Readers Typology: Can Poor Readers Advance to Good Readers?

Abstract

This study aims to determine the reader’s typology among the preparatory class students regarding their use of reading strategies while they read texts written in English, and to find out whether cognitive and metacognitive strategy training can make students advance from poor readers to good readers. The participants of the study were 27 evening education students with the age range between 18 and 22 at the preparatory school of Inonu University School of Foreign Languages in Malatya, Turkey. The students were instructed cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies with the purpose of the study for eight weeks. The study has provided an exciting opportunity to advance both the researcher’s and the participants’ knowledge of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies. Throughout the study, the researcher, as the instructor of the sampling group, and the students have improved their understanding of reading comprehension of an English written text. Qualitative method was used to collect data. Qualitative data collection instruments involving Think-Aloud Protocol (TAP), learner and researcher’s diaries were descriptively analyzed. Findings revealed that the participants raised their awareness on strategy use after involvement in cognitive and metacognitive strategy training. The findings from TAPs also indicated that poor readers could advance to good readers by taking part in the lessons so that weaker students were able to indicate the problems they had encountered, and stronger ones could reveal what made them successful.