| Reading is one of the primary means of language input for most Chinese students learning English as a second language.In recent years,great attention has been paid to the teaching and learning of reading in general,but few studies have been focused on the IELTS(International English Language Testing System)reading in particular,one of the m ost prevalent English reading tests around the world for candidates who intend to study in some English-speaking countries.Based on the discuss ion of schema theory an d metacognitive strategies,the present study intends to explo re the ef fects of topic f amiliarity on the use o f metacognitive strategies in IEL TS academic reading.Sch ema theory is one of th e most important theory bases of L2 language study.Of all the three types of schem ata,content schemata,which refers to the read ers’ background knowledge stored in their brain,determines the r eaders’ topic familiarity with th e reading passage.Besides,there are many factors af fecting the process of reading comprehension,and reading strategies have been registered as one of the most significant.Many studies have been carried out on the ef fects of topic f amiliarity and metacognitive strategies on second language learning respectivel y,but could these two factors relate to each other in the r eading process of second language learners? The present research in to the use of m etacognitive strategies under dif ferent IELTS question types reveals that the two variab les are som ewhat correlated du ring the learners’ reading experience.In this research,60 governm ent-sponsored scholars who inte nd to study abroad are selected as participants to complete the reading of two passages f rom the IELTS academic reading tests.The two pas sages are of different familiarity levels under two question types.One is the question about the m ain idea for each paragraph in th e passages and the other is the “true”,“false” or “not given” question about the detailed information in the passages.Upon the completion of the reading tasks,participants are further invited to complete the metacognitive strategies questionnaire,which is based on the classification of O’Malley & Chamot(2001)and Oxford(1990).In add ition,think-aloud protocols are adopted as a research instrument to collect data.SPSS18.0 is used to an alyze collected data.Independe nt sample test,descriptive statistics,two-way ANVOA and correlation are used to discuss the three questions proposed.1.How does topic familiarity affect students reading performance under different question types in IELTS academic reading?2: Does the use of m etacognitve strategies correlate with reading performance? And which strategy is used m ost frequently by successful readers and unsuccessful ones?3.Does topic fa miliarity affect the use of metacognitive strategies in ILETS reading?The major findings in the presen t study are:(1)T opic familiarity plays a significant role in IEL TS reading perf ormance under dif ferent question types.Generally speaking,stu dents perform better in familiar topics than in unfa miliar topics.In term s of questions about main ideas(hereafter called QMI),studen ts achieve higher scores in f amiliar passages than in unf amiliar passages.T he understanding of questions about deta iled information(hereafter called QDI)shows no significant dif ference under d ifferent topic familiarity levels.(2)The use of metacognitve strategies has a positive ef fect on reading perform ance.Monitoring strategy is used most frequently by successful readers,while selective attention tends to be used more often by unsuccessful readers.(3)Topic familiarity affects the overall employment of m etacognitve strategies.W hen it com es to sub-strategies,between both familiar and unfamiliar passages,there is a significant difference in the use of monitoring strategy from both questionnaires and think-aloud protocols,while the employment of planning strategy,selective attention strategy as well as self-evaluation strategy shows no obvious difference between different familiarity levels. |
PDF Full Text Request