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Context Reading
Hsiu-Chiao (Sally) Fan, Ph.D1
Abstract
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) became well established as an important and
distinctive part of English Language Teaching (Dudley-Evans & StJohn, 1998b). It has
been a popular issue of late in the ESL/EFL field. Many countries educational systems
are very interested in adding it to the current educational policy and trying to transform
the existing ESL/EFL programs into ESP/EAP curriculum. Thus, the development of
ESP/EAP in English as second/foreign language learning is widespread and critical. One
type of ESP that is widely discussed and implemented in the field of higher education is
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (Carver, 1983).
Reading research in recent years has also shed light on metacognitive awareness of
reading strategies. In this study, the researcher intends to employ metacognitive strategies
to improve Taiwanese students English levels in EAP courses so that they can adapt to
their academic learning. English for academic purpose (EAP) hence plays an important
role in both their content curriculum and their academic achievement.
The research question will be addressed as Does metacognitive strategy training
enable to enhance Taiwanese university students academic achievement in EAP context
reading? The hypothesis will be addressed as Metacognitive strategies can enhance
Taiwanese university students academic achievement in EAP context reading.
A One-Way ANOVA measurement will be employed to test between-group and
within-group changes in the variables and see if the teaching of metacognitive strategy
can enhance Taiwanese university students academic achievement in EAP context
reading.
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) became well established as an important and
distinctive part of English Language Teaching (Dudley-Evans & StJohn, 1998b). John
Swales (1985), one of the prominent ESP concept pioneers (Gatehouse, 2001), also states
ESP is a relatively recent development in the major worldwide industry of Teaching
English as a Second/Foreign Language. It has been a popular issue of late in the
ESL/EFL field. Many countries educational systems around the world are very interested
in adding it to the current educational policy and trying to transform the existing
ESL/EFL programs into ESP/EAP curriculum. Thus, the development of ESP/EAP in
English as second/foreign language learning is widespread and critical.
ESP is also a key issue for non-English speaking countries like Taiwan to be able to
keep up with the rest of the world. One type of ESP that is widely discussed and
implemented in the field of higher education is English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
(Carver, 1983). With the inclusion of the EAP curriculum into existing EFL programs at
undergraduate levels, young adults in Taiwan can improve their competence, not only in
English language proficiency, but also in their area of specialty. In this way, Taiwan can
advance its competitive strength in the development of economics, technology, and
academics as well. The above factors arouse the researchers interest in doing research to
facilitate the education of Taiwanese university students in EAP reading.
training was improving the students familiarity and proficiency in reading ESP research
articles. Thus far, there is an increasing interest in the implementation and investigation
of metacognitive strategies in ESP/EAP curriculum; nevertheless, they remain very
limited.
2. Insufficient Research Investigating English Gap between Secondary and Higher
Education Levels
The concept of ESP/EAP in Taiwan has also been recently emerging. There are
many institutions interested in implementing ESP/EAP curriculum to meet their students
specialty area needs. Even though it has been widely discussed in conferences and has
begun to be implemented, there were not many universities focusing on the issued
curriculum. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) is the basis of ESP curriculum to help
young adults, particularly first-year students, gain entrance to and succeed at the
universities. In fact, the circumstances behind the scenes are that there is a gap between
the general English provided at the secondary level and the academic context at
undergraduate levels. As Dhieb-Henia (2003) describes in her ESP context study in
Tunisia,
Little research has been done to investigate what type of training
will be most beneficial to bridge the gap between general English
at secondary and undergraduate levels and disciplinary reading at
graduate level, and to help students in EFL contexts [] in their
specialty area (p. 388).
Similar to Tunisias situation, the Taiwanese junior and senior high general English
curriculums do not provide specific context that prepares college students for academic
purposes to access the English language they need at undergraduate levels and to
accomplish their academic goals (Dhieb-Henia, 2003). Thus, the researcher will put
emphasis on the EAP context learning, specifically on academic reading (Master &
Brinton, 1998).
