People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English

The effectiveness of Using Reading-aloud and

Thinking-aloud Strategies on Student’s
Reading Comprehension
The Case of Second Year Secondary School Learners at Houari Boumedien
Secondary School, Berriche

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

The Degree of Master of Arts in Language Sciences and Teaching English
as a Foreign Language

By Mouna Abdoun

Chairman: Mr. Haroune MELGANI

Supervisor: Mrs. Soraya GUERFI

Examiner: Miss. Souad ZERROUKI

2020/2021
 Dedication

My deepest and most sincere thanks go to the Almighty “Allah” for

giving me the opportunity to carry out my studies.

They say behind every great man a great woman; I say behind

every success there is great support and great people that I would

really like to thank.

To the spirit of my beloved father

I dedicate this work to:

To my mother

To my husband for his unconditional and unlimited support

To my children Dylia and Mouatassim

To my sisters-, and brothers

To all my family

To my dearest friends Rym and Hassina, who has been of a great

support for me,

in all aspects of my life

i
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to address our most sincere thanks to Mrs Soraya Guerfi for

her great help and support

and to all the members of the jury who accepted to read my work.

I would also like to thank all my students at Houari Boumedien

Secondary School especially the ones who helped me to conduct this work

and provided me with research data.

ii
 Abstract

Reading is considered as an important skill in English language teaching since there is a

reciprocal relationship between academic success and learners’ academic reading skill.

Although researchers in the field offered a number of approaches and methods to teaching

reading, still learners face difficulties in understanding when dealing with a reading content

due to the ineffectiveness of the traditional methods. This research aims to investigate the

effectiveness of using Reading-aloud and Thinking-aloud strategies on enhancing Reading

Comprehension of EFL learners. A quasi experimental research was adopted and the data was

obtained from an experimental test. It took place at Houari Boumedien Secondary School,

Berriche, Oum El Bouaghi. The participants are two groups chosen from second year students.

These groups represented an experimental group that received treatment using the Reading-

aloud and Thinking-aloud strategies; and a control group that received treatment with a

conventional method of teaching reading following the competency-based approach. Pre/post-

tests were designed and conducted to compare the effect of both treatments. The analysis of

the tests revealed that using Reading-aloud and Thinking-aloud in teaching EFL learners

enhances their reading comprehension. The study suggests a list of recommendations and

future pedagogical implications along with highlighting the limitations of the current research.

iii
 List of Abbreviations

BAC Baccalaureate

CG Control Group

EFL English as a Foreign Language

EG Experimental Group

PDP Pre During Post

iv
 List of Symbols

d: Difference

df: The degrees of freedom

F: Test statistic of Levene’s test

n: Sample size

N: Number

s: Sample SD

Sig (2-tailed): The p value corresponding to the given test statistic and degrees of freedom

Sig.: The p-value corresponding to this test Statistic

t: Computed test statistic

X: Individual Value

̅: Sample Mean
𝒙

Σ: Total

v
 List of Tables

Table 1: Control Group’s Mean in the Pre-test and the Post-test ............................................ 72

Table 2: Control Group’s Scores Difference ........................................................................... 73

Table 3: Experimental Group’s Mean in the Pre-test and the Post-test ................................... 73

Table 4: Experimental Group’s Scores Difference .................................................................. 74

Table 5: Experimental Group Pre-test Vs. Experimental Group Post-test .............................. 75

Table 6: Experimental Group’s Paired Sample T-test ............................................................. 75

Table 7: Control Group Pre-test VS. Control Group Post-test ................................................ 76

Table 8: Groups’ Statistics in the Pre-test................................................................................ 77

Table 9: The Independent T-test of the Groups in the Pre-test ................................................ 78

Table 10: Groups’ Statistics in the Post-test ............................................................................ 78

Table 11: The Independent T-test of the Groups in the Post-test ............................................ 79

vi
 List of Figures

Figure 1:The bottom-up model (Liu, 2010, p. 156)...…………………………………… 14

Figure 2: the top-down model (Liu, 2010, p.157)..............................................................16

Figure 3: The Interactive Model (Liu, 2010, p.157)………………………………………..17

Figure 4: The Research Experimental Design ……………………………………………………….64

vii
 Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………..……………………………… iii

List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………. iv

List of Symbols………………………….………………………………………………...v

List of Tables ……………………….………………………………………………..vi

List of Figures ………………………..……………………………………………..vii

Table of Content…………………………………………………………………………...iviii

General Introduction ……………………………………………………………………1

Statement of the problem…………………………………………………………………..2

Aims of the Research ……………………………………………………………………3

Research Questions and Hypothesis ……………………………………………………3

Population and Sampling………………………………………………………………..…4

Research Methodology …….………………………………………………………………4

Structure of the Dissertation …………………………………………………………....4

Chapter One: Literature review

Section One: Reading Comprehension

Introduction…………............................................................................ 8

1- 1- Nature of Reading.......................................................................... 8

1-1-1- Definition.................................................................................... 8

1-1-2- Process of Reading........................................................................ 9

1- 1-3- Product of Reading......................................................................10

1- 2- Types of Reading ...........................................................................10

viii
1-3- Models of Reading Process.............................................................12

1-3- 1- The Process Models....................................................................13

1-3-1-1- The Bottom-up Reading Model..................................................13

1- 3-1-2- The Top-Down Reading Model................................................14

1- 3-1-3- The Interactive Reading Model................................................16

1- 3-2- The Componential Models..........................................................18

1- 3-2-1- The Two-Component Model.....................................................18

1- 3-2-2- The Three-Component Model...................................................18

1-4- Teaching Reading Comprehension...................................................19

1-4-1- Teacher's Role in the Reading Classroom…………......................19

1-4-2- The Role of the Text.......................................................................21

1-5- Reading Skills and Strategies.............................................................21

1-5-1- Reading Skills.................................................................................22

1-5-2- Reading Strategies..........................................................................24

1-6- Some Prototypical Text Processing Strategies...................................25

1- 6-1- Pre-reading Strategies.....................................................................25

1-6-2- While-reading Strategies..................................................................26

1-6-3- Post-reading Strategies.....................................................................27

1-7- Reading under the Competency-Based Approach................................28

1-8- The Importance of Reading..................................................................30

1-9- Characteristics of a Good Reader.........................................................30

Conclusion………….............................................................................................31

ix
 Section two: Reading Aloud Strategy

Introduction …………………………………….....................................35

1-2-1- Historical Background…………………………………………....35

1-2-2- Definition of Reading-Aloud Strategy.……………………………36

1-2-3- Practice of Reading-Aloud………………………………………...37

1-2-3-1- Reading-aloud as a Reading Practice for Comprehension……....37

1-2-3-2- Reading-Aloud as a Speaking Practice………………………….38

1-2-3-3- Reading-Aloud as a Pronunciation Practice…………………….38

1-2-4- Techniques of Reading Aloud……………………………………...39

1-2-4-1- Paired Reading……………………………………………………39

1-2-4-2- Choral Reading…………………………………………………..39

1-2-4-3- Modeled Reading………………………………………………...40

1-2-4-4- The Cloze Procedure Oral Reading……………………………..40

1-2-4-5- Repeated Reading………………………………………………..41

1-2-4-6- The Mumble Reading……………………………………………41

1-2-5- Steps for an Effective Read-Aloud…………………………………42

1-2-6- Importance of Reading Aloud for Readers………………………..43

1-2-6-1- Reading-aloud Builds Confidence……………………………….44

1-2-6-2- Reading-aloud Decreases Anxiety……………………………….44

1-2-6-3- Reading-aloud Creates Community……………………………..44

1-2-6-4- Reading-aloud Connects Spoken and Written Language………45

1-2-6-5- Reading-aloud Strengths Decoding Skills………………………..45

1-2-6-6- Reading-aloud Fosters Fluency and Comprehension…………….45

x
 1-2-7- Reading-Aloud Difficulties……………………………………........46

Conclusion……………………………………....................................................47

Section Three: Thinking-Aloud Strategy

Introduction………………………………………………………………49

1-3-1- Historical Background……………………………………………..49

1-3-2-Definition of Thinking-aloud Strategy……………..………………50

1-3-3-The Strengths of Thinking-aloud Strategy…………………………51

1-3-4- Thinking-aloud Procedures and Techniques..……………..………52

1-3-5- Thinking-aloud Strategy Instruction…………………………..…..56

1-3-6-Limitations of Thinking-aloud Strategy……………………………58

Conclusion……………………………………...........................................58

Chapter Two: The Field Work

Section One: Gathering Data

Introduction …………………………………………………………………..…….63

2-1-1- Population and Sampling………………………………………………..63

2-1-2- Research Method………………………………………………………..63

2.1.3. Research Variables………………………………………………………63

2.1.4. Research Design………………………………………………….……..64

2.1.5. Procedure………………………………………………………………..65

2.1.5.1. Pre-testing……………………………………………………………..65

xi
2.1.5.2. Treatment……………………………….……………………………..66

2.1.5.3. Post-testing……………………………..……………………………..68

2.1.5.4. Scoring……………………..…………..……………………………..68

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….……………………68

Section Two: Data Analysis

Introduction……………………………..………………………………..…..70

2.2.1. Data Analysis…………………………..……………………………..70

2.2.1.1. The Mean……………………………..……………………………..70

2.2.1.2. The T-test………………………..…………………………………..71

2.2.1.3. Comparing the Means………………………..………………………71

2.2.1.4. The Paired Sample t-test………………………..…………………….74

2.2.1.4.1. The Paired Sample t-test of the Experimental Group………………74

2.2.1.4.1. The Paired Sample t-test of the Control Group…………………..…76

2.2.1.5. Independent t-test………………………..…………………………….77

2-2-1-6- Discussion of the Results………………………..…………………...79

Conclusion………………………..…………………………………………………...80

General Conclusion………………………..………………………………………….81

1- Limitations of the Study ………………………………………………………82

2- Pedagogical Implications and Further Suggestions…………………………………83

List of References………………………………………………………………………85

Appendices……………………………………………………………………..93

xii
‫……………………………………………………………………………الملخص‬96

Resume…………………………………………………………………………97

xiii
 General Introduction

1- Statement of the Problem...................................................................

2- Aims of the Study.............................................................................

3- Research Questions and Hypotheses...................................................

4- Population and sampling………………………………………………..

5- Research Methodology.......................................................................

6- Structure of the Research.............................................................................

1
 General Introduction

1- Statement of the Problem

Learning English as a second language or as a foreign language is obtaining more and

more importance and it can be announced to be a must for being the language number one of

communication all over the world. So as to master the English language, learners have to be

sufficiently exposed to all the four skills namely: listening, speaking, reading, and writing .i.e.

we utilize these four language skills to achieve the English language proficiency. As reading is

considered to be an important skill in English Language Teaching, massive study articles and

books have been published to cope with diverse variables of reading such as that of

comprehension and proficiency. Still, reading in English is a complex procedure for native

speakers, let alone for non-native speakers. In spite of the necessity for the ability to read in

English, the widespread experience of EFL teachers revealed that the majority of learners fail

to accomplish an adequate reading.

In English as a foreign language, a successful reading necessitates a deep comprehension

of the reading material content. Unfortunately, this is a major challenge that EFL learners face

during the reading process, according to the competency based approach, especially the

learners of Houari Boumedien Secondary School, Berriche, Oum El Bouaghi in general and

second year students in particular. According to an investigation and analysis of the scores

achieved in the preceding years, students sitting for a term English exam or the baccalaureate

exam by end of the third year got the least scores in the first part of the exam (reading

comprehension) compared to the remaining parts (Text Exploration and Production). This

research paper seeks to investigate whether Algerian EFL students, particularly Houari

Boumedien Secondary school Second year learners, use of different strategies such as reading-

aloud and thinking-aloud would enhance their comprehension of a reading material and

therefore getting better results when sitting for exams.

2
 2- Aims of the Study

This study aims to find out about the effect that reading-aloud and thinking-aloud

strategies may have on EFL learners’ reading comprehension as well as the use of these

strategies inside the classroom among second year pupils in Houari Boumedien Secondary

School. It also attempts to identify the use of these reading comprehension strategies to solve

pupils' difficulties throughout the reading process. Besides, this study aims to suggest some

recommendations to increase both teachers’ and learners’ awareness about these strategies in

order to accomplish a successful reading.

3- Research Questions and Hypothesis

In addition to the effective way of teaching reading comprehension to EFL learners of

secondary school, this study also investigates the use of the reading-aloud and thinking-aloud

strategies by answering these questions:

1- Does using reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies have an effect on reading

comprehension for second year secondary school learners?

2- What effect does using reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies have on reading

comprehension for second year secondary school learners?

These questions are asked to investigate the following Alternative hypothesis (H1):

- H 1: The use of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud would positively enhance learners’

reading comprehension.

This hypothesis is tested against the null hypothesis (H 0) which says:

- H 0: The use of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud will have no effect on enhancing

learners’ reading comprehension.

3
 4- Population and Sampling

The population of this study is one hundred eighty-two (182) second year learners at

Houari Boumedien Secondary School, Berriche, Oum El Bouaghi. The fact that it is impossible

to deal with the whole number of the population, a sample of sixteen (16) learner per each

group (the control group and the experimental one), representing 17.58 percent of the

population, were chosen in order to confirm or disconfirm the previously mentioned

hypothesis.

5- Research Methodology

This research paper exhibits an analysis and discussion of the data that attempts to

provide a concrete picture of the main reading comprehension difficulties faced by learners and

the use of the reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies inside the classroom at Houari

Boumedien Secondary School. Throughout this study, the core factors and the source of

problems which made and brought those students to have lower reading comprehension were

diagnosed and described.

The nature of the work makes it essential to run a quasi-experimental design to

determine the effect of manipulating the independent variable, Reading-aloud and Thinking-

aloud, on the dependent variable reading comprehension. Only the experimental group was

involved in the practice of using Reading aloud and Thinking-aloud, whereas the control group

was taught according to the conventional classroom instruction adopted by the Algerian school

(Competency-based approach).

6- Structure of the Research

The dissertation will be divided into two chapters. The first one will be devoted to the

literature review .The second chapter will be devoted to the field work, data collection and

4
analysis as well as some recommendations that will help in developing the reading

comprehension.

With respect to the first chapter, it deals with the theoretical background of the research.

It is divided into three sections. The first one deals with reading. It t tackles the concept of

teaching reading comprehension starting with the definition and nature of reading as a process

and a product. After outlining types and models of reading, the role of the teacher and the text

will be also discussed. The next point in this section handles reading skills and strategies,

classroom with some prototypical text processing strategies along with teaching reading under

the competency-based approach moving to reading assessment and importance. The last point

copes with the characteristics of a good reader. Concerning the second section, it deals with

reading-aloud strategy, its historical background, definition and practice. After outlining the

techniques of reading-aloud and its steps, the importance and the difficulties of this strategy

are dealt with. The third section copes with thinking-aloud strategy, its historical background,

definition and the strengths of this strategy in addition to the procedures, techniques and

limitation of it.

