Reading in a modern foreign language: exploring the potential benefits of reading strategy instruction

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study which focused on reading strategy instruction for learners of French or Spanish as a modern foreign language. The objective of the study was to explore the potential of reading strategy instruction in raising the learner readers' awareness of reading strategies, in extending the range of strategies they employed and in encouraging learners to monitor and reflect upon their reading. Having initially established the learners' existing strategy awareness and use, the researchers embarked upon explicit strategy instruction, during which learner readers' strategy use was promoted and reviewed at regular intervals by means of review exercises and interviews. The findings of the study point to the problematic nature of reading strategy instruction. While indications emerged that strategy training appeared to raise learners' awareness of reading strategies and may have encouraged use by some learners of certain top-down processes, other strategies seem harder to acquire. Some learners do not make the transition to more complex strategies. Nonetheless, strategy training can encourage learner readers to reflect on their strategy use and seems to boost their confidence in their own reading abilities.