Abstract
This paper systematically reviews factors related to the use of reading strategies among college-level learners of English as a foreign/second language (EFL/ESL). The author examines empirical studies published from 2000 to 2017 in order to answer two research questions: (a) What factors relate to the college-level EFL/ESL learners’ use of reading strategies? (b) How do these factors relate to college-level EFL/ESL learners’ use of reading strategies? An initial review of the literature identifies four factors related to EFL/ESL learners’ reading strategy use: English proficiency, first language (L1) literacy experience, gender, and motivation. For reasons of space, this article only reports and discusses findings on the first two factors. (1) English proficiency: High-proficiency readers use more metacognitive, support, global, and problem-solving strategies and have more metacognitive knowledge of strategy use than low-proficiency readers. They also differ from low-proficiency readers in learning reading strategies. (2) L1 literacy experience: EFL/ESL readers’ L1 linguistic features and L1 reading experience shape their strategy use when they read English.
About the author
Jia LIN is Teaching Assistant Professor in Chinese at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA. Her research interests are language testing and assessment, foreign language pedagogy, and quantitative research methodology.
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