THE EFFECTS OF STRATEGY TRAINING ON THE USE OF GLOBAL READING STRATEGIES: IMPLICATIONS FROM THINK-ALOUD AND EYE-TRACKING DATA

Abstract

Considering the critical role of readings strategies in L2 reading this study aimed to investigate the impact of strategy training on Turkish EFL learners’ use of global reading strategies. 23 freshmen, enrolled in the ELT Department, participated in the study, and the data were collected through eye tracking and think-aloud protocols. The results are encouraging for the use of reciprocal teaching, one of the comprehension-enhancing approaches to teach reading, in the EFL contexts. Eye tracking results, hand in hand with the think-aloud protocols’ findings, revealed that the participants utilised global reading strategies more frequently to a statistically significant degree after the strategy instruction. Thus, it was concluded that strategy training was useful for the participants to improve their use of global reading strategies, and a recent technological tool can be purposefully integrated into the data collection procedure of educational research studies. Pedagogical implications on the strategy training for the employment of global reading strategies that would help students improve reading skills need to be given attention by teachers.