The Impact of Self-Regulated Strategy Development on Enhancing Saudi Female English majors’ Reading Comprehension Skills and Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The present study investigated the impact of self-regulated strategy development reading intervention on improving Saudi female English majors’ reading skills and reading self-efficacy. The study is significant with respect to its implication for the pedagogy of English as a foreign/second language that hopefully may broaden insights into the self-regulated reading process and reading self-efficacy among Saudi female university students. The study addressed three main research questions: (1) What is the effect of self-regulated strategy development on enhancing first-year Saudi female English majors’ reading comprehension skills? (2) What is the impact of self-regulated strategy development on enhancing first-year Saudi female English majors’ reading self-efficacy? (3) What is the relationship between enhancing students’ reading comprehension skills and reading self-efficacy? Based on the quasi-experimental design, two intact classes of first-year EFL English majors at the college of languages and Translation, Imam University, were randomly assigned into two groups (control and experimental). The experimental group students (N=40) were taught using the self-regulated strategy development, while the control group (N=40) students were taught using the traditional teaching method. The research data were collected from two equivalent reading comprehension tests (pre-and post-tests) and a reading self-efficacy scale. The results revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups’ mean scores on the post-tests in favor of the experimental group. Results also indicated an enhancement in the experimental group students’ reading comprehension skills and subskills, and reading self-efficacy. Pedagogical implications for reading instruction and recommendations for future studies are discussed.