Differentiating Digitally to Investigate Young EFL Learners' Metacognitive Reading Strategies

This study implemented a differentiated reading instruction scenario and combined it with mobile technology to investigate upper-grade learners' metacognitive reading strategies at an elementary school. The participants were differentiated into groups based on their proficiency levels and they were required to read three online reading storybooks at appropriate level. A web-based extensive reading program with eight strategy buttons, including four strategy types were developed, i.e., global strategies, problem-solving strategies, support strategies, and socio-affective strategies. These functions were tap-on buttons in the same digital reading interface to assist elementary school students' online reading. The frequency and the time spent on each strategy were collected in the database and analyzed. The relationship between these students' use of reading strategy and their reading proficiency test was analyzed via Pearson product-moment correlations. These observational records of reading behavior allowed the teacher to trace students' metacognitive reading strategies. Major findings were as follows: (1) young learners tended to rely on support strategies the most, and (2) there was a significant difference in the use of strategy types and in the strategy use sequence between higher and lower reading proficiency learners. Pedagogical implications and suggestion for future research are discussed.