EFL reading strategies used by high school students with different English proficiency

Abstract

This study examines EFL students’ reading strategy use and explores the differences between the factors affecting the use of the reading strategies by high and low proficiency EFL learners. The participants consisted of students from a high school in Taiwan. Their reading strategy usage and the influencing factors were assessed using the Survey of Reading Strategy (SORS), think-aloud protocols, and semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal no significant disparities in problem-solving strategies and supporting reading strategies between high and low proficiency learners. However, no table differences were observed in the employment of global reading strategies. In addition, learners’ vocabulary size and syntactic knowledge emerged as influential factors in the utilization of reading strategies. The results also indicate that high proficiency learners employ top-down reading strategies, while low proficiency learners rely on bottom-up reading strategies to approach their reading tasks. Detailed results of the reading strategies used by the two groups of students and factors affecting the strategy results are shown and discussed, followed by pedagogical implications. At the end, suggestions for the future research will be presented.