The effect of reading strategies on language proficiency of young adolescent learners

This study was designed to investigate whether a)57 learners from eighth grade in Süreyya Nihat Oral Middle School apply reading strategies b)integrated explicit strategy instruction into English language lessons have an effect on 27 eighth graders' reading strategy use c)integrated explicit reading strategy instruction increase the level of reading strategy use of those learners d) integrated explicit reading strategy instruction have an effect on the results of the exam named Transition from Basic to Secondary Education ( TEOG ) and relatedly their English proficiency of 27 learners in the eighth grade. The study was conducted with 27 learners from eighth graders in Süreyya Nihat Oral Middle School. The present study was conducted with a quasi-experimental research design as the study was implemented with an experimental group exposed to explicit reading strategy instruction in their regular English classes and a control group following a regular instruction model without applying explicit reading strategy instruction. Data were collected through both qualitative and quantitative insturments. A reading strategy questionnaire was used to find out reading strategies employed by learners and the same survey was conducted after the explicit reading strategy instruction to see whether there is a difference between the pre and post study in terms of reading strategy use. Learners' perspectives were evaluated through content analyze of minute-papers.Data gathered from surveys and learners' minute paper were multiplied with the data gathered from the notes of the researcher's diary that she kept through the implementation.The results of the exam named Transition from Basic to Secondary Education(TEOG ) of both control group and experimental group were calculated to see whether there is an effect of integrated explicit reading strategy instruction on learners' English proficiency. To analyze the quantitative data from TEOG results and surveys; means, t-values, and standard deviations were evaluated. In addition, content analyses was used to gain findings from students' utterances on their minute paper. The results of reading strategy questionnaire indicated that eighth graders did not use reading strategies sufficiently before the study, however, findings of the same questionnaire conducted at the end of the study demostrated that learners in experimental group improved the frequency of reading strategies use, those were instructed through the reading strategy instruction, to a considerable extent. The findings gathered from the content analysis of minute-paper including students' evaluations indicated that integrated explicit strategy instruction promoted their English learning process. In addition to this, learners in experimental group, in the frame of mean value, reached a higher score in TEOG exam and, therefore, findings showed that reading strategy instruction and strategy use seemed to have a significant effect on learners' English language learning. Keywords: Reading strategies instruction,reading strategies,integration of reading strategies into the lesson,English language teaching and learning,meaningful learning,awareness of reading strategies use.