Research Questions
The research questions posed for this study are as follows:
Does metacognitive strategy training enable to enhance Taiwanese
university students academic achievement in EAP context reading? Is
there a significant difference in the mean scores on the dependent variable
between male students and female students on the EAP context reading
performance?
Hypothesis
The hypothesis will be addressed as follows:
Metacognitive strategies can enhance Taiwanese university students
academic achievement in EAP context reading. There is a significant
difference in the mean scores on the dependent variable between male
students and female students on the EAP context reading performance.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Theoretical Framework
Metacognition is thinking about thinking (Ormrod, 1990). It involves planning,
monitoring and regulation of cognitive process to raise students consciousness to
monitor their learning and thinking process. It helps students to be consciously aware of
what they have learned, and recognize situations in which it would be useful (M.
Pressley, Symons, Sonya, Snyder, Barbara L., and Cariglia-Bull, Teresa, 1989, Winter).
Additionally, metacognition assists students to become aware of using appropriate
strategies and to develop monitoring and self-evaluating processes to improve their text
comprehension.
ESP/EAP is a movement based on the assertion that all language teaching programs
should be tailored to the special area learning (Ajiden, 2009). It focuses on a real
communication and learners special needs and interests. According to Hutchinson and
Waters (1987), language learners employ English as a language for their authentic
application purposes, rather than focusing on the features of language. ESP itself is
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divided into a set of categories that further detail the specificities (John Swales, 1985):
1) English for Academic Purposes
2) English for Occupational or Vocational Purposes
3) English for Professional Purposes
EAP mainly refers to students academic needs and their future professional needs
in the academic environment. It is an imperative aspect for students to advance their
academic achievement at universities. EAP also provides the learner with more ways of
acquiring language knowledge through different learning methodologies and strategies.
Thus, applying metacognitive strategies in EAP is, the right tool for the right task
(Balota, Paul, & Spieler, 1999).
The following three sections will explain this synthesis of implementing
metacognitive strategies in EAP.
1. English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
As students learn English language at university levels in Taiwan, their goal is not
just learning general English; they eventually will have to adapt to their academic majors
like business and economics, electrical engineering, applied English/foreign language,
etc. According to Grabe (1997), in academic settings, almost every major purpose is
much related to reading; reading is assumed to be the vital means for learning new
information and gaining access to alternative interpretations. In addition, reading is the
principal means for independent learning, whether the goal is performing better on
academic tasks, learning more about subject matter, or improving language abilities.
English for academic purpose (EAP) curriculum should thus account for how students
learn to read for multiple purposes, including at least the reading 1) to search for
information, 2) for general comprehension, 3) to learn new information, and 4) to
synthesize and evaluate information (Grabe, 1997, as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p.
187). In other words, students should be understanding of academic textbooks, academic
papers and journals, book reviews, literature reviews, research proposals to meet
specific needs of the learneruse of the underlying methodology and activities of the
disciplines it serves and be related to [their] specific disciplines (Dudley-Evans &
StJohn, 1998a, as cited in Gatehouse, 2001, p. 3). Multiple purposes in reading hence
play an important role in both their content curriculum and their academic achievement.
2. The Distinction between General English and Academic English (EAP)
In recent decades, since there are increasing numbers of non-English speaking
students going to the U.S. or English speaking countries, like Britain, Canada, Australia
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to pursue their studies, ESL programs are thriving both at secondary levels and
undergraduate levels. Nevertheless, these ESL programs emphasize general English,
which does not adequately prepare these students in their content area subject needs
(Sager, n.d.). Mostly, these ESL students are having difficulties in learning authentic
lecture discourse, different genres of academic writing, extensive reading, and most
fundamentally, analytical processing of subject-specific information (Sager, n.d.).
In a similar aspect, Taiwanese students in junior and senior high schools are also
taught general English with four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)
in communicative contexts. According to Deller & Price (2007), in the general English
class, the four language skills are the major subjects for end production and are
instruments for introducing new English language and practicing its linguistic
knowledge. In the content [area] classroom, the four skills are a means for learning new
[content] information and displaying an understanding of the subject being taught (p. 6).
