UNIVERSITY OF SINDH JAMSHORO, SINDH, PAKISTAN

COURSE TITLE: Research Methodology TOPIC: Research Proposal on

INVESTIGATING READING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL IN PUBLIC SECTOR

2nd Assignment

COURSE SUPERVISOR:

Dr. Fatah Soomro Sahib

STUDENT:
Ayaz Ali Mahar
M.Phil (Linguistics)

INSTITUTE OF ENGLISGH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Research questions 3. Objectives 4. Literature Review 5. Research methodology 6. Sample 7. Instruments for data collection 8. Questionnaire 9. Data analysis 10. Biblography

INVESTIGATING READING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AT INTERMEDIATE LEVEL IN PUBLIC SECTOR Introduction: The purpose of this study is to investigate reading skills and strategies by students at intermediate level in public sector. The study will be conducted on the sample of fifteen students from three colleges of public sector in district Shikarpur, Sindh. This study will be vital for its twofold purpose: firstly students take most of the exams in the language under study which entails comprehending of the questions. Secondly they are to produce answers in English language. Hence reading skills and strategies are crucial in the success or failure of the students. The findings of this study will be based on the research questionnaire. The findings in the study would greatly assist students in particular and teachers in general to improve and better learning and teaching reading skills and strategies respectively. Reading is an active skill and does not mean to analyze words and sentences only but it involves different reading skills and strategies. A good reader must be equipped with reading strategies to comprehend and go into the depth of the reading text. Reading is a dynamic activity that acts in our mind and we use it on some printed stuff to understand the printed message. The readers task is to activate background and linguistic knowledge to recreate the writers intended meaning (Chastain, 1988). It is the reader who brings his/ her knowledge to the text in order to understand the intention of the writer. One of the things that the reader may bring to the text is the ability to use reading strategies. Reading strategies indicate how readers conceive of a task, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they do not understand. Such strategies are used by the reader to enhance reading comprehension. Reading strategies are divided into cognitive and

metacognitive strategies. Learners understand and produce new language using cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies help and assist learners in planning, monitoring and evaluating. It is believed that using reading strategies would lead to efficient reading comprehension. One of the factors that make a distinction among readers is the kind and frequency of reading strategies used. Cook (1989) distinguishes good or mature readers and poor or immature readers in this way: During reading good readers focus attention, anticipate and predict, use fix-up strategies when lack of understanding occurs, use contextual analysis to understand new terms, use text structure to assist comprehension, organize and integrate new information, and self-monitor comprehension by knowing comprehension is occurring and knowing what is being understood, while poor readers are easily distracted, read to get done, do not know what to do when lack of understanding occurs, do not recognize important vocabulary, do not see any organization, add on rather than integrate new information, and do not realize they do not understand. There is no doubt that using reading strategies helps learners discover how to read effectively and more easily. Research Questions: 1. What are the skills and strategies of intermediate students in reading and comprehending the text? 2. Are students at intermediate level in public sector able to understand and comprehend their English language text books? The objectives of this study are: 1. The strategies that students use in reading and comprehending the texts. 2. Examine the problems that students face in their reading,

3. Recommend measures to improve reading skills of students. Literature review: Marie Clay (1991) defines reading, as a message-getting, problem-solving activity which increases in power and flexibility the more it is practiced (p.6). In 1993, Louise Rosenblatts theory also described reading as an interactive process. Extracting relevant information from a variety of text forms and formats is essential for academic and personal success. Reading is a thinking process, is part of everything that happens to you as a person and comprehending a text is intimately related to your life (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006, p. 7). This definition reinforces Rosenblatts theory that reading comprehension requires the reader to interact with the text. Reading strategies are operations or procedures performed by a reader to achieve the goal of comprehension (Kern, 1989). Theorists have given some types that explain the interaction process between the reader and the text. Most of the reading models mentioned in second language reading are cognitive ones they are divided into three categories: i) Bottom-up models, ii) Top-down models and iii) Interactive models.( Within the context of foreign language reading, there is a complex plethora of variables that affect these learners in their reading process, such as language processing differences and L2 acquisition. These differences may contribute to reading and comprehension problems due to comprehension gap, which Eskey (1986) describes as involving deficiencies of one or more major categories of knowledge linguistic, pragmatic and cultural - that varies between readers and texts. The concept of L1 and L2 also affects on reading skills and strategies. Grabe (1999) pointed out that L2 readers begin reading with a different knowledge base than when they started to read in L1. Hence, they have disadvantage in terms of lack of words, lack of grammatical stuff and non capacity to wield reading

strategies to improve the second language. Ehram and Oxford (1990) argue that strategies help L2 learners to enhance the acquisition, storage, retention, recall and use of new information (p.312). Therefore, learners need to have the capability to choose a series of strategies to meet the requirements of the various learning tasks. Furthermore, the use of these strategies must be logically connected to solve the readin g difficulties encountered. In other words, the strategies that are initiated will be related to what and how other follow-up strategies are employed toward facilitating the process of reading comprehension (Tung-Hsien, 2001). In this study, the researchers adopted the framework by Mokhtari and Shorey (2002). Sample: The target population of the study will be students of class XI, and XII i.e. higher secondary classes, from three sector colleges in district Shikarpur, Sindh. As the enrolment in public sector colleges is in huge number therefore, a representative number will be randomly selected. Five students from each college will be selected and the total number will be fifteen. Research methodology: To get information from the participants survey questionnaire will be used as a primary tool. The questionnaire will be structured and consisted of fourteen questions and each question will be of four options. A formal permission will be taken from the principals of the targeted colleges. Later on randomly selected students will also be conveyed to fill out the questionnaires provided to them.

analysis: Data will be analyzed quantitatively as well as qualitatively keeping in view following aspects. Biblography: Chastain, K. (1988). Developing second language skills: theory to practice (3rd ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publisher. Cook, V. (1989). Learning strategies data base. Kern, R.G. (1989). Second language reading strategy instruction: Its effects on comprehension and word inference ability. Modern Language Journal 73: 135-148. Eskey, D.E. (1986). Theoretical foundations. In F. Dubin, D.E. Eskey & W. Grabe (Eds.), Teaching Second Language Reading for Academic Purposes (pp. 3-24). Reading, Massachussettes: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Grabe, W. (1999). Development in reading research and their implications for computer adaptive reading assessment. In M. Chalhoub (Ed.), Issues in Computer Adaptive Testing of Reading Proficiency (pp.11-47). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Oxford, R. (1999). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. NY: Hagor/Row/Newbury House. Tung-Hsien, H. (2001). Contrasting goal orientation in an EFL reading context: Influences on

reading strategy use and comprehension patterns. TESL-EJ, 5. Retrieved April 1, 2001 from http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ Mokhtari, K. & Shorey, R. (2002). Measuring students awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Developmental Education, 25 (3), 2-10.