Reading-strategy use by English as a second language learners in online reading tasks
Highlights
► We investigate adult ESL learners’ reading-strategy use when they read online texts in hypermedia learning environments. ► ESL learners incorporate, adopt, adjust, and create seven reading strategies for “hybrid” online reading. ► ESL learners actively and creatively make meanings and develop their reading strategies, depending on contexts. ► While reading the online text, ESL readers dialogue non-linearly, and the dialogic process enhances “hybrid” online reading.
Introduction
Reading as a meaning-making process is one of the most important literacy components to the success of English language learners (ELLs; Cummins, 1991). For second language (L2) and foreign language (FL)1 learners, reading is crucial because they rely more heavily on their literacy input than on its oral counterpart (Eskey, 2005). When we consider that ELLs represent 11% of the U.S. school population (Lee & Buxton, 2010) and that they have more diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds than their native-speaking peers, it is clear that we need more research studies in L2 reading areas.
As technologies permeate our lives, they change the very concept of reading text. It becomes necessary to understand and use these technologies to interact with the world and to transform it (Kellner, 2001). Text includes a variety of types of semiotic methods such as pictures, audio, video, and electronic text as well as the traditional paper-based text. Literate people need to be aware of the change of literacies and to be able to use the new kinds of text. They need to be able to evaluate the new text and learn from it (Anstey and Bull, 2006, Chatel, 2002). Although technology involvement influences the concept of literacy, other factors such as social, cultural, economic, and political components also play important roles in the process (Warschauer, 1999).
Within these new literacy contexts, readers use strategies to facilitate their meaning-making process for both their first language (L1) and L2. In other words, they employ strategies to make their reading more efficient and effective regardless of their language level (Oxford & Crookall, 1989). The strategic patterns differ, however, for each person and context. Skillful readers adopt reading strategies—such as thinking about the topic, moving back and forth in the text, monitoring their comprehension, and planning when they are reading—more frequently than do unskilled or novice readers (Block, 1992, Brown, 1980, Carrell, 1989, Carrell et al., 1989, Paris and Jacobs, 1984, Wilhelm, 2001). Research into L2 readers’ reading-strategy use in the new literacy context, however, is scarce. To create a holistic view of reading, we borrowed Bakhtin’s (1986) dialogic perspective to gain an understanding of this online reading process.
Section snippets
Dialogism
Bakhtin, 1981, Bakhtin, 1986 argues that interactions always occur in a dialogic relationship with others. He does not regard language as a system of grammatical categories, but rather as speech. He also considers language “a world view” (1981, p. 271). The individual speaker’s speech consists of utterances. The utterance is a basis element of speech, and it belongs to each particular speaker. The utterance, as a unit of speech, always has a dialogic relationship with preceding utterances and
Electronic literacies
Electronic literacies, a new concept in the study of literacy, refer to new screen-based literacies. According to the concept, electronic literacy includes using computers, interacting through computer-mediated communication (CMC), understanding multimedia information, as well as locating and evaluating online resources. The growth of CMC and the World Wide Web, including multimedia, hypertext, and hypermedia resources, has clearly enhanced the development of electronic literacies (Warschauer,
Research design
To identify college-level ESL learners’ use of reading strategies and their reactions in detail when they read online texts, we conducted a qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998). Each case in this study refers to an ESL learner and a reading task. In addition, as “the primary instrument for gathering and analyzing opportunities for collecting and producing meaningful information” (Merriam, 1998, p. 20), we played in roles of participant observers and employed multiple and overlapping data
Results
Our main foci for this study are college-level ESL learners’ strategy and hypermedia- resource use in dealing with online reading tasks. Throughout the combined data analysis process, seven main themes emerged and revealed the participants’ online-reading-strategy use. We present subcategories of the themes when applicable and offer participants’ emic voices from their comments, interviews, and writings. We do not correct participants’ grammatical errors unless they would cause a
Discussion
ESL students adopt the paper-based text reading strategies, adjust the strategies for computer-based text reading, and use new strategies for computer-based text reading. Discussions have focused on their use of reading strategies and their nonlinear dialogues as indicating “hybrid” online reading. “Hybrid” online reading refers to readings formed or composed of heterogeneous elements, such as incorporating paper-based reading strategies and online reading activities. Some strategies were
Conclusions
The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to examine college-level ESL learners’ use of reading strategies and hypermedia resources in diverse online reading activities. Participants applied traditional reading strategies to their online reading so that they could connect prior knowledge and experiences with the activities to set up their purposes and plan before reading online texts. They also accessed hypertext and hypermedia resources and used computer applications for previewing,
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