English is a channel to a content purpose or an academic purpose (EAP), rather than an
end in itself (Sager, n.d.).
3. The Advantages of Employing Metacognitive Strategies in Academic Reading
(EAP)
In order to bridge the gap between students English proficiency at the secondary
and the undergraduate levels, many institutions in the U.S. have been seeking appropriate
methods to assist non-English speaking students in adapting to academic culture and
curriculum (Sager, n.d.). Similarly, many universities in Taiwan have also been
implementing many prominent teaching programs to help their students increase their
English proficiency levels and adapt to academic studies as well. Therefore, it is
appropriate to apply metacognitive strategies of key conceptsplanning, monitoring and
self-regulationand extend the concept of EAP to Taiwanese educational institutions.
Academic studies require more than a basic understanding of literacy meaning and
sentence structures; they also require an individual learner to be competent enough to
fulfill academic expectations. With a command of [academic] language, students will
be able to articulate their ideas concisely and thoughtfully and have fully functioning
communication skills (Hughes, 1989, p. 11). Thus, EAP learning can advance Taiwanese
undergraduate level students from the fundamentals to higher levels of learning. If
teachers in Taiwan can modify learning strategies to fit students special needs and adapt
these strategies to facilitate academic learning, Taiwanese students will elevate their
language proficiency levels and gain a positive outcome in their academic achievement.
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learning strategies can affect Thai students EAP context in reading and writing. Baker
used the text structure to investigate EAP related to the Thai context. The result indicated
metacognitive, cognitive and compensation strategies were the most frequently used
strategies overall. Evans (2007) explored two specific problems encountered by second
language university students attending courses in EAP: expository texts and reading-towrite tasks. Evans used the reading reaction journal (RRJ) to activate students various
reading strategies including metacognitive reading strategies, note taking in the content of
a text, and ongoing critical reactions to improve EAP students reading and writing
abilities. The results confirmed that the journals can indeed fulfill such a task.
Metacognitive strategies play an important role in students EAP context learning.
However, the research literature the researcher has been reviewing and the research
questions posted in these studies have not been satisfactory. Thus, there was a need for
the researcher to conduct a study to explore whether the metacognitive strategies can
affect Taiwanese students achievement in EAP context reading. Thus, the intervention
procedures, experimental procedures, and data analysis in this study will be depicted in
the Methods.
METHODS
Participants
The participants in this study consist of about 100 subjects who are currently
studying in their third year at the China University of Technology. The subjects are
recruited via already existing classes and are allocated to two groups with around 50/per
group. One groups subjects are assigned to an experimental group with metacognitive
strategies training and the other groups subjects are assigned to a control group with no
strategy training.
Instruments
Three instruments will be used in this study: pretest and posttest, and reading
strategy satisfaction survey.
1. Pretest and Posttest
The pretest and posttest use the well-established TOEIC practice tests adapted and
modified from Barrons TOEIC Test 4/e (Lougheed, 2006) to test students reading
comprehension on the one hand, further, to elevate their academic context reading
abilities on the other. According to Grabe (1997), reading is a complex skill. Meaningful
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EAP reading should account for the key elements of the following:
1) vocabulary development,
2) careful reading of texts,
3) awareness of text structure and discourse organization,
4) the use of graphic organizers to support comprehension
5) strategic reading,
6) fluency development,
7) extensive reading,
8) student motivation, and
9) integrated-skills tasks
(Grabe, 1997, as cited in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 192).
The purpose of the TOEIC test is to measure non-native English speakers English
skills in an international workplace environment. The scores indicate how well people
can communicate in English with others in business, commerce, and industry (Trew,
2007). It reflects global business communication styles and emphasizes authentic
language contexts. Thus, using TOEIC tests can be an effective means to test students
academic context reading and also meet the requirement of English for Academic
Purposes.
