A quantitative study of ELL and ELT students' post-reading strategies

The purpose of this study was to explore the cognitive post-reading strategies used by English Language and Literature (ELL) and English Language Teaching (ELT) students after they read an academic text in their area of study. Since there was not a post-reading strategy instrument in the literature, a questionnaire was developed to carry out the study. In order to develop the questionnaire, second and foreign language reading strategy literature and previous reading strategy questionnaires were examined and post-reading strategies were listed. Then, three experts reviewed the questionnaire. The items were phrased and metacognitive strategies were eliminated according to their comments and evaluation. Finally, the questionnaire was piloted. According to piloting statistics results, several items were edited. The questionnaire consists of three parts. The first part collects background information of the participants. The second part collects information on the use of post-reading strategies. This part consists of two subscales: without referring back to the text and referring back to the text. In the third part, there is an open-ended item which asks students to include any other post-reading strategies they use. Explanatory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and Cronbach's alpha analysis confirmed the questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument. 226 freshmen and sophomores at ELT and ELL departments at Akdeniz University participated in the study. The findings showed that the students had a moderate use of cognitive post-reading strategies. It was also found that the students did not differ in strategy use in terms of grade, department, sex, or prep school education.