Anderson, 1991

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A study of strategies used by L2 readers

One of the most important issues in L2 reading is the development of reading strategy use among students. To examine this issue, Neil Anderson (1991) posed two important questions: Will there be differences in strategy use when students only read a passage versus when they take a reading test? Will weaker students differ from stronger students in their use of strategies while doing each task? For the study, Anderson recruited 28 students to complete two tasks: (a) take a reading- test and comment on strategies used during the test and (b) read a text and comment on strategies used while reading. Because Anderson wanted to know if strategy use would differ between weaker and stronger readers, he first gave all students a reading test (that required no student commentary). The results of this preliminary test allowed him to divide the students into three groups: high, intermediate and low level. Students were taught to give think-aloud comments on a reading task and were then tested individually. In the case of the experimental reading test, students were asked to comment on the strategies that they used while reading and answering comprehension questions at the end of each passage. Student comments were audiotaped, transcribed and then categorised according to a list of 47 possible reading strategies. Results of Anderson's study showed that weaker students were quite different from stronger students in their reading abilities; students who were better readers reported using significantly more total strategies in their think-aloud comments. However, there was no difference in the number of different strategies used or on their reading test performance. In comparing three students as case studies, Anderson showed that students tended to use similar types of strategies across ability levels and across tasks. He also noted that the weakest case-study student could comment on many strategies, but she did not seem particularly skilled at monitoring the success of these strategies. For this student, the issue was not if she knew strategies but rather how she could use them. Overall, there did not seem to be any single strategy or small set that contributed significantly to reading success. Most students use a wide variety of strategies and, overall, students reported using quite a few strategies, both while reading and while reading test. This study provides an exploratory view of reading strategy use among 28 ESL students in the US. It is interesting that students reported similar strategy use across reading tasks, and that all the students reported using similar strategies. The study also confirmed the usefulness of an extensive strategy list for exploring student strategy use. Most important, the study revealed that the key differences in strategy between weaker and stronger readers do not depend

completely on different types of strategies or the number of different strategies used, but are more likely to depend on total numbers of successful strategy uses. Finally, Anderson has shown that there is no magic small set of strategies that separates good readers from weaker readers. There are not five strategies, for example, that good readers use but that weaker readers do not know about.