The second chapter can be considered as the core of the study since it includes an

investigation of the use of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies for second year

secondary school learners. It includes the research methodology and data collection and

analysis. This chapter contains two sections. The first one is about the description of the

procedure and the second one deals with thorough results ‘‘analysis and interpretation’’. The

chapter ends with a general conclusion that includes pedagogical implications, limitations of

the study, further suggestions.

5
 Chapter One: Literature review

Section One: Reading Comprehension

Introduction…………...........................................................................

1- 1- Nature of Reading..........................................................................

1-1-1- Definition....................................................................................

1-1-2- Process of Reading........................................................................

1- 1-3- Product of Reading......................................................................

1- 2- Types of Reading ...........................................................................

1-3- Reading Models..............................................................................

1-3- 1- The Process Models....................................................................

1-3-1-1- The Bottom-up Reading Model..................................................

1- 3-1-2- The Top-Down Reading Model................................................

1- 3-1-3- The Interactive Reading Model................................................

1- 3-2- The Componential Models..........................................................

1- 3-2-1- The Two-Component Model.....................................................

1- 3-2-2- The Three-Component Model...................................................

1-4- Teaching Reading Comprehension...................................................

1-4-1- The Role of the Teacher in the Reading Classroom........................

1-4-2- The Role of the Text....................................................................

6
1-5- Reading Skills and Strategies...........................................................

1-5-1- Reading Skills..............................................................................

1-5-2- Reading Strategies.......................................................................

1-6- Some Prototypical Text Processing Strategies..................................

1- 6-1- Pre-reading Strategies.................................................................

1-6-2- While-reading Strategies.............................................................

1-6-3- Post-reading Strategies................................................................

1-7- Reading under the Competency-Based Approach.............................

1-8- The Importance of Reading.............................................................

1-9- Characteristics of a Good Reader...................................................

Conclusion………….............................................................................

7
 Chapter One: Literature Review

Section one: Reading

Introduction

Reading is one of the essential language skills. It is a receptive skill which is considered

very important particularly in the teaching and learning process of a foreign or a second

language. Reading was believed to be a passive task but in fact; it is an active process. The

reading process includes three main strongly related components which are the teacher, the

text, and the reader. A successful teaching of reading comprehension necessitates an interaction

between these components, the awareness of the nature of reading and the theories of teaching

reading comprehension and its implementation inside the classroom.

In this section reading comprehension and the concept of teaching it are tackled. It begins

with seeking the nature of reading and its definition in both process and product point of view.

Following the outline of reading models, we will discuss its types. Another aspect in this

section will deal with the application of teaching reading comprehension inside the classroom.

The concepts of reading skills along with reading strategies with their characteristics in addition

to their implementation in the reading process are aspects to be covered, as well as reading

under the Competency-Based Approach. Reading assessment and importance together with the

characteristics of a good reader are elements to be dealt with, too.

1-1- The Nature of Reading

1-1-1-Definition

Reading is a common activity that people engage in around the world. Grabe (2009) said

that people all over the world read for different purposes and in different languages. Learners

of second and foreign languages deal with reading in academic contexts. According to Grabe
8
(2009), reading is a ‘comprehending process’ in which learners read to interpret the author's

meaning in the text. It is an ‘interactive process’ too where there is an interaction between the

writer, the text and the readers. The text conveys the meaning that the author desires to send

out to the reader who uses his previous knowledge and guessing power for interpreting the text.

Also, reading is a ‘strategic process’ since the reader uses a number of skills and efforts to

convey the writer's meaning. Depending on the purpose and the reader's interest, these skills

and efforts require the reading process to be as ‘‘flexible’’ as possible. In addition, Grabe

(2009) said that reading is a ‘‘continuously evaluative process’’ since the reader evaluates the

text, the writer's viewpoint and then s/he agrees or disagrees with his/her opinion. From the

evaluation of the text, the idea of reading as a ‘‘learning process’’takes place. During the

reading process, the reader evaluates and responds to the text in a way that leads him to learn

from the existing information in the text, as checking the meaning of words. Finally, Grabe

(2009) regarded reading as a ‘‘linguistic process’’ because it necessitates the existence of the

linguistic knowledge about the text including morphological, syntactic and semantic

knowledge(pp. 15-16).

1-1-2- The Process of Reading

The process of reading can be defined as the interaction between a reader and a text. It

involves the improvement that foreign language learners pursue during reading a passage. The

reader uses his cognitive abilities to recognize the words and their meaning and how the ideas

are correlated to each other. The process of reading differs from one text to another and from

one reader to another (Alderson, 2000).Taking into account all what is printed on the paper,

the reader processes the text letter by letter, word by word, and sentence by sentence

(Wearmouth, Soler & Reid, 2003).

9
 1-1-3- The Product of Reading

The process of reading leads to a considerable product when followed correctly. By the

end of a successful reading process, readers will be able to understand and read fluently by

applying the suitable strategies and interpreting the expressed meaning of the text. Alderson

(2000) believed that what is important is not the process that readers go through to arrive at

understanding the text; instead achieving understanding is the most important.

Gray (1960) saidd that understanding the text can be observed in three different aspects:

“reading the lines”, which means the understanding of the linguistic knowledge in the text as

words, verbs, and structures; “reading between the lines”, which is the understanding of the

semantic meaning as well as the pragmatic meaning; “reading beyond the lines”, refers to the

readers’ judgment and attitudes towards the text and the author’s point of view (as cited in

Alderson, 2000, p.8).

Another product of reading is fluency. Fluent readers read the text in a normal speed with

the correct spelling of words. Klingner et al. (2007) stated that reading fluently means reading

without stopping each time to decode. Good readers are attentive about the pronunciation and

intonation function, such as the rhythm of pronouncing an interrogative sentence. This is what

Tankersley (2005) called ‘oral fluency’. She believed that fluent readers are the ones who have

attained both oral fluency and ’silent reading fluency’. Unlike oral fluency which is related to

reading loudly, the silent reading fluency is achieved when a learner read silently, understands

the text and uses a high level of decoding process (p.44).

1-2- Types of Reading

Reading can be divided into four types depending on the readers’ purpose: intensive,

extensive, perceptive, and interactive reading.

10
 1-2-1- Intensive reading

Intensive reading refers to reading short texts thoroughly and with clear goals to extract

information from them. It is usually done in class and it comprises a detailed reading of the

text. This type of reading is used to find out the most important ideas and to build up the

student's understanding of text. Day and Bamford (1998) defined intensive reading as " to take

a text, study I t line by line, referring at every moment to our dictionary and our grammar,

comparing, analyzing, translating, and retaining every expression that it contains." (p. 5).

Subsequently, students read the text taking into account every aspect in intensive reading.

Readers pay attention to the entire printed text, word by word, sentence by sentence along with

structures and tenses used in it. Each time they encounter a difficult word, they can use their

dictionaries to achieve full understanding of text meaning. To accomplish this, teachers provide

help and guidance for their students in various ways to reach intensive reading aims at

developing reading skills and enhancing vocabulary and grammar growth.

1-2-2- Extensive reading

It can be defined as reading widely but not necessarily focusing on only one text. Students

can read from different resources to develop reading skills. It is the independent reading of a

large quantity of material to get information or for enjoyment. It means reading rapidly large

amounts of easy, varied, and interesting self selected material. To be precise, learners should

be provided with understood materials that are appropriate for their interests and levels and

which are not complex and hardly comprehended for a successful reading outside classroom

(Brown, 2004)."Extensive reading: reading longer texts, usually for one's own pleasure. This

is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding." (Grellet, 1981, p.4). Even though

extensive reading occurs outside the classroom, teachers play a crucial role in encouraging

readers by illustrating the importance of this type of reading. Teachers design programs that

11
include the number of books learners are expected to read and give them the choice of selecting

what is to be read (Harmer, 2007).

1-2-3- Perceptive reading

Another type of reading that is done inside classroom with a great concentration from the

students is called perceptive reading. "Perceptive reading tasks involve attending to the

components of a larger stretches of discourse: letters, words, punctuation, and other grapheme

symbols." (Brown, 2004, p.189).

1-2-4- Interactive reading

Interactive reading is a kind of reading that occurs inside or outside the classroom. In this

type, learners do not look at words on a page to understand the text; to a certain extent, while

they read, they ask questions and reflect on the author's meaning and his purpose for writing.

Students also should stimulate their prior knowledge and use diverse strategies to deal with the

text. Interactive reading is regarded as valuable in the sense that it allows readers to activate

their thinking as well as helping them to remember what they are reading. Hedge (2000)

claimed that "reading can be seen as a kind of dialogue between the reader and the text, or even

between the reader and the author." (p.188). That is to say, reading is seen as a mean of

communication between the writer, the reader and the written words.

1-3- Models of the Reading Process

According to Samuel and Kamil, trying to build models of reading process dates back to

the mid 1950s to the 1960s where a precise speculation of the reading process has taken place.

These models attempt to describe the whole process of reading from eye fixation on the paper

until the comprehension of the printed material. The appearance of model-building activities

from 1965 to the nowadays is owing to some factors .One main factor is the change that has

12
occurred in language research and the increase of interest in cognitive psychology that

considers reading as a cognitive activity since it takes place in the mind (as cited in Carrell et

al.,1998).

The notion of model must be introduced before discussing the different types of reading

models. Goldman, Golden and Van den Broek (2007) stated that “The term model refers

specifically to a representation of the psychological processes That compromise a component

or set of components involved in human text comprehension.“ (as cited in Grabe,2009,p.83).

Urquhart and Weir (1998) said that there are two classes of models: componential models that

are interested in the components that are included in the reading process and the process models

which describe the way the words are recognized and the time information is kept in the

working memory. In other words, componential models are interested in the existing factors in

the reading process while process models describe how these factors function.

1-3-1-The Process Models

The process models can be sequential like bottom-up model and top down model; i.e.

they regard reading as a string of stages, each stage ends before the beginning of the next stage.

Whereas, some models are not sequential as the interactive model (Urquhart & Weir, 1998).

1-3-1-1- The Bottom-UP Reading Model

Many models are under the principles of the bottom-up such as those suggested by

Laberge and Samuels in 1974, while the most famous one is the model of Philip B. Gough in

1972; this model recommends that the learner while starting the reading process begins with

scanning letters. Next, the obtained pieces of information are passed to the decoder then these

letters are converted to ‘systemic phonemes’ to be recognized as a word. The reader goes

through the same pathway to identify the rest of the words. To assign meaning to the sentence,

13
another process occurs when the syntactic and semantic rules are operated. The last step is

called ‘the vocal system’, where the reader utters what has been printed (Urquhart & Weir,

1998, p.40).

Additionally, the bottom-up model of reading was identified by Liu (2010) as a model

which focuses on the written or printed form of a passage, and that meaning is just derived

in a process from part to whole. In a more specific explanation, the bottom-up model

develops in a serial manner from letter to sound, to words, to meaning as it is illustrated

in the following figure.

Figure 1: The bottom-up model (Liu, 2010, p. 156)

According to the bottom-up model standards, a text is arranged from the smallest

linguistic units to the highest units as follows: graph-phonic, phonemic, syllabic, morphemic,

words, and sentences. The reader builds up the smallest units one by one to decode higher ones

in order to understand the text (Dechant, 1991).

1-3-1-2 - The Top-Down Reading Model

Unlike the bottom-up models in which the readers concentrate on the graphic cues to

understand the text, in top-down models readers rely on their guessing power which is built on

14
their prior knowledge. The most recognized top-down model is that of Goodman in 1970 which

was highly influenced by psycholinguistics (Urquhart & weir, 1998).

Carrell (1981) regarded the reader as being an active participant in the reading process.

He decodes text information according to his background knowledge and expectation. Carrell

also asserted that what is vital in this model is not only the prior linguistic knowledge but also

the readers’ background knowledge about the text content or what is known as the context. As

cited in Wearmouth et.al (2003), Reid noted that the top-down model supposes that fluent

readers predict the meaning of the text before checking the syntax and the graphic data. In this

regard, Goodman (1976) stated that as readers have less need to depend on the graphic data in

the text's interpretation, they are not obliged to process the text letter by letter or word by word.

Liu said that “In this model it is evident that the flow of information proceeds from

the top downward so that the process of word identification is dependent upon meaning first.

Thus, the higher level processes embodied in past experiences and the reader's knowledge

of the language pattern interact with and direct the flow of information, just as listeners

may anticipate what the upcoming words of speakers might be” (2010, p.155 ). Accordingly,

the procedure of the top-down model as it is shown in the figure below shows that the

readers should obtain the meaning of the passage first throughout reading the whole text,

and linking it to the background knowledge, i.e., it begins with meaning and then it proceeds

to language patterns, graphemes, etc (from whole to part).

15
 Figure 2: the top-down model (Liu, 2010, p.157)

Concerning the idea of readers being active participant by Carrell, Urquhart and Weir

(1998) aserted that throughout the reading process learners bring hypotheses and by

maintaining reading they use the existing data in the text to confirm or disconfirm those

hypotheses.

1-3-1-3- The Interactive Model

Urquhart and Weir (1998) said that contrasting the bottom-up and the top-down models,

the interactive model is not sequential because the sequences and the stages that we have seen

before do not take place in this model . Rumelhart’s model in 1977 is the first interactive model.

A second model is the Stanovich’s model in 1980. Stanovich (1988) maintained that both

bottom-up and top-down models have limitations. Readers use both models all through the

reading process. They do not necessarily begin with graphic data in the text or with previous

knowledge. The Stanovich’s model is entitled " interactive- compensatory model” in a way

that readers utilize their strength in one area to compensate for weaknesses in the other areas.

16
As an example, the reader depends on the context to cover their difficulties to identify words

meaning (as cited in Urquhart & Weir, 1998).

Readers usually use three processes when dealing with a text. The first process is ‘Sound’

or what is identified as ‘phonic’ aspect of the reading process. It stands for the sound of the

letters and the words. The second is ‘sight’. The reader concentrates on the visual feature of

words and the last process is ‘meaning-context’ in which the reader uses the semantic and

syntactic characteristic of the text to get the meaning. The interaction between these three

processes constitutes ‘reading’ (Wearmouth et al., 2003, p. 5).

