 
|  |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Teaching
Reading Strategies: How Methodology Affects Abstract This
study examines whether university-level French students trained
during the second semester to use effective reading strategies
and skills demonstrate better reading comprehension and, hence,
perform better in the third semester than their untrained peers.
The experimental reading activities were derived from recent L1
and L2 reading process theory and research; a sample text, exercises,
and lesson plan appear together with teacher and student reactions
to the experimental reading practice. The
self-report data show widely varying responses to the experimental
approach to reading and provoke considerable reflection about
the impact of both the teacher variable and cognitive styles on
language learning. The repeated measures experiment compares the
performance of experimental and control groups on a standardized
reading test at the end of the second- and third-semester courses.
Although
this experiment shows that students given special training in
reading made somewhat more progress in reading comprehension than
did their peers in the traditional course, the results do not
solve definitively the problem of articulation within language
courses. The experiment results, together with the analysis of
student and teacher reactions, prompt further questions about
how to examine the impact of various language teaching methodologies
and about the value of encouraging students to analyze their own
learning processes. |