Under the strong effects of Rubin’s work of investigating features of good learners in order to help poor learners, a myriad of research has been conducted with this paradigm in order to demystify factors that help good learners succeed in second language learning and then apply the factors to boost poor learners’ performance. Following this theme, a number of research into good readers has been conducted in order to help poor readers to achieve better comprehension.
Findings from the research weaved in this theme have offer light into factors that help boosting reading comprehension.
It is inevitable that learners encounter language tasks in their second language learning.
Wong and Nunan (2011) argued that at least a single strategy lies in every single task even though learners are not aware of this. The significant difference is that good learners are aware of
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the strategies needed in a task and know how to orchestrate the strategies to achieve the goals of the task while poor learners seem to have great difficulties in doing that.
There is a consensus that good readers are better at using strategies than poor readers.
One possible explanation is that good readers are clear about what to do to overcome the challenges occurring during their reading process (Anderson, 2003). Thus, they know what strategies to employ in order to reach the meaning of the text. Indeed, there is abundant evidence that strategies possess a strong relationship with reading comprehension. According to Chamot (2004), there has been a much more apparent relationship between language learning strategies and students’ proficiency. In a similar vein, Lai (2009) from his study conducted in Taiwan concluded that students’ level is related to the use of leaning strategies. He claimed that the students’ proficiency level well match with particular kinds of strategies.
Klinger, Vaughn and Boardman (2007, p. 4) pointed out specific strategies used by good readers as mentioned below:
the ability to read quickly and correctly
establishing what to achieve before reading
pay attention to the layout of the text
checking their progress constantly during the reading process.
visualize notes and summaries in their mind
predict, monitor their predictions, and self-evaluate them
highlight the main points of a reading text and bring them into their learning
draw inferences from the text
using their visualization to better their performance
With the good use of the strategies mentioned above, good readers can bridge the cohesion gaps easier compared with their counterparts in reading. In contrast, poor readers tend to lack motivation, metacognitive strategies, vocabulary, and pre-knowledge of the topics. In addition, they are likely to process the input given in an ineffective way. All of these factors are bound to create blockages in the way to a full reading comprehension. Anderson (2003) mentioned that strategies are one of the four main factors of reading comprehension. Hence, identifying specific strategies can help poor readers to catch up with good readers. However, the coexistence of many strategies during reading process can challenge researchers’ efforts in
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isolating the specific strategies that make great contribution to reading comprehension. Hence, it is safe to conclude that different kinds of strategies may have different degrees of impact on students’ reading proficiency.
Ghafounia (2014) shared one similar insight that learning strategies can smooth students’
reading comprehension. Hence, it is essential to recognize the impacts of specific strategies on students’ reading comprehension. Meanwhile, Graham (1997) concluded that the main strategies which are employed by effective students are metacognitive strategies. This finding concurs with Cohen’ (2011) conclusion that learners may use different kinds of strategies to help them comprehend the text but metacognitive strategies are the most effective ones. Apart from the kind of strategies favored by the good readers, Agor (2014) confirmed that good readers are able to make good choice of strategies compared to poor readers. This is true as high-performance readers are aware of which strategies to use and then able to make wise choice to comprehend the text.
Good readers take control of their reading and manage to reach the comprehensions of what they are reading ( Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). The relationship between specific kinds of strategies and reading comprehension has been examined in a large number of research.
Abdelrahman and Bsharah (2014) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between speed reading strategies (i.e, skimming and scanning) and students' reading comprehension. The results of the research indicated that students who employ those strategies are likely to outperform in reading. Another interesting finding is that the choice of strategies can significantly affect reading comprehension. Effective readers use specific strategies such as double-check monitoring, comprehension monitoring, problems identifying, and substituting, resourcing and interpreting to comprehend the text (Graham, 1997). In addition, good readers are likely to make wise choice of new words that help them comprehend the text.
Lai (2009) carried out a study with the participation of 418 EFL students in Taiwan to investigate the relationship between learning strategies and their patterns under the effects of students' levels. Findings from his research highlighted that high proficiency students show a high frequency of using cognitive and metacognitive strategies while low proficiency students use more social and memory strategies. Another significant finding is that planning and monitoring are frequently used by more proficient learners. Lai’s study suggested that good readers have a high preference of using specific strategies to help them bridge cohesion gaps.
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Likewise, findings from Ghafournia’s study with the participation of 307 Iranian EFL students indicated that there is a significant relationship between reading ability and the frequency of strategy use (Ghafournia, 2014). The researcher concluded that as students’ comprehension is improved, they then show a higher frequency of using learning strategies to boost their performance in reading. However, Ghafournia argued that the relationship between students' proficiency and strategy use is not 'linear" (p. 64). Hence, more research should be conducted to consolidate this finding.