The interactive-compensatory model shows the relation between the context, the

meaning, the orthography and phonology. Processing at the level of orthography involves

sequencing the letters in a word, whilst at the phonological level it includes matching those

letters to the letter sound, processing of meaning encompasses the reader’s knowledge of

meaning at word level, and processing of context provides a framework for understanding the

text. (Wearmouth, et al., 2003, p. 5 )

Figure 3: The Interactive Model (Liu, 2010, p.157)

As it is exposed in the figure above, the interactive model unites between the bottom-

up and the top-down characteristics, where a successful interpretation or decoding of a

17
specified passage necessitates the reader’s use of various sorts of knowledge (semantic,

syntactic, lexical, and orthographic). According to Manzo and Manzo (1990), reading is an

active strategic procedure that concentrates on questioning, predicting, confirming and self-

connecting within the interactive model. In brief, the interaction model describes what

readers must do to build up and obtain knowledge from the printed page.

1-3-2- The Componential Models

Urquhart and Weir (1998) indicated that unlike process models, componential models

deal with the existence of some constituents or variables in the reading process. The models

are assorted on the basis of the number of elements into Two- components and three

components models.

1-3-2-1- The two component model

Tunner and Hoover's two component model is the simplest componential model as

claimed by Urquhart and Weir (1998). It contains two variables ‘word recognition’ and

‘linguistic comprehension’. Urquhart and Weir (1998) believed that the model with less

components is more suitable for the observed data. Hoover and Tunner have provided proof

that supports this idea. The proof states that word recognition and linguistic comprehension are

‘separable’ variables. Giving the example of illiterate people who generally understand the

language but they cannot read (as cited in Urquhart & Weir, 1998).

1-3-2-2- the three-component model

According to Coady (1979), the three-component model consists of three variables:

conceptual abilities, process strategies, and background knowledge. Bernhardt model

components are different from the ones of Coady which are: language, literacy and world

knowledge. In Coady’s model the term ‘conceptual ability’ is more likely to mean the

18
intellectual and cognitive ability of the reader. Coady provides an example of the adult that

cannot be competent in university instruction because of the lack of intellectual capacities and

not because he cannot learn English. The second component which is the ‘process strategies’

means the knowledge of linguistic system and the capability to use this knowledge in the

reading process. ’Background knowledge’ refers to the prior knowledge and information that

a reader has about the subject matter dealt with in the text.

Arquhart and Weir (1998) maintained that the variable of ‘word recognition’ is present

in Hoover and Tunner model and it is missing in Coady’s model which makes it a model of

comprehension and not a model of reading process. Concerning the variable in the latter model,

‘world knowledge ‘is the same as background knowledge, literacy stands for the way of dealing

with the text and language involves the data in the text.

1-4- Teaching Reading Comprehension

Klingner et.al ( 2007) stated that: reading comprehension is a multi-component, highly

complex process that involves many interaction between readers and what they bring to the

text (previous knowledge, strategy use) as well as variable related to the text itself (interested

in text, understanding of text types). (p. 8). Fluent reading with a deeper understanding of the

text context is not an easy procedure that happens rapidly or at once, instead it is a development

in which elements interfered in and stages tend to be followed.

1-4-1-Teacher’s Role in the Reading Classroom

In the traditional ways of teaching, the teacher was the core of the teaching-learning

process and he had the absolute authority in the classroom. Recently, the teaching-learning

process has shifted to learner-centered approach. Despite this change, the teacher still plays a

vital role in teaching the four skills inside the classroom. Harmer (2007) revealed that during

19
teaching reading, a teacher acts in diverse roles. He also considered that the focus should not

be on judging whether these roles are effective in facilitating learning or not, as an alternative

the focus should be in showing the different roles. A teacher can be a ‘controller’ in the sense

that he has an authoritative power. He organizes and leads the classroom. Harmer believed that

frequently teachers who perform as transmitters of knowledge feel that they are real controller.

Even though this role works well when explaining, reading, asking questions, grouping

students and directing them to one aspect of the text; being a controller can hold back student

from depending on their abilities and using their learning. It also reduces the possibility of

providing an enjoyable environment in the classroom (Harmer, 2007, p. 108).

In some situations while teaching reading comprehension, learners may find difficulties

in understanding what to do or how to proceed. In this case as Harmer claimed, the teacher acts

as a ‘prompter’. He gives them with help but not directly. The teacher supports readers by using

some techniques that lead them to fix up the situation themselves ( 2007, p.108 ).

The teacher can act also as a ’participant’. In the traditional classes, the teacher is the

one who stands aside, observes, and interferes later to correct and provide feedback to student,

but lately this picture has changed and the teacher becomes a participant, joins the activity and

takes part in the discussion along with readers. This role generates a motivated environment in

classroom. However, it has one disadvantage which is the increase of the possibility that the

teacher dominates the reading process (Harmer, 2007, p. 108).

The teacher acts as an "organizer", too. He gives readers the instructions and the orders

to be followed. Arranging students in groups to compare their answers, asking them to answer

the questions, and then to locate the sentence or the passage that these answers are taken from.

After finishing the three stages of reading, the teacher can provide the feedback (Harmer, 2007,

p. 286).

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 1-4-2- The Role of the Text

The reader’s comprehension is not only affected by the teacher’s role, but also the text.

Barnett (1989) stated that the type and the structure of the text strongly affect reading

comprehension. (p. 59). Klingner et.al (2007) defined text structure “This term refers to the

way a text is organized to guide readers identifying key information.” (p. 75).

Diverse sorts of text demand diverse structures; this could be seen clearly

in narrative text and expository text. Klingner et.al reckoned that

readers’ awareness about the variety of content structures certainly influences their

interpretation of the text (pp.75-76). A few constituents within the text or what Barnett called

‘textual element’ interfere in learners’ reading comprehension (1989, p. 74).

Barnett(1989) expressed that vocabulary as textual component interferes within

the text interpretation. Analysts within the field of reading are aware of the connection

between vocabulary and reading comprehension since investigations have showed that learners

with a rich vocabulary have good reading comprehension. Barnett also claimed

that researches in this field affirm the idea of the effects of reader’s control over grammar and

meaning of the text on the reading comprehension. Cohesion is the final component that Barnett

took into consideration. She claimed that “cohesion refers to the way in which ideas and

meaning in the text relate to each other.” (1989, p. 62).

1-5- Reading Skills and Strategies

Reading strategies and skills are two terms that appear to represent the same concept.

Numerous researchers within the field of reading came up with an opposing thought, whereas

others as Grabe (2007) claimed that there is small distinction between skills and strategies since

both of them are methods utilized by readers to improve comprehension. He pointed out that

the major difference between the two concepts is related to consciousness and unconsciousness.

21
 “Strategies are commonly more simply as processes that are consciously controlled by

readers to solve reading problems.”(Grabe, 2007, p. 221). That is to say, readers are conscious

about their use of strategies. They employ them intentionally particularly when they face

problems in comprehending a text. On the other side, skills are unconscious and automatic

procedures.

1-5-1- Reading Skills

Reading is a language skill used for getting information or for pleasure. Students should

learn to read various texts in various ways in order to achieve a successful reading. So as to

realize this objective, they have to be conscious about the different skills as well as the ways

of using them. Amongst the diversity of skills: skimming, scanning, predicting, and careful

reading tend to be the most useful ones.

According to Grellet (1981), skimming is a valuable technique for quick and effective

reading. It points out to the procedure of reading only the general ideas to get the synopsis or

the main idea of the content. Once skimming, the reader deletes some sentences from the

passage and concentrates on others primarily the first and the last few sentences. Teachers try

to make learners identify the key sentence of each paragraph since it gives an overall content

comprehension. This key sentence is called the topic sentence and it is usually located at the

beginning of the paragraph. "Skimming is skipping with skilled judgment. The ability to skim

with skilled judgment requires near perfect and instantaneous recognition of main ideas,

transitional paragraphs, paragraphs describing key features or concepts, and summary

paragraphs." (Cramer, 1998, p. 57). Providing that the learners select and choose carefully what

to skim and skip, they will get a great amount of valuable data in a short period of time.

Scanning is another functional technique or means for speeding up reading. Learners read

so as to find a particular piece of information rapidly when scanning. i.e. they do not read the

22
whole passage, they have a question in their minds and they read the text only to find the answer

for it. Scanning includes moving the eyes over the text quickly in order to get the wanted data

such as phone numbers, statistics, definitions, and names (Cramer, 1998). Scanning is more

limited than skimming since the readers just get back the wanted material or information they

are looking for (Grellet, 1981).

Predicting, which is a valuable skill of reading too, incorporates thinking while reading

and anticipating information and events in the passages. Learners can read throughout the texts,

refine, revise, and verify their predictions after making predictions. In this prospect, Grellet

(1981) said that prediction is "the faculty of predicting or guessing what is to come next,

making use of grammatical, logical and cultural clue." (p. 17). This technique activates

previous knowledge about the text of readers and helps them to make associations between

new information and what they already know. According to Duffy (2009), when readers start

reading, they depend on predicting. They anticipate meaning from the entire text by predicting

what they assume is going to happen and revising their predictions as they read along. That is

to say, before starting to read, students use texts, titles, pictures, graphics to anticipate meaning;

so, they list predictions and whilst reading they either validate or reject them.

Careful reading is the most frequently used reading skill. It necessitates a slow reading

of the passage from the beginning till the end taking into consideration every small detail.

Student should attempt to estimate the meaning from the context and throughout the use of

their previous knowledge without needing to know the precise meaning of the every single

word in the text to link data to each other. The pace of this strategy is slower when compared

to skimming and scanning. Careful reading encourages learners to read for the objective of

learning and building more knowledge (Urquhart & Weir, 1998).

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 1-5-2- Reading Strategies

The term reading strategy is a notion of debate and controversy amongst various

researchers in the domain. McNamara, for example, declared that “A reading strategy is a

cognitive or behavioural action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions, with the

goal of improving some aspect of comprehension” (2007, p. 6) whereas, Urquhart and Weir

(1998) described strategies as "ways of getting round difficulties encountered while reading"(p.

95). Learners reflect their cognitive abilities, through the use of diverse reading strategies

during the reading procedure. These strategies improve comprehension and overcome reading

difficulties.

Lyon (1998) and Scarborough (1988) expressed the relationship between reading

strategies and reading comprehension in their belief that the suitable use of strategies leads to

the interpretation of the text. Dissimilar to poor readers, the good ones who without difficulty

understand and interpret the meaning of passages are more likely to apply diverse strategies (

as cited in Westwood, 2001 ). The link between strategies and comprehension is not simple

and straightforward. In other words, using certain kinds of strategies does not always assure

successful reading comprehension. Likewise, failure in using the strategies does not constantly

result in unsuccessful reading comprehension.

Rubin (2000) identified reading as an intellectual process that includes the use of

different cognitive abilities (as cited in Westwood, 2001). Concerning this latter, Klingner et

al. (2007) expressed that “Metacognition is the reader’s conscious awareness or control of

cognitive processes” (p. 11). In other words, readers are conscious of the cognitive capacities

and strategies that they use during reading. Metacognition plays a major role in reading

comprehension. Readers anticipate the content of the text and during reading they look forward

the ideas that will come next. Learners’ metacognitive processes take place by carrying on

24
reading so they confirm or disconfirm their assumptions. They monitor their thinking and

comprehension if the predictions are disconfirmed (Klingner et al, 2007,p.11).

1-6- Some Prototypical Text Processing Strategies

Readers go throughout various stages in the reading procedure. These three stages require

the use of diverse strategies in order to enhance reading comprehension.

1-6-1- Pre-Reading Strategies

Before reading a passage, readers intentionally use some strategies that assist them to get

a synopsis about its content. “Background knowledge is what the reader brings to the reading

event. Each reader’s interpretation and each reading of the text are potentially unique.” (

Moreillon, 2007,p.19 ). During the teaching-learning process, students usually bring their prior

knowledge and experiences to the educational atmosphere. Some constituents can activate the

readers’ background knowledge and grab their interest an attention. Subsequent to catching

the topic or the title of the text, the readers’ background knowledge automatically activates and

every piece of information that is associated with the subject matter come straightforwardly to

their minds (Barnett, 1989).

Prediction is a strategy used by students to guess or anticipate what the passage will be

about, generate questions and form assumptions about the text before beginning to read. These

hypotheses are built on the warm-up given by the teacher, the title, and the author’s way of

writing. First language readers easily anticipate the content of the passage; however, foreign

language learners have some difficulties in prediction formulation. Readers may come across

these difficulties because some of them are not interested and consider that the passage does

not have meaning while others do not even disturb themselves to read the title and the given

25
illustrations since they do not recognize their importance or avoid them because they regard

them as unnecessary or time consuming (Barnett, 1989).

1-6-2- While-Reading Strategies

The second stage of reading comprehension is while-reading. Readers use some

particular strategies that assist them interact with the passage and to get a deep reading. Some

examples are self-questioning, self-monitoring, identifying main ideas and making inferences.

Self- questioning is one of the while-reading strategies. "This strategy is considered to

be a characteristic of good reading when it promotes cognitive processes such as inferencing,

monitoring understanding and attending to structure". (Urquhart & Weir, 1998, p. 186). While

reading a text, learners interact with the reading material through applying the strategy of self-

questioning such as wondering about the meaning of a word or a sentence. The application of

this strategy activates the use of other strategies like self-monitoring and inferencing. This

strategy is used to see whether comprehension occured or not. It is strongly related with schema

theory because when readers question themselves whether they have understood or not, they

are indirectly asking whether the information corresponds with what they already know.

Consequently, they learn how to comprehend what they read in the process of monitoring their

comprehension.

During the reading process, learners find difficulties in comprehension because of the

new and ambiguous words so they use dictionaries which are the broadly used references that

commonly appear in the form of book, electronic and online dictionaries (Harmer, 2007). In

this case, they generally refer to both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries to get the meaning

of these words by either checking their synonyms or translating them to the mother tongue.

26
 Learners interact with the words of the text as well as its sentences, and make a

association between all the constituents of the material on hand. They identify the reference of

the pronouns, they are aware of connotation. i.e. one word can have several meanings relying

on the context, along with knowing the relationship between sentences as the cause-effect

relationship. Making inferences does not rely only on the existing data in the written material.

Readers carry personal knowledge and experiences and utilize them while reading. Not all

inferences are personal; they can be shared amongst members of a cultural group (Lems, Miller,

and Soro, 2010).

1-6-3- Post-reading strategies

After reading the text, learners begin to apply other strategies such as summarizing and

questioning. “A process for systematically assessing comprehension of text through readers’

self-initiated expression of understanding is summarizing, orally or in writing” ( Lems et al.,

2010, p.119 ). Readers restate the principle ideas of the passage using their own words so as to

verify reading comprehension. According to Klingner at al., (2007), recognizing the topic

sentence of the text is one method for applying summarizing in reading. Readers build up a

topic sentence joining the main ideas of the text to come up with a summary that can be

presented in a spoken or a written form.

