Investigating the Effects of Explicit Strategy Instruction on Reading Comprehension and Strategy Use of Grade Eleven Students in Addis Ababa High Schools
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Date
2024-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The general objective of this study was to investigate whether explicit teaching in combined reading strategies improves reading comprehension and strategy use of grade eleven students in Tesfa Birhan General Secondary School in Addis Ababa. Using a quasi- experimental pre-test-post control group design, eighty-seven students were selected from two intact classes that were assigned to the control and experimental groups. Having ensured both groups’ homogeneity in terms of reading comprehension and reading strategy use, the experimental group received explicit instruction in a variety of reading strategies embedded into their English reading lessons for about four months. Data were mainly collected via reading comprehension tests, reading strategy questionnaires and interviews. The reading test and the questionnaires were administered to both groups before and after the training, whereas the interview was conducted only with the experimental group after the training. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The independent sample t-test indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in terms of post-test overall reading comprehension mean scores with a large effect size. The paired sample t-test result also indicated students in the experimental group significantly improved their overall reading comprehension post-test mean scores with large magnitude difference. Similarly, Mann Whitney U test results of the posttest indicated students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in three reading comprehension sub-skills: reading for the main idea, detail, and vocabulary skills, however, no significant difference was found for inference and reference skills. Furthermore, the result of the questionnaire showed that students in the experimental group significantly increased their overall reading strategy use after the training. The interview findings also suggested that the experimental group greatly benefited from the training. Finally, the overall finding implied that explicit instruction in a combination of various reading strategies is vital in promoting secondary school (particularly grade eleven) students’ English reading ability in Ethiopian context. Accordingly, it was recommended that English teachers could consider implementing explicit instruction in a variety of RSs in teaching English reading, and students should be adequately supported and encouraged to use different reading strategies to avoid their reading difficulties.
Keywords: Explicit instruction, Combined reading strategies, Reading comprehension, Reading strategy use.
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Explicit instruction, Combined reading strategies