1. Building Bridges Through Awareness of Reading Strategies Neil J. Anderson, Ph.D. Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano, Universidad de Costa Rica San Jose, Costa Rica and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah USA http://linguistics.byu.edu/andersonn.html

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16. Building Bridges Through Awareness of Reading Strategies

24. L1 and L2 Reading Strategies “It is often taken for granted that language learners cannot transfer communication skills from their mother tongues, and that these must be taught anew if learners are to solve the problem of code and context correlation which lies at the heart of the communicative ability” (Swan, 1985, p. 8).

25. Metacognition Metacognition is the ability to think about your thinking. It is the ability to make your thinking visible. Metacognition results in critical but healthy reflection and evaluation of your thinking which may result in making specific changes in how you learn. Metacognition is not simply thinking back on an event, describing what happened and how you felt about it.

29. The Study Based on Sheorey & Mokhtari (2001) Research Questions 1. Is there a relationship between EFL readers’ perceived strategy use in L1 and L2 reading contexts? 2. Is there a relationship between reported strategy use and self-reported rating of ability to read English?

30. The Subjects English as a Foreign Language (EFL) readers enrolled in an integrated skills course at the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano during late 2002. The students were at the upper-intermediate level of language proficiency. The classes met twice a week for six hours during the 8 week bimester.

31. The Subjects (continued) Surveys were returned by 260 subjects with all responses completed. All subjects are native speakers of Spanish. 52.3% percent female; 47.7% percent male.

32. Instrument: Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) Developed by Mokhtari (2001) for post- secondary students who are native and non- native speakers of English Based on the Metacognitive-Awareness -of- Reading-Strategies-Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari, 1998-2000) Thirty items Three categories of items Global reading strategies (13 items) Problem solving strategies (8 items) Support reading strategies (9 items)

33. Instrument: Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) (continued) Reliability Metacognitive, 0.92 Cognitive, 0.79 Support strategies, 0.87 Overall, 0.93 Background questionnaire Basic personal background questions Describe good and poor readers How challenging is it for you to read English?

34. Data Collection and Analysis SORS was administered as a homework assignment Students responded to the SORS twice: once indicating their metacognitive reading strategies in Spanish (L1) and once indicating their metacognitive reading strategies in English (L2). Instructions to the students informed them of the purpose of the SORS and the fact that there were no right or wrong answers Data Analysis Descriptive statistical procedures Correlations

35. Results Research Question #1: Is there a relationship between EFL readers’ perceived strategy use in L1 and L2 reading contexts?

36. Results (continued) The correlation between the L1 and L2 SORS total scores: r =.897 The correlation between the L1 and L2 SORS global strategy scores: r =.898 The correlation between the L1 and L2 SORS problem solving strategy scores: r =.816 The correlation between the L1 and L2 SORS support strategy scores: r =.836

37. Results (continued) Top 5 English Reading Strategies I try to get back on track when I lose concentration. (Problem Solving Strategy) When text becomes difficult, I pay closer attention to what I am reading. (Problem Solving Strategy) When text becomes difficult, I re-read it to increase my understanding (Problem Solving Strategy)

38. Results (continued) Top 5 English Reading Strategies (continued) I adjust my reading speed according to what I am reading. (Problem Solving Strategy) I think about what I know to help me understand what I read. (Global Strategy)

39. Results (continued) Top 5 Spanish Strategies (English translation) I try to get back on track when I lose concentration. (Problem Solving Strategy) When text becomes difficult, I pay closer attention to what I am reading. (Problem Solving Strategy) When text becomes difficult, I re-read it to increase my understanding (Problem Solving Strategy)

40. Results (continued) Top 5 Spanish Strategies (English translation) (continued) I read slowly and carefully to make sure I understand what I am reading. (Problem Solving Strategy) I adjust my reading speed according to what I am reading. (Problem Solving Strategy)

41. Results (continued) Bottom 5 English Strategies When reading, I translate from English into my native language. (Support Strategy) I review the text first by noting its characteristics like length and organization. (Global Strategy) I use tables, figures, and pictures in text to increase my understanding. (Global Strategy)

42. Results (continued) Bottom 5 English Strategies (continued) I ask myself questions I like to have answered in the text. (Support Strategy) I take notes while reading to help me understand what I read. (Support Strategy)

43. Results (continued) Bottom 5 Spanish Strategies (English translation) I check to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong. (Global Strategy) I review the text first by noting its characteristics like length and organization. (Global Strategy) I use tables, figures, and pictures in text to increase my understanding. (Global Strategy)

44. Results (continued) Bottom 5 Spanish Strategies (English translation) (continued) I take notes while reading to help me understand what I read. (Support Strategy) I ask myself questions I like to have answered in the text. (Support Strategy)

45. Results (continued) Research Question #2: Is there a relationship between reported strategy use and self-reported rating of ability to read English? The correlation between the students’ self assessment of L2 reading and the L2 SORS total scores: r = -0.028.

46. Applications to the Classroom  Ask strategy probing questions  What are you trying to accomplish?  What strategy(ies) are you using?  How well is it/are they working?  What else could you do?  Model effective reading strategies  Provide explicit reading strategy instruction

47. Applications to the Classroom  Ask learners to keep a reading strategy journal (Dr. Oxford mentioned vocabulary journals in the satellite conference. Dr. Bailey’s plenary session on Friday will address Teachers’ Journals.)  Move learners along a consciousness continuum from unconsciousness to conscious and back to unconsciousness. (Dr. Curtis’ plenary session on Thursday will address this concept in terms of cultural competence.

48. Conclusions Based on the data from the study reported here, there is a relationship between the strategies that readers use in both L1 and L2. Also, readers lack the ability to self assess their L2 reading ability. We can help the readers in our classes by teaching them to build bridges between their first and second language reading strategies. We can teach them how to be more aware of their strategy use.

49. Selected Bibliography Anderson, N. J. (2002). The Role of Metacognition in Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Learning. ERIC Digest. Anderson, N. J. (n.d.). On-line bibliography on language learning strategies http://linguistics.byu.edu/andersonn.html

50. Selected Bibliography (continued) Mokhtari, K., & Reichard, C. A. (2002). Assessing students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Educational Psychology 94, 249-259. Mokhtari, K., & Sheorey, R. (2002). Measuring ESL students’ awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Developmental Education 25, 2-10. Sheorey, R., & Mokhtari, K. (2001). Differences in the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among native and non-native readers. System 29, 431-449.

51. My challenge to you... build bridges and learn more about the role of metacognitive strategies and how to explicitly teach them so that you can help your students make conscious decisions about their own learning. The best way to do this is by becoming more metacognitively aware of your own strategies.