Questioning is another strategy utilized by learners to evaluate and improve their

comprehension of the text. Following reading a text, learners begin to ask questions about what

they have found ambiguous and confusing. Through the application of this strategy, learners

become more active contributors in the reading procedure. In addition, it creates an internal

conversation between the reader and the writer of the text. As well as learners, teachers can

utilize the questioning strategy to teach reading comprehension, too. Teachers should carefully

27
choose the questions that lead learners to use their cognitive abilities like questions which

require analyzing and synthesizing (Moreillon, 2007).

1-7- Reading under the Competency-Based Approach

The Competency-based approach is a communicative approach that concentrates on the

learning outcomes. For better elucidation about this approach, one must know the key term

‘competence’. Competence was defined by Ait Haddouchane, Bakkali, Ajana, & Gassemi

(2017) as the ability to do something appropriately and efficiently by a person who will be

confronting a complex situation and this competence permits him/her to build the suitable

response; i.e., it is a knowing how to act successfully.

Nevertheless, Kleynhans, Markham, Meyer, Aswegan and Pilbeam (2006) explained

competence through three principle terms which are knowledge, skills and attitude.

Knowledge is basically the learnt data that is going to be used when it is needed; skills go

along with knowledge in a way that they are the capacity to apply the obtained knowledge

and put it into practice and to perform in diverse situations. The Last term is attitude which

points out to the beliefs or thoughts that someone has about certain things and events. The

attitude can ,without doubt, influence the learner’s motivation either positively or negatively

.i.e. positive attitude results in gaining the desired results.

The CBA emerged to bridge the gap between school and real life situations, looking

for and giving knowledge throughout interacting with people ubiquitously using the four

skills; speaking, listening, reading, and writing (Nkwetisama, 2012). Therefore, Ait

haddouchane, Bakkali, Ajana, & Gassemi (2017) proposed three basic objectives for the

CBA as follows:

28
 - Identifying the competencies that must be mastered by the student by the end of each

year.

- Providing meaning to the learning outcomes in which the teacher demonstrates the

role of everything to students they learnt at school.

- Validating and checking the students’ accomplishment from what they resolved in

concrete actual situations.

In a few words, “CBA focuses on the outcomes of learning. It addresses on what the

learners are expected to do rather than on what they are expected to learn about”

(Nkwetisama, 2012, p.519)

As much as the reading skill is concerned, teaching it using CBA is not a

straightforward task that can be accomplished easily since it necessitates huge efforts from

both the teacher and the learners. For example, the teacher must train the learner to read

correctly and efficiently with complete comprehension of the text (Benramdane, 2016). As

previously mentioned, CBA centers on the outcomes, i.e., it is a learner-centered approach

that looks for not only to teach students to read, but also to read meaningfully. Subsequently,

the performance of the student is the key element that gives a definition to the reading

ability within competency-based programs (Sweet and Anderson, 2013).

The teaching of the English language four skills in Algeria has constantly been a

controversial issue. Concerning reading, it is found that teaching reading within CBA or

assessing it is a bit complicated particularly when it comes to reading aloud for the reason

that it is not acknowledged by the Algerian educational system and the majority of the time

is seen as a practice of pronunciation . Accordingly, as Benzerroug (2012) revealed the

application of CBA in Algeria is pretty challenging owing to the fact of the lack of the

29
adequate time allocated for teaching reading, speaking, listening and writing, the shortage

of teaching aid instruments, and the possibility of having unskilled teachers who cannot

assess, guide and train learners.

1-8- The Importance of Reading

Throughout the process of learning English as a FL, the four elementary skills are

very important , but reading is an essential one as far as learning English is concerned. The

importance of reading lies in the enormous effect when interacting with people. For instance,

it assists them to decipher and obtain words that they need while speaking. That is to say,

reading contributes in the improvement of the speaking skill (Mart, 2012). In addition,

reading extended texts helps learners to enlarge vocabulary, to improve general language

proficiency, and to enhance writing .i.e. reading allows learners to acquire new vocabulary,

words, models of writing, etc (Antepara, 2003).

Learners will have the opportrunity to comprehend and produce correct grammar

through reading that offers loaded materials to be talked and written about during the

learning process, and this results in creating curiosity and motivation within the students

themselves. Furthermore, reading paves the way to develop critical thinking, creativity, and

awareness within learners. Last but not least, reading produces a competent, confident,

professional, and a well-educated learner (Doghonadze, 2017).

1-9- Characteristics of a Good Reader

Rreading is one of the fundamental skills for mastering a FL. This means that learning

a FL completely is dependent on developing the reading ability; as a result, consistent

reading leads to the birth of good readers who have certain characteristics that grade them

to be called fluent or good readers.

30
 According to Foster (2005), good readers do not begin reading the moment they are

exposed to an input. In fact, they spend few seconds observing the title of the passage and

the illustrations if there are any .i.e. they start activating their prior knowledge and

predicting what the text would be about and the aim behind it. Stanovich (2000) added that

skillful readers utilize a mixture of strategies not only one so as to remember the words

being taught before and to understand the input. They also have the capacity to identify

words automatically either by decoding words or by direct visual identification .

while reading , good readers are able to grasp and use the most significant information

and to completely understand the text via the use of background knowledge in terms of

vocabulary, grammar, etc. For this reason, competent readers are aware of the accurate

meaning of specific grammatical devices, sentences’ patterns , words formation, words

order, etc. Furthermore, They tend to comprehend the grammatical relationships that happen

between the lexical components and to guess the correct meaning of these components in

a precise context (Broughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill, and Pincas, 1980) . Good readers are

“active readers, risk takers who have developed self- confidence and self-control” and

selective readers who are competently able to pass over vague words, ask questions, and

use signal words (French, Ellsworth, and Amoruso, 1995, p71).

Conclusion

This section shed light on the scholar’s point of view of the reading procedure. It

describes the nature of reading, its process and product. Besides, types, and models of reading

have been discussed in this section of the theoretical chapter. Moving to the application of the

teaching reading comprehension inside the classroom, the role of the teacher and the text with

stages of teaching reading have been emphasized on along with identifying of the most used

reading skills and strategies and teaching reading under the competency-based approach. Not

31
only the suitable implementation of teaching reading procedure that improves reading

comprehension, but the assessment of readers’ performance has a vital role in developing

reading and becoming a good reader.

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 Section two: Reading Aloud Strategy

Introduction ……………………………………......................................

1-2-1- Historical Background…………………………………………...

1-2-2- Definition of Reading-Aloud Strategy.…………………………..

1-2-3- Practice of Reading-Aloud……………………………………….

1-2-3-1- Reading-aloud as a Reading Practice for Comprehension……

1-2-3-2- Reading-Aloud as a Speaking Practice……………………….

1-2-3-3- Reading-Aloud as a Pronunciation Practice…………………

1-2-4- Techniques of Reading Aloud……………………………………

1-2-4-1- Paired Reading………………………………………………….

1-2-4-2- Choral Reading…………………………………………………

1-2-4-3- Modeled Reading……………………………………………….

1-2-4-4- The Cloze Procedure Oral Reading……………………………

1-2-4-5- Repeated Reading………………………………………………

1-2-4-6- The Mumble Reading…………………………………………..

1-2-5- Steps for an Effective Read-Aloud……………………………….

1-2-6- Importance of Reading Aloud for Readers………………………

1-2-6-1- Reading-aloud Builds Confidence……………………………….

1-2-6-2- Reading-aloud Decreases Anxiety……………………………….

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1-2-6-3- Reading-aloud Creates Community……………………………..

1-2-6-4- Reading-aloud Connects Spoken and Written Language………

1-2-6-5- Reading-aloud Strengths Decoding Skills………………………..

1-2-6-6- Reading-aloud Fosters Fluency and Comprehension…………….

1-2-7- Reading-Aloud Difficulties……………………………………........

Conclusion……………………………………................................................

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 Introduction

Assisting learners to use the language to make sense in the world necessitates a strategy

to depend on such as the reading-aloud strategy. Concerning this section, it deals with

reading-aloud strategy in detail starting with the historical background moving to definition.

The practice of this method copes with reading-aloud as a reading practice for comprehension,

a speaking practice and a pronunciation practice. After outlining the techniques used in the

application of reading-aloud, the steps of an effective read-aloud is mentioned. The importance

of this strategy and the difficulties that face the learners are dealt with as well.

1-2-1- Historical Background

Oral reading is a frequent activity that exists in all classes all over the world owing

to its significance in improving the reading level of the learners. Hence, Huszti (2009)

defined and explained reading aloud as the method by which students can be guided through

in a systematic way, in order to absorb the new learnt words and articulat them properly.

In the early days of oral reading instruction, particularly in the United States of

America, reading aloud was seen as a tradition that must be carried out not only in the

classrooms, but at homes as well, where it was seen as a tool for family entertainment and

information. Therefore, by the middle of the nineteenth century, reading aloud took over

school instruction in which textbooks were utilized for reading instruction only, following

a simple process which is reading the text orally, rereading it again, and then memorizing

the lesson (Rasinski, 2003).

By the end of the nineteenth century, oral reading as the principal mode of school

instruction began to lessen since the main concern was given to pronunciation, not to

understanding while reading. Consequently, the American and European educational

35
systems moved to silent reading, upholding that reading silently is more effective, but

once more, oral reading increased one more time with the progress of a new method of

reading called “the round robin reading”, in which the teacher assesses his/her students

capacity to decipher words by calling them to read one by one (Rasinski, 2003). For this

reason, Kuhn and Levy claimed that “when learners are reading silently, it is impossible

to know how much progress they are making or even if they are engaging with the text.

In order for teachers to determine how well students were reading, it was necessary to ask

students to read aloud periodically” (2015, p.42). As a result, reading aloud persisted to be

adopted and integrated in the programs of school even at the twenty first century for its

immense significance on both the students and the teachers throughout informing them

which level do their students accomplish so far ( Rasinski, 2003).

1-2-2- Definition of Reading-aloud Strategy

The concept of reading-aloud first emerged and controlled school instruction in the

first decade of the twentieth century. Just then, schools in the United States of America

were called “blab schools” since learners were obliged to read orally the assigned materials

which were diverse (Rasinski, 2003). In other words, each learner is asked to read a particular

passage that is dissimilar from the one of his/her classmates. Oral reading carries on its

domination even at the twenty one century due to its important role in the teaching and

learning processes, particularly at the elementary and middle school classrooms. As a

consequence, numerous interpretations were set to comprehend the true nature of reading

aloud (Rasinski, 2003).

Gabrielatos (2002) gave the definition for reading aloud as the ability to deliver what

is written in the passage verbally in a way that the content is understood by the listeners.

Oral reading or reading-aloud, as Reynolds and Janzen (2004) argued, is also a technique

36
that is utilized all through reading instruction and occurs mostly in the early stages of

learning where the learners are called for to read a particular text orally. Relying on the

students’ reading performance, the teacher can make difference between the good reader and

the poor reader by taking into consideration the time they spent in reading, along with the

mistakes committed, that would eventually supply him/her with an overall assessment that

permits him/her to come to a decision concerning the needed instructions inside the

classroom. Briefly, reading-aloud is a pleasant learning time and an artful teaching and a

learning activity that is deeply inserted in teaching and learning throughout the day, the

unit, or the year (Hahn, 2002).

1-2-3- Practice of Reading-Aloud

Investigations on reading-aloud maintained that teachers implement this activity to be

utilized in three major domains which are reading for comprehension, speaking, and

pronunciation (Gabrielatos, 2002).

1-2-3-1- Reading-aloud as a Reading Practice for Comprehension

In accordance with Gabrielatos (2002), reading-aloud may not seem as the finest

practice to achieve a total comprehension of the text, mainly for the learners who are fluent

readers and pronounce the words in the right way since when it comes to understanding what

they read, they confront enormous difficulties. That is why the reader must divide his/her

attention whilst reading equally to all the words in the text, i.e., to distribute attention in

an equal way between what is observed in the paper (sight), comprehension (throughout the

usage of prior knowledge and relating it to what is read), and pronunciation (the articulation

of sounds) (Gabrielatos, 2002). Additionally, Lippman (1997) considered reading-aloud as

a key feature that determines the achievement of readers when learning to read. This will

37
make them take advantage from oral reading to grasp new vocabulary and to understand

the content.

1-2-3-2- Reading-Aloud as a Speaking Practice

To understand this function, one must differentiate between speaking and reading

aloud. Oral reading is the procedure by which the reader conveys what is written to the

listener only in a comprehensive way without adding up any extra information to the

passage, whereas speaking is a spontaneous activity that necessitates the speaker to think of

what he/she is going to talk about next at the same time of speaking (Gabrielatos, 2002).

So, although both of them generate sounds while speaking, reading-aloud should not be

employed as the only speaking practice for learners since it will produce many

disadvantages. For instance, learners will get used to speaking unnaturally, depending on

what is written on the printed material only without speaking spontaneously (Gabrielatos,

2002).

On the other side, Huang stated that “For some students who don’t have the confidence

to practice spoken English, reading-aloud can help them overcome the faults of disfluency,

repeat, improper pause, and develop natural and good pronunciation habit” (2010, p.149).

Therefore, reading-aloud is a good speaking practice for learners who do not have self-

confidence enough, as well.

1-2-3-3- Reading-Aloud as a Pronunciation Practice

Gabrielatos (2002) maintained that reading-aloud can be utilized as an effective

solution to encourage pronunciation amongst students who are given the chance to read,

to pronounce single sounds and words, and to be corrected if mistakes are committed.

38
Therefore, reading-aloud enables the teachers to determine the problems that the students

face and their areas of difficulty to supply them with the needed feedback (Burton, 2007).

According to Huang (2010), reading-aloud is a comprehensive pronunciation strategy

in which learners are not only asked to pronounce words in a correct way, but to apply the

appropriate stress, intonation, and rhythm for each individual word being read orally. Hence,

reading-aloud is an effective pronunciation practice.

1-2-4- Techniques of Reading Aloud

The reading-aloud implementation inside the classroom has always been a challenge for

teachers. To provide a solution to this issue some teachers came up with particular techniques

such as paired reading, choral reading, mumble reading, etc fin order to improve and

facilitate the process of reading- aloud inside the classroom (Wood and Harmon, 2001).

1-2-4-1- Paired Reading

It is named assisted reading in which the teacher assigns two students to read aloud a

text together so as to make them feel more comfortable while reading the passage. This

relaxed atmosphere that is created is the product of the students’ belief and trust for one

another when reading collectively and to the non-interference from other students when the

reader commits mistakes (Wood and Harmon, 2001). Burton stated that readers “start reading

the text together until the learner signals that she/he is happy to read alone” (2007, p, 5).