Another theme which is carefully examined by a number of researchers is the correlation between the frequency of strategy use and students’ performance. In general, high frequency of using specific strategies which leads to greater performance in second language learning can be found in such studies. The study conducted by Harris (2004, as cited in Chamot, 2008) revealed that good language learners have a higher frequency of using metacognitive strategies than low performance learners. As for the context of strategy use, Liynaga (2012) argued that students tend to show a higher frequency of using strategies in the contexts outside the classroom.
Perhaps, this is could be explained by the fact that students have more time for their reading than the limited time resources in the context. Thus, they have greater chance to select, monitor, evaluate, and revise the strategies to achieve their goals of reading. Zare-ee (2007) argued that strategy serves as one of the prominent factors that lead to success. Especially, it can be noted that the ways readers use strategy significantly affects the reading comprehension. The study conducted by Zare-ee (2007) revealed that successful and unsuccessful readers differ in the frequency of strategy use. In other words, successful readers showed high frequency in terms of strategy use which leads to their success in reading performance.
Another issue which is worth considerations is what actions students take to clear the blockages appearing during their reading process. When reading comprehension break downs, readers need to look for effective tools to help them regulate their efforts in the right track. These tools do not only help them evaluate their reading progress but also direct their reading to the goals set in advance. It can be seen that such a process requires a great amount of cognitive processes. A prominent author of learning strategies, Oxford (1990), pointed out one distinctive function of learning strategies which helps learners become self-directed learners. The author argued that self-directed learners gain “greater confidence, involvement, and proficiency”
(Oxford, 1990, p. 10). Meanwhile, Williams and Atkins (2009) argued that readers have to select
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conscious strategies to fine-tune their reading. Thus, the ability of seeking and selecting appropriate strategies to facilitate comprehension then distinguishes high from low readers. The ability of employing appropriate strategies can be explained the insight proposed by Goh (1997) who claimed that good learners are more aware of using strategies to help them go further in their second language learning. Mokhtari and Reichard (2002) highlighted that students tend to outperform as they are aware of their cognition process. Another explanation is that as learners are aware of the learning strategies, they can select the ones matching their learning styles to boost their performance or remove the blockages in their learning (David & Nunan, 2011).This feature helps differentiate good learners from poor learners. In addition, students are aware of not only strategy use but also the aims of their learning process. Thus, they know what actions to take in order to achieve their aims (David& Nunan, 2011).
As for the particular kinds of strategies used by good readers in reading, Hinkel (2011) stated that it is metacognitive strategies that good readers mainly use during reading process.
This conclusion is similar to Lai’s study conducted in Taiwan in 2009. One of the main findings of this study is that planning and monitoring are used frequently by more proficient learners. It can be drawn from Lai’s study the kind of strategies that high performers frequently used to boost their reading performance belong to metacognitive strategies. In contrast, poor readers show a low frequency of metacognitive use during reading process. One particular type of reading strategies employed by successful readers is skipping the unknown words during the reading process. Prior to reading, poor readers tend have inadequate preparations and they do not have enough vocabulary and background knowledge to help them decode the text. As a result, their reading comprehension is low as they cannot plan, monitor, and evaluate the reading process. With respect to vocabulary in reading, Waldvogel (2013) conducted a study to investigate the relationship between vocabulary learning strategies and Spanish foreign language with the participations of 475 beginning-, intermediate-, and advanced- students. Findings from the study suggested that there is a significant relationship between students' level and the strategies they use. High level students show a higher frequency in using certain strategies and their vocabulary size has increased after the study. Certain L2 learners have higher performance than others (Waldvodel, 2013).The author hold that good learners can recall and use the new words efficiently with the aids of learning strategies (p. 210).
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Oxford (1990) argued that the level of awareness and language possess a significant relationship with the effectiveness of strategy use.
To sum up, reviews from the literature above highlight that there is a combination of factors which can have different levels of impact on students’ second language learning performance. The factors affecting reading comprehension are complex and multifaceted.
However, efforts have been made to put such abstract thing like reading comprehension down to spectacular criteria. With respect to language strategies, they do not work in a vacuum, and there is no clear-cut boundary between these strategies. However, researchers agree on a consensus that learning strategies seem to be the most prominent ones among these factors. Different viewpoints lead to different perspectives of learning strategies and students’ proficiency.
Nevertheless, there is a consensus on students’ choice of strategies, frequency of strategy use, and kinds of strategies that can boost reading comprehension. This thesis is aimed to throw more light on the relationship between language learning strategies and students’ reading comprehension.