Exploring EFL Teachers' Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension

EXPLORING EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

           a. Title                        : EXPLORING EFL TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

            b.      Name        : Nurman Antoni

c.       University : Indonesia University of Education

Abstract :       

a.      Concept     : This study is aimed to explore EFL teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension and the students’ responses toward their teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension at one junior high school in Riau.

b.      Subject      : Three English teachers and their students who were learning reading comprehension in appropriate texts at one junior high school in Riau.

c.       Method     : This study employed a qualitative research design which is a case study using three data collection techniques; observation, interview and questionnaire.

d.      Theory      : The data were analyzed by using three major phases of analyses: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification (Miles and Huberman: 1994).

e.       The findings         : These findings recommend that the three teachers need to increase their knowledge and experiences in order to understand the concepts, implementations and the reasons in using the strategies in teaching reading comprehension. They are also suggested to give instructions of teaching strategies to students with lowlevel association responses before starting the reading activities, and give some guidance to students with partly-formed knowledge.

f.        Words       : 190 words

g.      Key words            : EFL, Reading, Teaching Reading Comprehension, Teachers’ Strategy

Introduction :

a.      Background and Research Problems :

Teaching strategies used by teachers in reading comprehension, and student responses to teacher strategies in reading

b.      Literature Review :

§  Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension skills are important for English language learners, especially for students who learn English as a foreign language. Reading comprehension is a process that involves the orchestration of the readers’ prior knowledge about the world and about language.

§  The Strategies of Teaching Reading Comprehension

This study focuses on teaching reading comprehension strategies which are divided into three reading, this includes: pre-reading stage, while reading stage, and post reading stage. (Hood et al, 2005; Gibbon, 2002; Brown, 2001; Wallace, 1992; and Barnet 1988).

-          Pre-Reading Stage

In this stage, activities is brainstorming (Wallace, 1992: 91). Crawford et al (2005: 29) define brainstorming as a method for creating many ideas about a topic. The next activity which can be applied is sequencing picture (Hood et al, 2005; Gibbon, 2002; Barnet, 1988; Wallace, 1992).

-          While Reading Stage

In this reading stage, a teacher can generate appropriate strategies to help students in comprehending the text.

*Gibbons, (2002); Hancock and Leaver (2006); Nuttal, (1996: 2) recommended to kinds of reading; Aloud, reading aloud.

*Anderson (2003) in Nunan (2003: 69) recommended to reading silently, because it focuses on getting meaning from print.

*NCLRC (2007) also propose reread to check comprehension as one of while-activities in reading comprehension.

-     Post Reading Stage

For this stage, a teacher’s activity is primarily to evaluate the students’ comprehension.

§  The Role of Student’s Responses in Learning

In this study, as one of the aspects that to be explored is the students’ response toward their teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension.

Methodology :

1.       Research Design :

This present study employed a qualitative case study design. A case study was chosen because this study was to observe and to explore the teachers’ strategies on teaching reading comprehension and the student’s responses.

2.       Research Participants :

The participants of this study were taken from all of EFL teachers who teach in SMPN 1 Gunung Toar in Riau. There are three English teachers in this school with different experiences and the degree of background knowledge.

3.       Data Collection Techniques :

Classroom observation, questionnaire, and interviews.

-          Classroom observation :

The classroom observation was conducted in order to identify the strategies used by EFL teachers and also to identify the students’ responses

toward their teachers’ strategies in teaching reading comprehension.

-          Questionnaire :

In the present study, the researcher used Likert Scale Questionnaire method to indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with this items by marking one of the responses ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’.

-          Interviews :

The interview was carried out before and after the classroom observation. Kvale (1996: 35), and Cohen and Manion (1994) define interview as an interaction between two-person with the interviewer for the specific purpose of obtaining

c.       Research findings and discussions :

1.      The Teachers’ Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension. The strategy in teaching reading comprehension is in three stages of teaching; pre-reading, while reading and after reading.

a.      Pre-Reading Stage :

During this stage, there were some techniques and instructions done by the three teachers as their strategies in teaching reading comprehension. In general, the three teachers have used brainstorming, encouraging the use of dictionaries, discussing text types, and predicting.