1-2-4-2- Choral Reading

According to Wood and Harmon (2001), choral reading is a procedure where a group

of students read a story or a passage orally in harmony. This technique was discovered to

be enjoyable and pressure taking off the individual reader. Furthermore, Booth and Swartz

(2004) pointed out that this technique of reading refers to a group of learners reading a
39
particular passage together. In general, choral reading assists students to obtain a deeper

meaning about the passage being read, to make shy people overcome their shyness, and to

help learners with speech problems as well. The main advantages of choral reading as stated

by Booth and Swartz (2004) involve enhancing the memory skills of the reader, creating a

feeling of safety during reading, encouraging group solidarity and assisting students to improve

their fluency.

1-2-4-3- Modeled Reading

Hamaguchi (2002) stated that reading-aloud to students is very essential since it lets

them have a model to imitate while reading. Callella and Jordano (2000) added that the

procedure of reading-aloud supports the modeled reading, by which students get concerned

and engaged in the reading activity. In addition, Burton (2007) considered modeled reading

as the technique in which the teacher is in charge to read first the passage orally then his/her

students repeat after him. In this method, an impressive and an expressive modeling from

the teacher to the students is significant. The major advantages of modeled reading as stated

by Callella and Jordano (2000) are introducing and exposing the learner to a various genres

of texts, improving the knowledge of language structure and enriching the learners’

vocabulary.

1-2-4-4- The Cloze Procedure Oral Reading

Wood and Harmon (2001) stated that the cloze procedure oral reading technique

requires the teacher to read a text orally to the students and when he reaches a precise part,

he would ask them to fill in the blank by inserting the missing words. This method makes

the learners concentrate and follow with the reading of the teacher in order to have the

capacity to match the spoken words with the printed one.

40
 Booth (1998) claimed that the process of cloze procedure oral reading tends to

emphasize on oral or written detection of particular parts of the passage; it is the basis of

activities that require the learners to focus on the text to so as to have the capability to fill

up the gaps. Therefore, the principal objective of the close procedure oral reading is to

increase reading fluency throughout supporting students to concentrate on the meaning

of the text rather than words.

1-2-4-5- Repeated Reading

Armbruster, Lehr and Osborn (2010) claimed that the repeated reading technique can

enhance the oral performance of the learner, shedding the light on the Round-Robin

technique that requires the learners to take turns when reading aloud. Burton (2007) argued

that repeated reading necessitates the learners to read the same text again and again until

all of them read it fluently and comprehend it very well.

1-2-4-6- The Mumble Reading

Subsequent to the other techniques that are provided to improve reading aloud, another

technique was added after observing that many learners read aloud softly when they

encounter an ambiguous word or alphabet during reading-aloud. Concerning this, the teacher

asks the student to mumble read a specific part of a passage or a story until he/she identifies

the target word (Wood and Harmon, 2001). Moreover, mumble reading was created so as not

to disturb other learners whilst reading a passage repeatedly, . It is characterized by reading

and practicing a certain passage with a low and soft voice for about five minutes. When

the period of practice ends, learners are asked to read aloud in front of their teachers or the

reading group (Rasinski, 2003).

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 To sum up, all these techniques contribute in a positive way in improving the readers’

level when reading-aloud a particular text in the classroom or at home. That is why applying

them is very helpful when teaching or learning .

1-2-5- Steps for an Effective Read-Aloud

The strategy of reading-aloud texts, stories, novels, etc by learners or by teachers is

very important for building strong literacy skills, particularly for beginners. Therefore,

certain procedures should be followed to have an efficient reading-aloud session . As Moran,

Stobbe, Miller, Baron, and Moir (2008) stated, a reading-aloud session must be prepared

earlier by the teacher who will have to select a given book that would gain the interest of

most of the students. Then, the teacher begins reading it aloud with an enjoyable way, using

facial expressions, tone, etc so as to make the story vivid, to ensure that learners understand

the content, and to support them to read next. Finally, after learners’ turns to read aloud

finish, the teacher begins to question them about the most significant elememts in the book,

to guarantee that they fully comprehended what they read.

From another side, Carter (2004) claimed that a reading-aloud session must be first

started with a discussion about the title, the the author’s name , and the cover picture. By

doing this, students will recognize the various parts of the book. Then, the teacher starts the

oral reading allowing his/her students to view the text while reading and at the most essential

points or ambiguous words he/she slows down as an indication that it is an important element

which will be clarified later on. Carter (2004) added that the learners will join on repetitive

reading with the teacher or peers for future encouragement and assistance to read aloud alone.

In the last part, they will act in response to the story orally, by either writing, role-playing, or

any other activities.

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 In addition, four main procedures were proposed by Harvey and Goudvis (2007) for

the purpose of having an interactive and effective reading aloud session as follow;

-Activating background knowledge is the first step suggested by both authors. This

move aims at activating the students’ previous knowledge in order to allow them to turn

and talk to their peers for the sake of sharing the information they have about the reading

material in hand and also to prepare them to listen to the teacher’s reading.

-The second step is named modeling. The reader models his/her thinking while reading

in this step. That is to say, when the teacher begins reading the passage, he/she will construct

an inner talk with himself about the text, which will ultimately make the teacher’s point

of view or thinking about the text clear. Then, the teacher stops reading for a moment and

records his thoughts on sticky notes, charts, a think sheet, etc. After learners’ observation

of the teacher modeling, they will be asked to note down their ideas as well and to share

them later on.

-The next step is called guided practice where the teacher motivates his learners to

turn to their classmates to discuss the text and their written notes about it. The teacher in

this move plays the role of a guider and assists them in their practice.

-The final step is shared thinking in which both of the teacher and the students have a

discussion about what they have been talking about in the guided practice. So, it is a shared

clarification and analysis of the main ideas of the text.

1-2-6- Importance of Reading Aloud for Readers

The activity of reading has an important effect on readers, specifically reading-aloud

which is considered as a valuable way to enhance the reading performance of the students.

Researchers such as Rasinski (2003) stated that reading-aloud affects the students in a

43
positive way while learning, i.e. it builds confidence, fosters their fluency, reduces anxiety,

etc.

1-2-6-1- Reading-aloud builds confidence

According to Rasinski (2003), Confidence has an important role in the oral

performance of the student since it was found that learners who undergo reading difficulties,

like poor spelling, do not see themselves as good readers. Nevertheless, the performance of

the students can be formed and enhanced by the oral reading by giving chances to struggling

readers from shyness and lack of confidence to contribute and read aloud diverse scripts

and poems. This act will lead to a complete transformation for those learners not only at

the level of reading in the classrooms, but also in their characters by finding their voice

through oral reading.

1-2-6-2- Reading-aloud decreases anxiety

Gibson argued that reading-aloud is very helpful for shy students in the sense that

researches have found that ‘‘group preparation work, evaluation, and performance involved

in this can lessen anxiety” (2008, p, 32). Hence, reading-aloud could be the single speaking

activity that shy learners can do in the classroom since controlled and imitative activities

makes the students able to feel safe and less anxious, which would later on lead to the

following step which is speaking deliberately (Gibson, 2008).

1-2-6-3- Reading-aloud creates community

Nothing like silent reading which is known for being a single act, oral reading is

known for building community betwen learners, i.e., when learners contribute together in

a choral reading activity, they feel that they are a part of classroom community. This

relationship between them can stem from reading with peers, but it can also go further than

44
the classroom, creating even deeper connections as friendship (Rasinski, 2003). In a similar

viewpoint, Manzo and Manzo ( 1995) inserted that the participation in oral reading in the

classroom gives the students the chance to practise on reading and to utilize this skill in

various real life situations such as reading a birthday card or a delivering a speech.

1-2-6-4- Reading-aloud Connects Spoken and Written Language

Rasinski (2003) viewed that reading-aloud enhances the students’ ability to obtain

the existing relationships between their oral speech and the written words in the passage

through encoding and decoding skills. For instance, “ a common experience, such as field

trip, is shared by a group of students, discussed in class, and then transferred into print,

with the teacher as scribe” (Rasinski, 2003, p. 24). Consequently, reading-aloud makes

complicated ideas clearer and exposes learners to new vocabulary and language items that

are not a part of daily speech (Fountas and Pinnell, 1996).

1-2-6-5- Reading-aloud Strengths Decoding Skills

Decoding is a central skill which can be improved by the process of oral reading,

where students are asked to examine words and to recognize their sounds out precisely.

Therefore, during the activity of reading-aloud, learners get the opportunity to see,

pronounce, and hear the manner in which they decode the words, to strengthen their skill

in decoding what is being read (Rasinski, 2003).

1-2-6-6- Reading-aloud Fosters Fluency and Comprehension

In accordance with Rasinski (2003), the lack of fluency leads to poor comprehension.

That is to say, to read accurately, effortlessly, and efficiently, reading frequently is necessary

to accomplish both comprehension and fluency. Furthermore, Layne (2009) stated that

reading-aloud improves learners’ reading comprehension . Thus, reading-aloud assists them

45
to comprehend the text, improve their learning skill, and also obtain new words, expressions

and vocabulary items.

All in all, as Gibson (2008) stated, when teachers make learners read aloud, they

allow them to identify the troubles they may encounter. Therefore it could be viewed as a

diagnostic means for students’ problems.

1-2-7- Reading-Aloud Difficulties

The difficulties faced by students in reading, writing, and spelling are called literacy

difficulties. Dyslexia, in its narrow meaning, talks about reading difficulties to indicate the

reading of a word in an incomplete way, or with an enormous difficulty (Martin and

Miller, 2003). It was defined by Arfè, Dochrell and Berninger (2014) as disorders in reading

which are mostly seen in fluency, poor spelling, and words recognition .

On the other side, Christo, Davis, and Brock (2009) identified dyslexia as unanticipated

troubles that the students face during the act of reading-aloud. These difficulties primarily

relate to the procedure of decoding words, i.e., the failure of learners to decipher the words of

a text will lead automatically to problems in comprehension and will influence the

acquisition of vocabulary. Finally, Hoien and Lundberg (2000) stated that the procedure

of reading necessitates two major sub-tasks which are decoding and comprehension. When

learners lack these two capacities, they will encounter difficulties in oral reading.

Teachers can recognize the students with difficulties while learning by observing

their spelling, oral reading, and writing (Allington and Franzen, 2013). Actually, reading

is a much complicated skill, so there are lots of possible sources of difficulties. Berninger

and Richards (2002) claimed that reading-aloud troubles can come from the lack of accuracy

in the process of decoding words, and the inability to identify familiar words, to understand

46
the text, and to set the accurate intonation to the spoken language. That is to say, students

face difficulties in phonology, vocabulary, comprehension, retrieval, etc.

Conclusion

This section has investigated the essential points in the reading-aloud strategy. Hence,

giving its importance to the reader, it was indispensable to shed light on the reading-aloud

method as a necessity for the learners’ academic success through discussing various aspects in

relation to theories, models, types, techniques, etc. Additional discussion has been set up

essentially to the causes following the learners’ failure to read aloud efficiently.

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 Section Three: Thinking-Aloud Strategy

Introduction……………………………………............................................

1-3-1- Historical Background……………………………………………....

1-3-2-Definition of Thinking-aloud Strategy……………..………………

1-3-3-The Strengths of Thinking-aloud Strategy…………………………

1-3-4- Thinking-aloud Procedures and Techniques..……………..………

1-3-5- Thinking-aloud Strategy Instruction…………………………..…..

1-3-6-Limitations of Thinking-aloud Strategy……………………………

Conclusion……………………………………...........................................

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 Introduction

Since reading is considered a thinking process so it cannot be separated from the concept

of thinking. In this section, the thinking-aloud strategy will be coped with. It starts with

historical background moving to the definition of the strategy. After dealing with the strengths

of this strategy , the procedures of applying thinking-aloud inside are mentioned along with the

techniques to be practiced. Subsequently the instruction used while using the strategy during

reading is tackled as well as the limitations of using it.

1-3-1- Historical Background

The thinking-aloud method has its roots in psychological investigation. It was extended

from the older introspection method. Introspection is founded on the idea that one can view the

events that occur in consciousness, more or less as one can see the events in the outer world as

claimed by Titchener (1929). In this view, psychologists deal with the kind of events that

happen in human consciousness and their underlying structure just like other scientists study

the events that occur in the outside world.

Interesting results were obtained with the thinking-aloud method by for instance Duncker

(1945) and de Groot (1946 and 1965). Duncker (1945) analysed problem solving procedures

in terms of memory search. He explained the string of possible solutions that people investigate

from an informal model of retrieval to relevant limited solutions from memory.

By the end of the 1960s, the concern in internal cognitive procedures increased quickly

and thereby the concern in methods that can supply data about these procedures. A main result

was the work by Newell & Simon (1972), who used think-aloud protocols along with computer

models of problem solving processes to construct very detailed models. Even though many

psychologists were skeptical, the method attained more and more approval particularly in the

49
period from 1980 on. Therefore, the Thinking-Aloud strategy is a constructivist strategy that

was designed to boost learners’ initiative to get engaged in the literacy practice of reading

(Bentley, 2012).

1-3-2- Definition of Thinking-aloud Strategy

Reading is a thinking procedure so it cannot be divided from the idea of thinking. Readers

are required to think while they are reading and the thinking-aloud strategy offers them

opportunities to construct and verbalize their thinking while reading as it is described by Cohen

“stream-of-consciousness disclosure of thought processes” (1996.p7). Thinking-aloud is a

strategy that permits a teacher to verbalize thoughts while reading orally, modeling how the

process of comprehension works for the learners (Harris & Hodges as cited in Block & Israel,

2004). The objective of thinking-aloud method is to develop a similar thinking procedure for

students when they are reading autonomously in order to improve their comprehension. In other

words, this strategy asks learners to say out loud what they are thinking about when reading,

solving math problems, or just reacting to questions posed by teachers or other students.

Successful teachers think out loud on a standard basis to model this process for learners.

That is to say, they reveal practical ways of dealing with complex problems while bringing to

the surface the difficult thinking procedures that lie beneath reading comprehension,

mathematical problem solving, and other cognitively challenging tasks. Oster (2001) gives a

definition for thinking-aloud strategy as a reading method in which learners can express their

thoughts as they read, and therefore bring into the open strategies used to understand the text.

Within thinking-aloud technique, some reading comprehension strategies are taken into

consideration like predicting, visualizing and modeling to assist learners to be aware of

strategies they use in their native language (L1) to facilitate transfer into the target language

(L2). The purpose behind thinking-aloud lessons was to aid learners improve their capacity to

50
monitor their reading comprehension and utilize strategies to direct or facilitate understanding

(Baumann, 1993).

1-3-3-The Strengths of Think Aloud Strategy

When teachers model thinking-aloud for English language learners regularly, they will

obtain a well-rehearsed strategy to be used when they are attempting to comprehend a passage

on their own. According to Lems., et al (2010), thinking-aloud is useful in three significant

ways: in building metacognitive awareness, giving the teacher access into the thinking

procedures of the learner, and providing learners with chances to practice using academic

language orally.

