Strategies and shoes: Can we ever have enough? Teaching and using reading comprehension strategies in general and vocational programmes

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examines a reading comprehension strategy use in English as a second language in upper-secondary schools one year after teachers participated in a professional development course. The data comprises observations, teacher narratives, and student interviews. A key finding is that the teachers used a repertoire of strategies from the course, suggesting an impact of the course. A second finding was a clear difference between how students in general and vocational programmes used the strategies taught: the vocational students used them in ways that indicated their relevance to them as learners, while the students in general programmes did not. The findings also suggest how and why students employ strategies. The article discusses implications for strategy instruction and how to enhance the reading proficiency of adolescent readers.

KEYWORDS:

• English as a second language
• reading comprehension strategies
• teacher professional development
• general programmes
• vocational programmes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Professor Emerita Anne Edwards at the University of Oxford for her invaluable comments on an earlier draft of this article. The author would also like to thank Professor Kirsti Klette at the University of Oslo for suggestions regarding the design of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 L1 test (max score 105): Students in general programmes mean score 82.6, and vocational programmes 70.2. L2 test (max score 28): Students in general programmes mean score 22.2, and vocational programmes 15.8.

2 The Mode of reading continuum was created by the author, based on the “Nike mode of reading” and the “Sherlock Holmes mode of reading” provided by Professor P. David Pearson in a private conversation in 2013 at the University of California, Berkeley (see Brevik, 2014; Pearson, 2012).

Additional information

Funding

The author would like to thank her research group, Teacher Professionalism and Educational Change: Practices, Purposes, Policies (TEPEC) at the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, for funding this study.