-          Brainstorming :

Brainstorming is activities asking questions of related words within text or to the title given.

-          Encouraging the use of dictionaries :

This strategy is used when their students have problems in finding the meaning of the new or difficult words in the pre-reading stage.

-          Discussing text types :

Based on the data gathered, one of the most frequent strategies which chosen by the three teachers in the pre-reading stage is the discussion on text types. Based on the data, it seems that the teachers had done a strategy of discussing text type or text structure strategy.

-          Predicting :

The teachers used predicting strategy, is one way of to ask students to

predict the kind of text and what the text is about.

b.      While-Reading Stage :

Based on data gathered, there were some strategies used by the three EFL teachers in teaching reading comprehension in the while-reading stage. In general the three teachers have used read aloud, reread strategy, directed reading strategy, vocabulary collection and redefinition strategy, and Gist strategy.

-          Reading aloud :

It is in line with Gibbon’s (2002) ideas that reading aloud plays an important role in the development of reading competence and helps

students in making meaning.

-          Reread strategy :

The teachers asked students to check or monitor their comprehension while rereading the text in teaching reading comprehension as suggested by Anderson (1999: 47) and The National Capital Language Resource Center (2007).

-          Direct Reading Activity :

In this strategy, the students are asked to read the text silently and the teacher should prepare one or two comprehension-level questions for their reading. In this case, the teachers used silent reading as a procedure of Direct Reading Activity (DRA).

-          Discussing of Unknown words :

In doing this strategy, the teachers tried to lead the students to identify the difficult words to understand the text.

-          Retelling the text :

The teachers asked them to retell the text by using their own words in their first language (L1). After students write the retelling, she asked some students to read and discuss it.

c.       Post-Reading Stage :

 In this stage, the teachers had done the activities which include: questioning, clarifying and justifying comprehension, asking for specific questions, reviewing and follow-up strategy.

-          Evaluating Comprehension in Particular Tasks :

Evaluate comprehension in the post-reading stage; evaluation of comprehension in a particular task, evaluation of overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks and deciding if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose.

-          Clarifying and Justifying the Students’ Answer :

In this study, one of the teachers created the activity which aimed to ask the students with comprehension questions and clarified their answer to the class to make sure that they understand the text.

-          Asking Questions for Specific Information/ Scanning Strategy :

Scanning activities, as a very important useful skill for all readers, are used to find specific information quickly without reading every word of a text.

-          Reviewing :

Reviewing as one of techniques for series of approaching in a reading text which is used to assess the importance of what one has just read.

Students’ Responses toward Their Teacher Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension :

This section discusses the data gathered from the classroom observation that is focused on the findings about students’ responses toward their teacher’s strategies in teaching reading comprehension.

Conclusions :

For the first research problem, teachers’ strategies focused on the implementation, concepts, and the reasons in doing the strategies. Based on the results and analysis from classroom observation, it can concluded that all of the teachers have used teaching reading strategies to encourage the students in comprehend the text that formulated in the pre-, while-, and post-reading stages.

            Second, it was focused in exploring the teachers’ concept about their strategies in teaching reading comprehension. they proposed the theories of strategy based on their own knowledge and their experiences in teaching reading.Although they have proposed some relevant and unique theories, their understanding was not comprehensive yet. Therefore, those three teachers need to learn more theories in enlarging their knowledge.

For the second research problem, it has to do with the students’ responses toward their teacher strategies in teaching reading comprehension The students’ responses can be classified as the low-level association responses or ill-formed knowledge which need direct instruction concept from their teachers, and also as some prior information about a concept or partly formed knowledge structure which need some teacher guidance but quite capable of the reading selection

From the analysis above, it can be inferred that the teachers should tell the students about the instructions to some students before they read the text.