Within the thinking-aloud process the learner is asked to voice his or her thoughts while

reading. Asking students to “think aloud” can offer valuable insights into their metacognitive

and cognitive processing methods, in addition to their word learning strategies and working

memory. Also, it gives data about the text characteristics that the students find appealing or

important (Irwin, 1991; Kucan & Beck,1997; Ward & Traweek, 1993; Harmon, 2000; Whitney

& Budd, 1996; Wade, Buxton, & Kelly, 1999 as cited in Klingner.,et al, 2007).

Meanwhile, Baumann (1993) stated that thinking-aloud is one technique in which readers

can be taught to monitor and repair their understanding while reading i.e. thinking-aloud is an

efficient process to support awareness of what students are doing while they are reading. When

readers are conscious about their reading and thinking in the process of reading, their

comprehension skill gets better. Therefore, thinking-loud strategy gets readers to concentrate

on what they are reading by relating what they read to their own background and experiences.

Think-aloud, or verbal reports (Anderson, 1999) assist students to be metacognitive

learners. This metacognitive consciousness (having the ability to think about one's own

51
thinking) is a fundamental constituent of learning, since it allows students to evaluate their

level of comprehension and alter their strategies for better success (Oster, 2001). According to

Oster (2001), another advantage of thinking-aloud process is that students become more

conscious about the mental procedures they utilize while reading so as to enhance their reading

comprehension. Furthermore, Davey (1983) proposed three benefits of using thinking-aloud in

a reading class, as follows:

1) It facilitates learning for students to monitor their thinking as they read and it improves

their comprehension as well.

2) It trains learners to re-read a sentence, read ahead to explain, and/or search for context

clues to get meaning of what they read.

3) It holds back the reading procedure and permits students to monitor their

comprehension of a passage.

1-3-4- Thinking-Aloud Procedures and Techniques

Originally, thinking-aloud must be directed individually (Klingner,.et al, 2007). Like

with other approaches to comprehension assessment, begin by choosing a text that is at a

student’s instructional level. The text should be readable but not too easy for the learners, since

some cognitive and metacognitive procedures are activated when a passage involves

challenging constituents. Then, ask the student questions that aid him or her to think aloud

before, during, and after reading, such as the following (Gunning, 2002):

1) Before reading: what do you think of this text might be about? Why do you think so?

2) During reading (once reading each marked-off part or chunk of passage): what were

you thinking while you read this segment? Were there any elements that were difficult to

52
understand? Were there any words that were complex and hard to understand? What did you

do when you encountered difficult words?

3) After reading: tell me what the passage was about?

While the learner thinks aloud, the teacher records his or her answers word for word as

much as possible. She/he should bear in mind that thinking-aloud is originally hard for many

students. Hence, it is necessary for teachers to model this procedure first and give learners time

to practice. After finishing the thinking-aloud procedure by the learner, the teacher examines

and analyzes his or her responses not which sorts of responses he or she utilized.

According to Davey (1983), there are thirteen aspects in modeling the thinking-aloud

strategy that the teacher may perform in class:

1) activating background knowledge

2) predicting

3) visualizing

4) making connections

5) determining importance

6) summarizing

7) self-monitoring

8) fix up strategies

9) share inferences

10) model the connections we make when we read

53
 11) share the questions we have when reading

12) verbalize confusing points

13) demonstrate fix-up strategies

By modeling the thinking-aloud strategy, optimistically afterward, the learners will have

the same thinking procedure while reading a passage, with the intention that they develop

awareness towards the use of reading strategy and become good readers. Based on the above

discussion, the researcher simplifies the process of thinking-aloud strategy through the

adaptation of the collaborative strategic reading theory by Klingner,.et al (2007) since both

strategies have the same plot in the reading process. There are five steps in conducting thinking-

aloud strategy in a reading classroom, as follows:

1) Modeling of the Text

The first thing the teacher does is to model the thinking-aloud. He/ she selects the first

sentence or paragraph of the passage then practice thinking-aloud through previewing to come

across any unfamiliar vocabulary or elements in the story that can be a source of confusion to

students. Then he/she provides background knowledge on the topic at hand. Whilst reading,

the teacher should make a pause and give comments about what he/she is thinking so as to

explain for learners how comprehension is taking place. The teacher verbalizes predictions,

confusing parts, or associations with previous knowledge to help in showing comprehension

of the passage. (Vacca & Vacca, 2014)

2) Pre reading

In this stage, learners are expected to preview the passage they are going to read. In

previewing, the learners are activating their background knowledge or brainstorming,

predicting and visualizing clues in the passage. The objectives of previewing are to aid students
54
recognize what the text is about, tap into their previous knowledge about the topic of the

passage at hand, and generate interest in the given topic.

The teacher assists the learners with previewing through reminding them to utilize all the

visual clues in the passage, such as pictures, charts, or graphs, and to look at the headings and

subheadings used throughout the text. He/she might aid them relate the topic to their personal

experiences. This procedure is done orally by letting the learners express freely what comes on

their minds. In this phase, the learners practice the thinking-aloud with the teacher’s guidance.

3) Fix-up Strategy (click and clunk)

Students utilize the procedure of click and clunk to check their comprehension of the

passage. When they comprehend the information, it “click”. When it does not make sense, it

“clunks”. In this situation, the learners declare their confusion verbally. They share the

questions they have in their minds and then work together to recognize clunks using fix-up

strategy. Fix-up strategy is a different strategy used to figure out a clunk word, concept, or idea

as printed on the paper. In this strategy, students can;

a) re-read the sentence without the word and think about what would give it meaning.

b) re-read the sentence with the clunk and the sentences before or after the lunk, seeking

the clues.

c) look for a prefix or suffix in the word.

d) break the word apart and look for smaller words they know.

4) Whilst reading

In this stage, students must get the core of the passage by themselves. They get the core

or gist by practicing thinking-aloud independently. Finding the gist means that students have

55
the ability to state the general idea of a paragraph or cluster of paragraphs using their own

words. In this manner, students learn how to synthesize information, getting a larger chunk of

the passage and distilling it into a main concept or idea.

5) After reading

Students learn to “wrap-up” through devising questions and answers about what they

have learned and read by reviewing the main ideas. The objectives at this level are to enhance

students’ knowledge, understanding, and memory of what they have read. Teachers may give

questions about significant information in the text with: who, what, when, where, why and how

or associated with the whole idea of the passage and the learners have to share their points of

view orally.

1-3-5- Thinking-aloud Strategy Instruction

Researchers, such as Harris and Hodges (1995) described the strategy as a technique in

which a teacher verbalizes thoughts aloud while reading a paragraph orally, therefore a frame

is given to the process to augment comprehension (Bentley, 2012). This strategy makes readers

able to pause and reflect on the elements to comprehend a passage, and relate these literacy

procedures orally (Bentley, 2012).

The teacher’s duty during the initial stage includes the systematic organization of the

application of literacy concepts, skills or approaches to boost the content comprehension.

Comprehension of a passage begins before learners’ achievement of a predictable level of

reading (Bentley, 2012). Consequently, thinking-aloud is a useful approach in a growing

literacy learning environment. It is a tool to set up students’ meta-cognition and permits them

to control their thoughts in an active way in order to enhance their comprehension (Bentley,

2012).

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 In modeling thinking-aloud strategy, the teacher ought to direct the learners to think while

they are reading. Comprehension is needed to be clearly instructed to learners and modeled at

different levels continuously (Block & Pressley, 2002; Ortlieb, & Norris, 2012). Oster (2001)

in her class exhibited the thinking-aloud strategy by using a short story and discussed the

procedure with the class. Oster (2001) presented numerous essential factors to think about

when reading. The first one is what they observe if they find some significant elements. The

second is facts and possible facts about the text. Then, predictions if the students visualize what

comes next. The next factor is questions they have about the text. The last factor is individual

reactions on how they feel about the text.

The thinking-aloud strategy allows students to verbalize their findings as they study and

to carry out the processes they are using to understand a passage. To become better readers and

take contentment in what they read, educationalists require evaluating learners’ weaknesses

and strengths in reading and in the method utilized to teaching them (Oster, 2001). Reading

comprehension depends on productive and appropriate application of several strategies for

obtaining previous acquaintance and making mental imagery of the context.

Additionally, supervising comprehension, making prediction and conclusions and

utilizing fixed-up approaches when needed must be put into action (Oster, 2001). Teaching the

thinking-aloud strategy in school include creating a support that help learners to attach reading

to the text (text-to-text), self-to-text and text-to-world. The teacher constructs a model in which

a paragraph is read in a class with thinking-aloud strategies and reads one sentence out loud at

a time then asks learners to give comments consistent with the thinking-aloud strategies

provided so as to make learners as thinking-aloud models for each other and to generate

authentic thinking (Oster, 2001).

57
 1-3-6-Limitations of Thinking-aloud Strategy

Baker (2002) suggested numerous possible limitations to the thinking-aloud strategy, as

follows;

1) It may interrupt the process of reading itself.

2) It can be hard for students to perform, they may not be conscious about the cognitive

procedures they are using, and may have problems in articulating what they are thinking.

3) Personal features such as age, motivation, anxiety level, and verbal capability can have

an influence on responses.

4) Learners might be cued to give specific answers by the instructions probes, or

questions asked.

5) Finding a text of just the appropriate level of difficulty can be challenging; learners

may only show the use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies when the passage is

adequately difficult, yet texts that are too difficult will be too hard for learners to read.

6) Thinking-aloud strategy can be time consuming and hard to score.

At a certain point, these limitations can be overcome. For instance, practice with

thinking-aloud aids learners to turn out to be more conscious about, and have the ability to

articulate, the mental processes they are using. In spite of its flaws, the thinking-aloud strategy

is available for assessment techniques.

Conclusion

The Thinking-aloud strategy has been examined and found to be useful for enhancing

reading comprehension. This section identifies the strengths and weaknesses of using this

method while teaching reading. The processes and techniques used in thinking-aloud such as
58
predicting, visualizing, making connections, etc are focused on along with the instructions to

be followed during the use and application of this strategy.

59
 Chapter Two: The Field Work

Section One: Gathering Data

Introduction…………………………………………………………………

2-1-1- Population and Sampling …………………………………………..…

2-1-2- Research Method………………………………………………....……

2-1-3- Research Variables………………………………………..……………

2-1-4- Research Design……………………………………………………….

2-1-5- Procedures……………….…………………………………………….

2-1-5-1- Pre-testing………………….………………………………………..

2-1-5-2- Treatment……………………….……………………………………

2-1-5-3- Post-testing………………………….……………………………….

2-1-5-4- Scoring………………………………….……………………………

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………

Section Two: Statistical Analysis and Findings

Introduction…………………………………………………………………..

2-2-1- Data Analysis……………………………………………………………

2-2-1-1- The Mean……………………………………………………………..

2-2-1-2- The T-test……………………………………………………………..

2-2-1-3- Comparing the Means………………………………………………

2-2-1-3-1- Comparing the Means of the Experimental Group in the Pre-test and the

Post-test…………………………………………………………………………….

2-2-1-3-2- Comparing the Means of the Control Group in the Pre-test and the Post-

test………………………………………………………………………………….

2-2-1-4- The Paired Sample t-test……………………………………………

2-2-1-4.1. The Paired Sample t-test of the Experimental Group…………….

60
2-2-1-4-2- The Paired Sample t-test of the Control Group………………….

2-2-1-5- Independent t-test………………………………………………….

2-2-1-5-1- Control Group Pre-test VS Experimental Group Pre-test……….

2-2-1-5-2- Control Group Post-test VS Experimental Group Post-test……..

2-2-1-6- Discussion of the Results…………………………………………..

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...

General Conclusion……….…………………………………………………

1- Limitations of the Study......................................................................

2- Pedagogical Implications and Further Suggestions...............................

61
 Section One: Gathering Data

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….

2-1-1- Population and Sampling …………………………………………..………

2-1-2- Research Method………………………………………………....…………

2-1-3- Research Variables………………………………………..…………………

2-1-4- Research Design……………………………………………………………..

2-1-5- Procedures……………….…………………………………………………..

2-1-5-1- Pre-testing………………….………………………………………………

2-1-5-2- Treatment……………………….………………………………………….

2-1-5-3- Post-testing………………………….……………………………………..

2-1-5-4- Scoring………………………………….………………………………….

Conclusion……………………………………………………..…………………....

62
 Introduction

This chapter represents the core of the investigation which is the practical part of the

.research. This first section identifies the population and the sample, the research method that

is used in conducting this study. It presents the variables and the description of the research

design and procedure which are used to accomplish this work. By the end of this chapter the

limitations of the study, the pedagogical implementations, and suggestions for further studies

are dealt with.

2-1-1- Population and Sampling

This research targets the learners of second year at Houari Boumedien Secondary School,

Berriche, Oum El bouaghi for the academic year 2020-2021. The population is composed of

one hundred eighty-two (182) students and the sample was randomly chosen forming 17.58 %

of the whole population. This sample consists of sixteen (16) pupils in each group; the control

and the experimental group. In fact, it is of great importance to mention that those groups are

gathered by the administration which makes the sample a representative one that is

characterized by mixed ages, sexes, and abilities.

2-1-2- Research Method

Based on the nature of this study (cause and effect relationship between the variables),

the aims, and the objectives to be obtained, the quasi-experimental design is the most

appropriate method to conduct this research. The experiment is conducted in three (3) sessions

after taking a pre-test and it is followed by a post-test as a research tool.

2.1.3. Research Variables

The present study comprises three variables: two independent variables and a dependent

one. The independent variables are using reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies which go

together when teaching a reading lesson and cannot be separated since the reading-aloud is part

63
of the thinking-aloud process or protocol; whereas, the dependent variable is learners’ reading

comprehension.

2.1.4. Research Design

When applying this research method, both the control group and the experimental group

followed three main procedures; the pre-test, the treatment, and the post-test.

Pre-Test Pre-Test

Conventional Using reading-

Learning aloud and thinking
-aloud

Post-Test Post-Test

Control Group (CG) Procedure Experimental Group (EG) Procedure

Figure 4: The research experimental design.

64
 2.1.5. Procedure

In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the control group receives the treatment

using the conventional classroom instruction for teaching a reading lesson under the

competency-based approach, whereas; the experimental group receives the treatment through

using the procedure and techniques of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies.

2.1.5.1. Pre-testing

To measure the participants’ reading comprehension in both groups, the same pre-test in

45 minutes was administered.

