Tutoring Chinese EFL Learners to Read: An Exploratory Research of Customized Reading Scaffolding Instruction

• In Event: 51.025 - EFLs and English Learners: Innovations for Teaching and Learning

Abstract

As Chinese English-as-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ reading practice is confined to teach-to-test pedagogy, many of them who are struggling in reading have neither the interest nor the ability to comprehend texts for the purpose of acquiring information rather than answering tests. The creation of Customized Reading Scaffolding Instruction (CRSI) was designed based on the Engagement Reading model (Guthrie, 2000) and aims to solve students’ reading problems. This longitudinal study examined the effectiveness of CRSI on improving participants’ reading experience, reading amount and reading comprehension and contributed to a deeper understanding of students’ learning processes.
Qualitative and quantitative data showed that CRSI improved participants’ reading experience and reading comprehension in varied degrees during the intervention period compared with their previous reading behavior.

Author

• Xiaochen Hua, The University of Kansas