In this study, the reading section from the practice tests are chosen to measure
students ability to extract context meaning and main ideas. The pretest and posttest are
different versions. There are nine passages with thirty multiple-choice questions
presented in each version. The equivalence between the pretest and posttest has been
moderated through the pilot study at Ching Yun University of Science and Technology at
the end of 2008 (Fan, 2009).
2. Reading Strategies Satisfaction Survey
A reading strategies training satisfaction survey was designed to measure students
satisfaction with the strategies that were taught and to determine if the instructional
training was effectively delivered (Graner, 2007). The survey consisted of 12 items and
used a five-point Likert-scale. Each item had a scale value of 1 to 5. The value of 1
indicated Completely dissatisfied and the value of 5 indicated Completely satisfied.
All subjects will be provided with the Chinese version of the reading strategies
satisfaction survey.
(Glendinning, 2009) and Barrons TOEIC Test 4/e (Lougheed, 2006), are adopted in the
study. The topics cover a wide range of fields, including studying technology, design,
health, business, information technology, and the green environment, of which students
can gain thorough knowledge to create innovative ideas and convey insightful academic
competence. In the session of intervention training, the students will be instructed
corresponding to the metacognitive strategies with think aloud and summarization
training.
Procedures
1. Overall Procedures
1) The pretest is provided via the modified Barrons TOEIC Test 4/e
(Lougheed, 2006) practice test at the beginning of the program.
2) The training program period extended to 8 weeks of class sessions (100
minutes per week, 800 minutes in total).
3) The posttest following the training program will be administered after the
training program with the modified Barrons TOEIC Test 4/e (Lougheed,
2006) practice test.
4) The experimental class will be taught with think-aloud and summarization.
.
2. Metacognitive Strategy Training Procedures
(A) Think Aloud
Three basic steps are provided according to Davey (1983)
as follows:
(1) Teacher modeling.
(a) Making predictions
Students make predictions by using the title or subheadings in the text. For
example,
From the title I predict that this section will tell how airplane pilots
adjust for winds; In this next part I think well find out what caused these
plane crashes; I think this is a description of flight simulators.
(b) Developing visual images
Students create mental images of the information from the text. For
example,
I have a picture of this man in my mind. He looks like a mild mannered,
well-dressed business man; I can see the horse kicking down the stable door as
the flames come closer; I can feel the heat of the fire and pressure of the
moment.
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Data Analysis
A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be employed to test between-group
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and within-group changes in the variables, and the independent variables relationships to
the dependent variable. Univariate, main effects, and interaction between learners level
of reading ability and strategy analyses will be used to follow up any significant effects
indicating group differences.
In addition, if there are pre-test differences in the variables between groups, the
pretest value will be used as a covariate to increase the significance of the effects in
subsequent analyses. Linear Regression will also be used to predict which types of
metacognitive strategy can best facilitate students effectiveness in ESP/EAP reading.
At the end, in order to find the effectiveness of metacognitive strategy training on
the experimental group and compare the distinct improvement with the control group,
two groups will participate in the posttest after completing the training program.
Educational Implications
The expansion of this study can be applied to curriculum development with
metacognitive strategy in EAP context reading. In this way, it will improve Taiwanese
university students special area reading understanding so as to increase our competition
with the world in economics and technology.
References
Ajideh, P. (2009). Autonomous Learning and Metacognitive Strategies Essentials in ESP
Class. English Language Teaching, 2.1, 162-168.
Baker, W. (2004). Learning Strategies in Reading and Writing: EAP Contexts. Regional
Language Centre Journal, 35.3, 299-328.
Balota, D. A., Paul, S. T., & Spieler, D. H. (1999). Attentional control of lexical
processing pathways during word recognition and reading. Language processing,
15-57.
Carrell, P. L. (1989). Metacognitive Awareness and Second Language Reading. The
Modern Language Journal, 73(2), 121-134.
Carrell, P. L., Gajdusek, L., & Wise, T. (1998). Metacognition and EFL/ESL reading.
Instructional Science, 26(1), 97-112.
Carver, D. (1983). Some Propositions about ESP. ESP Journal, 2(2), 131-137.
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