"A test is a method of measuring person's ability, knowledge, or performance in a given

domain." (Brown, 2004, p. 3). In our study, the test is designed in a written form to evaluate

pupils' interpretation of the text. It contains a text and some text-related exercises. After

reading the text, pupils were required to answer the text-related questions. They include, true

or false questions, comprehension questions and matching words with their definitions.

- The first question contains six statements in which pupils judge if they are true or false

depending on their understanding of the text.

- The second question is to answer the given questions according to the text, students are

asked to provide short answers (Yes/No answers) as well as full sentence long answer.

- The third question is to match between the words and their definitions. Students are

asked to look for the word as it exists in the text and deduce the meaning according to the

context in order to match it with the right given definition.

The scores of this test are used to determine whether learners understand the reading

material or not and to identify their reading comprehension level.

65
 2.1.5.2. Treatment

After conducting the pre-test, both groups (the control and the experimental groups)

received the treatment along three sessions for one hour per week. The CG was taught using

the conventional classroom instruction for teaching a reading lesson under the competency-

based approach whereas the EG was taught using the procedure and techniques of reading-

aloud and thinking-aloud strategies. The theme of the pre-test, post-test and the lessons of the

treatment was about science and technology which concerns the unit of ‘‘Budding Scientists’’

in the syllabus of second year secondary school. The lessons of the treatment were the same

for both the CG and the EG but they were conducted in different ways.

The CG was taught using the PDP frame work which helps the teachers to plan and

deliver effective reading lessons. This framework helps to ensure that the learners are

motivated, engaged and active before, while and after (Pre, During, Post -- PDP) reading a text.

In the first stage, the teacher prepares the learners for reading by activating their background

knowledge or talking about their experiences concerning the topic through pictures

interpretation and asking questions to raise their interest. Here, the students can make

predictions about what the text will be about and they will have a hint about what they will

read before beginning to work with the reading material.

In the second stage (During), the students focus their attention on the reading text and

complete the tasks which develop and deepen their understanding of the text progressively i.e.

from simpler and more general to more complex and more specific. At this stage, the text is

dealt with using silent reading and the teacher plays the role of a guider and assessor to the

students each time they asked for help to understand the text. The activities included in this

phase vary from reading and matching ideas with paragraphs, reading and reordering ideas

according to their appearance in the text, reading and saying whether the statements are

66
true/false, reading and answering questions from the text to reference word, completing a grid

or vocabulary matching.

In the last stage (Post), the students extend and integrate the understanding and

knowledge they gained from working with the reading text into other skills areas or contexts.

In other words, they need a chance to work further with the text, its topic, its content and

vocabulary, etc. Learners need an opportunity to personalize what they have read and to see

how the text relates or is applicable to them and the world outside the classroom. The activities

included here are discussion questions and speculations about certain events.

Concerning the EG, the reading lesson provided to learners was administered using the

strategies of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud. These strategies cannot be dealt with in a

separated way because they are interrelated and have some similar techniques when presenting

a reading lesson like activating background knowledge, modeling, guided practice, and shared

thinking (four main procedures proposed by Harvey and Goudvis (2007) for the purpose of

having an interactive and effective reading aloud). These previously mentioned procedures

are included in the thinking-aloud strategy as well. According to Davey (1983), there are

thirteen aspects in modeling the thinking-aloud strategy that the teacher may perform in class

which are: activating background knowledge, predicting, visualizing, making connections,

determining importance, summarizing, self-monitoring, fix up strategies, sharing inferences,

modeling the connections we make when we read, sharing the questions we have when reading,

verbalizing confusing points and demonstrating fix-up strategies.

Before applying reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies, pupils were first introduced

to the procedure to be followed after defining the concept to them and modeling the way of

reading-aloud and thinking-aloud during doing an activity. By modeling these strategies by the

67
teacher, the learners followed the same thinking procedure while reading a passage in pairs and

went through the activities provided afterwards.

2.1.5.3. Post-testing

The final phase was the post-test which was administered after the treatment in 45

minutes. It has the same structure of the pre-test with a higher level of difficulty to see whether

the learners have achieved a certain degree of improvement after the treatment for both the CG

using the conventional classroom instruction of competency based approach and EG using the

reading-aloud and thinking-aloud instruction in a reading lesson.

2.1.5.4. Scoring

The test is out of 20 points that divided between the three exercises. The first exercise

was True/False question with six (6) statements to answer for 6 points (one for each). The

second one was four (4) comprehension questions to be answered from the text for 4 points

(one for each) and the last one was matching ten (10) words with their definitions for 10 points

(one for each).

Conclusion

The experiment method was applied with the second year learners at Houari Boumedien

secondary school. The participants who took part in this study were selected randomly to fit

the intended aims. They were taught the same lesson but using a different way for each group

the CG and EG. In addition, the tests content and time allotted for each test and for the treatment

were suitable to accomplish the research results.

68
 Section Two: Data Analysis

Introduction…………………………………………………………………

2-2-1- Data Analysis…………………………………………………………

2-2-1-1- The Mean…………………………………………………………..

2-2-1-2- The T-test…………………………………………………………..

2-2-1-3- Comparing the Means………………………………………………

2-2-1-3-1- Comparing the Means of the Experimental Group in the Pre-test and the

Post-test……………………………………………………………………………

2-2-1-3-2- Comparing the Means of the Control Group in the Pre-test and the Post-

test…………………………………………………………………………………

2-2-1-4- The Paired Sample t-test…………………………………………..

2-2-1-4-1- The Paired Sample t-test of the Experimental Group……………

2-2-1-4-2- The Paired Sample t-test of the Control Group………………….

2-2-1-5- Independent t-test…………………………………………………..

2-2-1-5-1- Control Group Pre-test VS Experimental Group Pre-test………..

2-2-1-5-2- Control Group Post-test VS Experimental Group Post-test………

2-2-1-6 - Discussion the Results………………………………………………

General Conclusion………………………………………………………….

1- Limitations of the Study.....................................................................

2- Pedagogical Implication and Further Suggestions…………..................

69
 Introduction

After gathering the data from the experiment, the analysis should be fulfilled in order to

obtain the final results and to draw a general conclusion. These later phases have to be achieved

to approach the hypotheses and to answer the questions of this study. In addition, a set of

limitations will be disposed. By the end of this chapter, pedagogical implications and further

suggestions will also be provided.

2.2.1. Data Analysis

An experiment was carried out in which two groups participated; one is an EG which was

exposed to reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies instruction that is different from the CG

which was exposed to conventional reading lesson instruction (PDP frame work of competency

based approach). So, a comparison between the two groups should be done to distinguish

between each group’s achievement before and after the treatment. To do so, it is indispensable

to compare between the two groups’ means and standard deviations to apply the t-test through

which the research hypotheses could be confirmed or disconfirmed.

2.2.1.1. The Mean

Watier, Lamontagne and Chartier (2011, p. 3) said that “the mean involves summing the

scores in the distribution and dividing the sum by the number of scores in the distribution”. So,

it is the average of a set of scores. Its formula is:

𝑥̅ =sample mean; ∑ 𝑥= sum of the scores in the distribution; 𝑛= number of scores.

70
 2.2.1.2. The T-test

Kim (2015) said that a t-test “is a type of statistical test that is used to compare two the

means of two groups”. This means that a t-test is a statistical measurement by which a

comparison of two clusters will be done. He mentioned that:

T-test can be divided into two categories. There is the independent t-test where the two

groups under comparison are independent of each other, and the paired t-test, which can be used

when the two groups under comparison are dependent on each other. In other words, there are

two kinds of t-test; the independent t-test that is employed to compare between two autonomous

clusters; and the paired t-test which is utilized to compare two tied clusters.

In addition, Kim (2015) stated that ‘‘t-tests are usually used in cases where the

experimental subjects are divided into two independent groups, with one group treated with A

and the other group treated with B’’. Here, t-tests can be used as a testing statistical tool in the

experiments where there are two autonomous groups with different treatments its formula is:

Before calculating the t-test and obtaining the final results, a statistical analysis using

IBM SPSS Statistics 19 will be done. Each group‘s frequency and mean must be calculated and

a comparison between the two groups’ results must be executed.

2-2-1-3- Comparing the Means

The following data were analyzed via IBM SPSS Statistics 19:

2-2-1-3-1- Comparing the Means of the Experimental Group in the Pre-test and the

Post-test

71
 Pre-test mean Post-test mean The mean difference

6.2031 9.3750 3.1719

Table1: Experimental Group’s Mean in the Pre-test and the Post-test

The difference between the EG mean in the pre-test and post-test is remarkably exhibited

in Table 1. The participants’ outcomes were better in the post-test than in the pre-test with a

mean difference of approximately 3.17.

Students Pre-test Post-test Difference

1 9.5 11 +1.5

2 13.5 18 +4.5

3 4 7.5 +3.5

4 5.5 3 -2.5

5 5.5 8.5 +3.5

6 1.5 5 +3.5

7 12 12 +0

8 13.25 17.5 +4.25

9 1 5 +4

10 1 8 +7

11 8 11 +3

12 0 5 +5

13 7.5 7.5 +0

14 7 11 +4

15 4.5 12 +7.5

72
 16 5.5 8 +2.5

𝒙 = 6.20 𝒙 = 9.37 đ = 3.17

Table 2: Experimental Group’s Scores Difference

Table 2 clarifies the difference between the achievement of the EG during the pre andpost

test of the study. After a mindful view of the table, it can be noticed that nearly all of the

participants made a remarkable progress in the post-test in which the difference reached +7.50,

+6 and +4.5 for the students. Such a difference (͞d= 3.17) is really accountable since the means

in both the pre-test and the post-test are really different.

2-2-1-3-2- Comparing the Means of the Control Group in the Pre-test and the Post-

test

Pre-test mean Post-test mean The mean difference

4.0156 5.3438 1.3282

Table3: Control Group’s Mean in the Pre-test and the Post-test

Table 3 clearly points out that there is no considerable difference between the CG mean

in the pre-test and the post-test. So, the students’ results did not realize a remarkable

enhancement in the post-test.

Students Pre-test Post-test Difference

1 6.75 6.5 +0.25

2 3 3 0

3 2 4.5 +2.5

73
 4 0 3.5 +3.5

5 5.5 4.5 +1.5

6 12 13 +1

7 6.5 6.5 0

8 1 3 +2

9 6 12 +6

10 3 3 0

11 4 4 0

12 3 5.5 +2.5

13 5 2.5 +2.5

14 1 5 +4

15 2 3.5 +1.5

16 3.5 4.5 +1

𝒙 = 4.01 𝒙 = 5.34 đ = 1.33

Table4: Control Group’s Scores Difference

Table 4 displays the difference amongst the outcomes of the CG during the two stages of

the study. After viewing the table content attentively, it can be noticed that the majority of the

participants achieved a slow improvement.

2-2-1-4- The Paired Sample t-test

Paired sample t-test will be used in the following analysis to compare between the

achievement of both groups in both the pre-test and the post-test.

2-2-1-4-1- The Paired Sample t-test of the Experimental Group

74
 Paired Samples Statistics
Pair 1 Mean N Std. Std.
Deviation Error Mean
Pre-test Experimental Group 6.2031 16 4.29653 1.07413

Post-test Experimental Group 9.3750 16 4.22493 1.05623

Table 5: Experimental Group Pre-test Vs. Experimental Group Post-test

Paired Difference T Df

95% Confidence

Sig.(2-tailed)
Participants

Std. Error Mean

Std. Deviation

interval of the
Mean

Lower difference

Upper
EG Pair1

-3.17188

-4.51175

-1.83200
2.51449

0.62862
Pre T&

-5.046

0.000
15
Post T

Table 6: Experimental Group’s Paired Sample T-test

The shown data in the (Table 6) can be interpreted as follows:

t is the computed test statistic

df is the degrees of freedom

Sig (2-tailed) is the p value corresponding to the given test statistic and degrees of

freedom.

75
 Table 5 and 6 display the mean and the p values. The mean of the EG is higher in the

post-test than how it was in the pre-test. In the pre-test, it was 6.2031 then it increased to 9.3750.

On the other hand, the p value in table (5) shows the two- tailed probability for the experimental

group which is very low (p=.000) than its significant level 0.05. The fact that the t-value is a

minus number tells us that a CG has a smaller mean than the EG. Therefore, we can conclude

that using reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies caused considerably an effect in

enhancing learners’ reading comprehension than the traditional class(t (15)= -5.046, p< .05).

Hence, the alternative hypothesis which suggests that reading-aloud and thinking-aloud

strategies will have an effect on improving the learners’ reading comprehension is accepted,

and the null hypothesis which argued that reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies would

not have any influence on enhancing the learners’ reading comprehension is rejected.

2-2-1-4-2- The Paired Sample T-test of the Control Group

Paired Difference

95%

Sig.(2-tailed)
Participants

Std. Error Mean

Std. Deviation

Confidence interval
T Df
Mean

of the difference

Lower Upper
CG Pair1

2.19226

0.54806
-1.32813

-2.49630

-0.15995
Pre T&

-2.423
Post T

0.028
15

Table7: Control Group Pre-test VS. Control Group Post-test

Table 7 demonstrates that

76
 2-2-1-5- Independent t-test

The following analysis will be particularized to the t-test which concentrates on

identifying whether there would be a difference or a similarity between the pre-test and the

post-test of the EG’s results or not, and the same goal for exposing the similarity or the

difference between the experimental and the control group.

2-2-1-5-1- Control Group Pre-test vs. Experimental Group Pre-test

The Independent T-test of the Groups in the Pre-test

Group Statistics

Mean Group N Mean Std. deviation Std. error

scores Pre-test CG 16 4.0156 2.94741 0.73685

Pre-test EG 16 6.2031 4.29653 1.07413

Table8: Groups’ Statistics in the Pre-test

Independent samples test

Levene's test for equality Of t-test of Equality of Means

variances

95% Confidence
Std.error difference
Mean difference

interval of the
Sig(2- tailed)

Difference
Sig.

Df
T
F

Lower Upper

77
 Scores equal 2.46 0.127

-0.47272

4.84772
assumed
variance

2.18750

1.30258
1.679

0.103
30
Scores equal
variance not

-0.48725
assumed

2.18750

1.30258

4.86225
26.558
1.679

0.105
Table9: The Independent T-test of the Groups in the Pre-test

In Table 9, the p value (0.103) is greater than 0.05. Also, at the level of significance (0.05)

and degrees of freedom (30), the calculated t (1.679) is less than the t table . So, from one side,

the alternative hypothesis which supposes that there will be a difference between the EG and

the CG is rejected. On the other hand, the null hypothesis which pretends that there is no

significant difference between the EG and the CG is accepted. That is to say, there is no

significant difference between the groups in the pre-test. So, the groups taking part in this study

are homogeneous.

