The Determining Factors in Reading Strategies of Japanese High School EFL Learners

Abstract

This study examined the correlations between (1) the teachers' awareness of the usefulness of reading strategies for helping students to read, (2) the activities in English classes, and (3) the students' awareness of reading strategies. The participants were 111 English teachers of 37 senior high schools in Gifu Prefecture, and 3,640 students taught by those teachers. Three types of questionnaire were made to investigate (1), (2), and (3). One of four grades of passage with comprehension questions were provided to the students before the questionnaire (3) based on their expected English proficiency levels. The main results were: (a) the teachers who were aware that top-down strategies were more useful for their students might consistently administer more top-down activities in class, and (b) higher proficiency level students utilized both top-down and bottom-up strategies significantly more than lower proficiency level students. The latter result suggested that the student proficiency level of English might be the determining factor in their reading strategies.