The effect of reading strategy training on L2 and L3 reading scores of freshmen students

An important inquiry remaining unresolved is if the effectiveness of reading strategy instruction still exists and reading comprehension strategies can be transferred between diverse languages. The outcomes of such research could lead to fresh educational insights and influence the development of teaching resources. This study seeks to examine if reading strategies acquired during the L2 learning process can be applied to the L3 learning process for reading comprehension. Additionally, the effectiveness of strategy training in enhancing reading comprehension in both the L2 and L3 will be explored, as well as potential differences in the use of reading strategies between L2 and L3 learning. The research questions for the study are if strategy training create a significant improvement in the reading abilities of learners in their L2 (English) and L3 (German) and whether there is a difference between strategies used in L2 and L3. Through quantitative research method and experimental design, reading strategy instruction is conducted for totally 40 participants. A pre and a post-test are implemented before and after the instruction for L2 and L3 education. Also, five additional questions are asked during the post-tests to investigate the difference between the usage of reading comprehension strategy. The result of the analysis revealed that there is a significant effect of strategy instruction on L2 but not on L3. Also, it is revealed that there is not a significant difference between the usage of reading strategies by participants for L2 and L3. It could be concluded that reading strategy instruction is still a key for improving reading comprehension. Besides, further research is required to investigate the transferability of the reading strategies across L2 and L3. Finally, participants rely mainly on the similar reading strategies for both L2 and L3 learning.