2-2-1-5-2- Control Group Post-test Vs. Experimental Group Post-test

Group Statistics

Mean Group N Mean Std. deviation Std. error

Scores Post-test CG 16 5.3438 3.04258 0.76064

Post-test EG 16 9.3750 4.22493 1.05623

Table10: Groups’ Statistics in the Post-test

78
 Independent samples test

Levene's test for equality Of t-test of Equality of Means

variances

95% Confidence

Std.error difference
Mean difference
interval of the

Sig(2- tailed)
Difference
Sig.

Df
T
F

Lower Upper

2.455 0.128
Scores equal

assumed
variance

4.03125

1.30162

1.37299

6.68951
3.097

0.004
30
Scores equal
variance not
assumed

4.03125

1.30162

1.36175

6.70075
27.261
3.097

0.004

Table11: The Independent T-test of the Groups in the Post-test

According to Table 11, it is noteworthy that the p value (0.004) is less than 0.05 which

means that there is a significant difference between the groups’ means. Moreover, at (0.05) the

level of significance and degrees of freedom (30), the calculated t (3.097) is greater than the t

table . That is to say, the alternative hypothesis is confirmed which indicates that the means of

the two groups are different.

2-2-1-6- Discussion of the Results

After all the actions in the research were conducted, there are some points to be discussed.

The fact that reading-aloud and thinking-aloud are two independent variables doesn’t create the

79
problem of which variable made the progression since the procedures included in thinking-

aloud strategy encompass the ones of the reading-aloud as seen in the literature review before.

It has been previously exhibited that both the control group and the experimental group

had approximately similar performance in the pre-test. Most of the students in both groups got

low results in the pre-test and some got acceptable ones. Their marks varied between 0 and for

the CG and 0 and 13,5 for the EG . However, after following the treatment with the EG, the

latter outscored the CG which did not experience the same treatment of reading-aloud and

thinking-aloud strategies usage in teaching reading lesson (CG mean = 5.34 while EG mean =

9,37). Also, despite the fact that the students of the CG were taught the same reading lesson but

using the conventional strategy of competency based approach (PDP) , their level did not

achieve significant improvement in the post-test (pre-test =4.01 /posttest=5.34).

All the previous presented results of the paired t test and the independent t test determine

that the CG’s members do not achieve sufficient improvement compared to the EG members

between the pre and the post-tests. The detectable differences of the means and the scores of

both groups during the two phases of the study make it perfectly clear that the treatment of

using reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies (with the EG) is the single answerable

element of its improvement.

Conclusion

In this section, the analysis obtained from the final results, using means, paired t test and

independent t test, etc as statistical procedures, leads to answering the research questions and

to the confirmation of the hypothesis which claims that using reading-aloud and thinking aloud

strategies is effective on reading comprehension on second year secondary school students.

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 General Conclusion

Reading is one of the four fundamental skills that is really important in the procedure of

attaining any language. As reading-aloud and thinking-aloud are strategies used in teaching and

learning the reading skill, they are said to be of a crucial importance particularly for secondary

school students. Studies have revealed that in the course of these strategies, the other remaining

skills; speaking, writing, and listening could be improved. Therefore, the core of this

experimental research is to describe and investigate the effectiveness of reading-aloud and

thinking-aloud strategies on second year secondary school students’ reading comprehension.

This study aimed to provide teachers with new strategies to improve their learners’

reading comprehension level. To achieve the desired objective, the experimental design was

conducted embracing a treatment that included implementing reading-aloud and thinking-

aloud strategies while teaching reading.

Throughout the study, the researcher implemented the reading-aloud and thinking-aloud

strategies that required the students read out loud and to speak up their thoughts. By practicing

to verbalize their thoughts, consequently, the reading class became more conducive. The

students were no longer the ones who received the treatment but they became the ones who

built their own understanding, and monitor their own thinking process. They became more

conscious about their personal thinking procedure while reading a text (metacognitive

awareness). They paid attention to what they read so that they feel at ease while understanding

the text.

The results confirmed the alternative hypothesis of the research in the fact that a

significant progress difference occurs between the pre-test and post-test scores of the

participants who experienced the treatment. As a result, reading-aloud and thinking-aloud

81
strategies are efficient for teaching reading comprehension since they aid learners to improve

their level and reading skills for a better academic achievement especially in official exams.

1- Limitations of the Study

Despite the fact that the research has met all the set objectives, there are a number of

limitations that have been noted.

First, the study was conducted at one place which is Houari Boumedien Secondary school,

Berriche, Oum El Bouaghi ( as a teacher at the same school); thus showing that there were no

significant comparisons with other schools in the same wilaya of Oum El bouaghi or in Algeria.

Despite this convenience, concerns are raised on whether findings of the same research would

still be the same if the study would be conducted in other regions.

The sample size chosen was also very small taking into account the total number of

students. The sample was chosen by use of convenience sampling method rather than random

sampling. It is significant to note that if the researcher had picked a larger sample randomly,

there would have been more valid findings.

In addition, the time allocated for completion of the study was limited. It was conducted

in a period of three weeks; and for that reason; the results attained were not very conclusive.

Perhaps spending a longer time conducting the study would have provided better outcomes that

would have highlighted the differences between the experimental and control groups more

clearly along with the pretest and the posttest data.

Other limitations that restraint the efficiency of this research is that of time owing to

Covid19 and teachers’ strike as well as learners’ lack of interest in studying the language itself.

82
 2- Pedagogical Implications and Further Suggestions

Even though the findings of study were corresponding to the purpose and objectives and

research question primarily stated for the study, a number of implications that should be noticed

by other researchers.

The researchers have to take into consideration other research areas in Algeria to

determine the effects of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud learning strategies more exclusively

since some places may be more educated than other areas of the country. For the reading-aloud

and thinking-aloud strategies to be successful, the educational level of the teachers is relevant.

Moreover, future studies could be conducted to examine if these Strategies have an influence

on reading comprehension over a longer period of time through more longitudinal studies by

following up on each student to determine whether the strategies were successful throughout

the students’ academic careers.

Moreover, this research should not only be conducted in one institution or region but also

in a number of schools in diverse regions with different settings to efficiently determine the

effect of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies on students. For a good achievement of

reading comprehension, learners should be successfully trained in the suitable way of adopting

the different reading strategies. There should be a session devoted particularly for training

pupils on the reading strategies.

This study only explored the impact of reading-aloud and thinking-aloud strategies on

reading comprehension. Future studies should consider focusing on the effects of these

strategies on other aspects such as the speaking skill.

In conclusion, future studies should also focus on the student awareness when using these

learning strategies. This could be assessed by investigating aspects such as their participation,

83
their procedure of learning and the challenges they encounter when learning using reading-

aloud and thinking-aloud strategies as well.

84
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 Appendices

The pre-test

Name and Group:……………………………………….

Test N1
Read the text carefully then do the activities after it.
A man who cannot move his arms or hands has used his thoughts to write on a computer
screen. The man has been paralyzed from the neck down for almost a decade. Scientists from
Stanford University in the USA implanted two tiny sensors into the man's brain. The scientists
gave this method two names - "brain-to-text" and "mind-writing". The man wants
to remain anonymous, so scientists have called him T5. He became paralyzed after suffering a
spinal cord injury ten years ago. The implants have allowed T5 to use his mind to write. He
can write 90 characters (about 18 words) per minute. This is five words slower than the average
person writing a text message on a smart phone.
The mind-writing system is very simple, but it involved a lot of advanced technology.
Scientists asked T5 to imagine holding a pen and then writing a sentence on a paper. The sensors
in T5's brain detected the activity in his brain as he imagined writing. A computer decoded this
activity into text on a screen. The scientists used a special algorithm to do this.
Professor Jaimie Henderson, a Stanford University researcher, hopes this research could help
millions of paralyzed people, and those who have lost the ability to speak, to write again. He
said: "The goal is to restore their ability to communicate by text." This technology may one day
help anyone to write at the speed of thought.
From https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2105/210516-brain-implants.html

Exercise 1: Read the text and say whether these statements are true or false
1. The man in the article can move his body under his neck. T / F
2. Scientists from Yale University in the USA helped the deaf man. T / F
3. A special algorithm was used to translate man's thinking into a passage. T / F
4. A scientist expects the technology won’t help people who cannot speak. T / F

Exercise 2: Answer the following questions according to the text

1. For how long has the man been paralyzed?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. did scientists have another name for their method besides "brain-to-text"?
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
3. What special thing did the scientists use to decode the man's thoughts?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
4. How fast could we be able to write in the future?
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

93
 Exercise 3: Match words with their definitions

Of a person not identified by name; of

1 injury a
unknown name.
2 average b An instance of being harmed or damaged.
3 Spinal C Very small
A computer program that can calculate
4 involved D
things or solve problems.
5 sensor E Anything about the spine (backbone).
Bring something back to the way it was
6 Tiny F
before.
A small machine or device that can measure
7 algorithm G
and record something.
8 restore h Having something as a necessary part or
result.

The Post-test
Name and Group:……………………………………….

Test N2
Read the text carefully then do the activities after it.
A new wearable device can let other people know your mood. The device is a wristband.
It is called a Moodbeam and is made by a UK company with the same name. The wristband
was designed by the company and a healthcare provider. The company wanted to make a self-
reporting device to help doctors and medical staff. The healthcare provider wanted its workers
to be able to monitor their mood. Wearers of the device can check their mood by logging in to
their Moodbeam account. Information on their mood will be stored in the cloud. Employers and
managers can also see the data stored in the cloud on a dashboard. This can let them know how
workers and teams are feeling and coping at work.
The original idea for the Moodbeam wristband came from a worried mother. She wanted
to know how her daughter was feeling when she wasn't with her. The company website says:
"Moodbeam is built on the unfortunate truth that whilst how we feel is so important to our
wellbeing, it's hard to capture, tough to talk about and often invisible....Moodbeam was created
with the ambition to transform the way the world sees mood, by making it easier to understand
and talk about how we feel." It added the device: "Allows for better understanding of how we
feel, creates more meaningful conversations with those we care about and helps us lead happier
lives."
From https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2101/210120-moods.html
Exercise 1: Read the text and say whether these statements are true or false
a. The Moodbeam was designed and made by an American company. T / F
b. A healthcare provider helped make the wristband. T / F
c. The wristband was designed to help speechless people only. T / F
h. The company says we probably won't lead happier lives. T/F

94
Exercise 2: Answer the following questions according to the text
1. Who did the company want to help with the wristband?
……………………………………………………………
2. How can wearers of the wristband check their mood?
……………………………………………………………
3. What does the company want to do with how the world sees mood?
……………………………………………………………
4. What might happen if we wear the wristband?
……………………………………………………………

Exercise 3: Match words with their definitions

A person or thing that gives something or

1. wearable a.
makes something available.
Record or express accurately in words or
2. device b.
pictures.
3. provider c. Able to be worn (especially about clothes).
A thing made or adapted for a particular
Original d. purpose, especially a piece of mechanical or
electronic equipment.
5. unfortunate e. Unable to be seen.
6. Capture f. Having or marked by bad luck; unlucky.
7. Invisible
g. The quality or state of being true.

Present or existing from the beginning; first

8. Truth h.
or earliest.

95
 ‫ملخص‬

‫تعتبر القراءة مهارة مهمة في تدريس اللغة اإلنجليزية حيث توجد عالةقة متباللة يي الججا اكأااليمي ممهارة القراءة‬
‫اكأااليمية للمتعلمي على الرغم م أن الباحثي في هذا المجال ةقدموا عدلًا م اكأساليب م الطرق لتعليم القراءة ‪ ،‬ال يزال‬
‫المتعلمون يواجهون صعويات في الفهم عجد التعامل يمحتوى للقراءة يسبب عدم فعالية الطرق التقليدية‪ .‬يهدف هذا البحث إلى‬
‫التحقق م فعالية استخدام إستراتيجيات القراءة يصوت عا ٍل مالتفكير يصوت عا ٍل في تعزيز الفهم القرائي لمتعلمي اللغة‬
‫اإلنجليزية الغة أججبية‪ .‬تم اعتمال يحث شبه تجريبي متم الحصول على البيانات م اختبار تجريبي‪ .‬أةقيمت في مدرسة هواري‬
‫يومدي الثانوية يريش ‪ ،‬أم البواةقي‪ .‬المشاراون في البحث مجموعتان تم اختيارهما م طالب السجة الثانية ثانوي‪ .‬مثلت هذه‬
‫عال‪ .‬مالمجموعة‬
‫المجموعتان مجموعة تجريبية تلقت العالج ياستخدام إستراتيجيات القراءة يصوت عا ٍل مالتفكير يصوت ٍ‬
‫الضايطة التي تلقت العالج يالطريقة التقليدية لتعليم القراءة ياتباع الجهج القائم على الكفاءة‪ .‬تم تصميم مإجراء االختبارات‬
‫المسبقة ‪ /‬الالحقة لمقارنة تأثير اال العالجي ‪ .‬أظهر تحليل االختبارات أن استخدام القراءة يصوت عا ٍل مالتفكير يصوت عا ٍل‬
‫في تعليم متعلمي اللغة اإلنجليزية الغة أججبية يعزز فهمهم للقراءة‪ .‬تقتر الدراسة مجموعة م التوصيات ماآلثار التريوية‬
‫المستقبلية إلى جانب تسليط الضوء على ةقيول البحث الحالي‪.‬‬

‫‪96‬‬
 Resume

La lecture est considérée comme une compétence importante dans l'enseignement de

l'anglais car il existe une relation réciproque entre la réussite scolaire et les compétences en

lecture académique des apprenants. Avec un contenu de lecture dû à l'inefficacité des méthodes

traditionnelles. Cette recherche vise à étudier l'efficacité de l'utilisation des stratégies de lecture

à voix haute et de réflexion à voix haute pour améliorer la compréhension de la lecture des

apprenants EFL. Une recherche quasi expérimentale a été adoptée et les données ont été

obtenues à partir d'un test expérimental. Il s'est déroulée au Lycée Houari Boumedien, Berriche,

Oum El Bouaghi. Les participants sont deux groupes choisis parmi les étudiants de deuxième

année. Ces groupes représentaient un groupe expérimental qui a reçu un traitement utilisant les

stratégies de lecture à voix haute et de réflexion à voix haute ; et un groupe témoin qui a reçu

un traitement avec une méthode conventionnelle d'enseignement de la lecture suivant l'approche

basée sur les compétences. Des pré/post-tests ont été conçus et réalisés pour comparer l'effet

des deux traitements. L'analyse des tests a révélé que l'utilisation de la lecture à voix haute et

de la réflexion à haute voix dans l'enseignement des apprenants EFL améliore leur

compréhension en lecture. L'étude propose une liste de recommandations et de futures

implications pédagogiques tout en soulignant les limites de la recherche actuelle.

97