An exploration of explicit teaching of reading with Thai students of low EFL proficiency: Factors affecting reading comprehension

Abstract

Much of the global workforce is increasingly expected or required to possess English reading skills. It is vital that working adult learners who seek a degree and develop themselves professionally in a company have a good command of English, especially in reading comprehension. This study explored the effect of the explicit teaching of reading on low-proficiency Thai EFL students’ reading comprehension and the factors affecting their reading comprehension. A total of 58 participants completed a reading quiz that asked them to write a summary and respond to both comprehension and vocabulary questions. The mean reading scores were used to analyse the effect on reading comprehension. Moreover, 12 individuals voluntarily participated in semi-structured interviews to reflect on the factors affecting their task-specific reading comprehension. The results demonstrated extremely low scores on both the comprehension and vocabulary questions. The investigation also revealed emerging factors, such as time, text difficulty, inability to apply cognitive strategies in reading and a dependency on Google Translate. Despite its exploratory nature, this study offers some insight into teaching reading to students with low-proficiency EFL reading comprehension.