Relationship between Reading Proficiency, Strategic Competence, and Reading Comprehension Test Performance: A Study of Iranian EFL Learners

Autor/inn/en	Ghafournia, Narjes; Afghari, Akbar
Titel	Relationship between Reading Proficiency, Strategic Competence, and Reading Comprehension Test Performance: A Study of Iranian EFL Learners
Quelle	In: International Education Studies, 6 (2013) 8, S.21-30 (10 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1913-9020
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Language Proficiency; Reading Strategies; Reading Comprehension; English (Second Language); Graduate Students; Metacognition; Reading Tests; Language Tests; Questionnaires; Scores; Performance; Reading Ability; Reading Improvement; Communicative Competence (Languages); Regression (Statistics); Statistical Analysis; Iran; Test of English as a Foreign Language + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Reading strategy; Leselernstufe; Lesetechnik; Leseverstehen; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Meta cognitive ability; Meta-cognition; Metakognitive Fähigkeit; Metakognition; Lesetest; Language test; Sprachtest; Fragebogen; Achievement; Leistung; Reading competence; Lesekompetenz; Communicative competence; Languages; Kommunikative Kompetenz; Sprache; Regression; Regressionsanalyse; Statistische Analyse
Abstract	The study scrutinized the interaction between reading proficiency and strategic competence via reading comprehension test performance of Iranian EFL learners. The further concern was to scrutinize the extent to which strategic competence affected the participants' test performance. The participants were 506 postgraduate students who took a reading comprehension test and answered a metacognitive strategy questionnaire successively in one session. The findings manifested that the participants at the high level of reading proficiency used metacognitive strategies more frequently than did the participants at the low and intermediate levels of reading proficiency in the test-taking setting. The findings also revealed a positive linear relationship between metacognitive awareness and the participants' test performance. The findings provide empirical evidences for the close interaction between linguistic and strategic competences, as the two major components of communicative language ability, discussed in different frameworks for language use such as Bachman's (1990) and Bachman and Palmer's (1996) frameworks. The findings revealed the necessity for designing the instructional programs focusing on both linguistic and strategic aspects of language learning in a balanced way to improve reading ability of L2 learners. The findings indicate that the true score of language learners is dependent on linguistic and strategic aspects of test-taking. Thus, the findings recommend language teachers to interpret test scores with great care to make fair decisions about the actual ability of test takers. In addition, the findings encourage curriculum planners and language teachers to design appropriate instructional materials and adapt effective teaching approaches to improve reading comprehension. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01