioning information-processing procedure can effectively improve college students' comprehension of lectures.     

大学生英语阅读能力的培养研究

英语阅读有其重要的意义,学生需要克服不良的阅读习惯,掌握一定的阅读方法和技巧才能提高阅读能力。本文基于以上内容作了较详细的介绍。     

Relationships between different instructional approaches and students' Classical Chinese reading comprehension and motivation

Previous studies comparing teacher‐centred (TC) and learner‐centred (LC) instruction have presented a mixed picture of the effectiveness of these two instructional approaches. By examining the effectiveness of different types of instruction on students' Classical Chinese (CC) reading comprehension and motivation, this study aims to contribute to instructional research by elucidating the positive and negative aspects of TC and LC instruction when they are applied in the context of teaching CC reading. A total of 454 Secondary 4 students between the ages of 15 and 17 years agreed to participate in this study on a voluntary basis. They completed a CC reading comprehension test and a questionnaire that measured their CC reading motivation and perceived CC reading instruction. Relationships between students' perceived CC reading instruction, reading motivation and reading comprehension were examined by correlation and path analyses. The findings of the correlation analyses indicated that traditional TC instruction positively and significantly correlated with students' CC reading performance and extrinsic motivation. Motivating tasks, one type of LC instruction, positively and significantly correlated with all types of motivation but did not significantly correlate with CC reading performance. In the path analysis, TC instruction exhibited a significant positive effect on reading comprehension, whereas motivating tasks continued to exhibit a significant positive effect on intrinsic motivation after the effect of the examined schools' achievement level was controlled for. The findings highlight the essential role of teachers in instructing students who are weak in particular subjects. Instead of viewing TC and LC instruction as two contradictory approaches, the findings indicate that a combined approach of TC and LC instruction can more effectively facilitate students' learning in a difficult school subject.