The effects of cognitive reading strategies instruction (crsi) on students’ reading comprehension and their attitudes towards crsi at the language school

THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES 
INSTRUCTION (CRSI) ON STUDENTS’ READING 
COMPREHENSION AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS CRSI AT 
THE LANGUAGE SCHOOL 
Nguyen Van Thang, Bui Huyen Anh* 
Thanh Dong University-Hanoi University of Industry 
Received: 30/07/2018; Revised: 21/08/2018; Accepted: 20/08/2019 
Abstract: This eight-week quasi-experimental research was conducted to figure out how cognitive 
reading strategies affect non-English major students’ reading comprehension (RC) at Language School 
and their attitudes towards CRSI. Two intact classes with 36 students were divided into two groups, 
TOEIC119, control group (CG) and TOEIC120, experimental group (EG). Data were collected by 
means of RC tests and attitude questionnaire. Data collected from tests were analyzed by means of T-
test and test scores to measure students’ RC proficiency before and after the intervention. Data collected 
from the questionnaire were calculated Cronbach’s alpha and converted into percentage to investigate 
students’ attitudes towards CRS. The results revealed that students’ RC proficiency increased 
significantly in both two groups but the improvement of EG students was greater than that of CG. 
Furthermore, the findings showed that students had positive attitudes towards CRSI. Therefore, the 
study concludes that CRS may contribute to the students’ RC ability and recommends that CRS should 
be applied in teaching reading. 
Key words: Cognitive reading strategies, cognitive reading strategies instruction, reading 
comprehension, attitudes 
1. Introduction 
According to Sitthiprom (2012), reading is an important skill in acquiring a language and it can be 
defined as the process of understanding speech in a second language or foreign language. The role of 
reading for both first language and second language learners has been proved by a lot of researchers all 
over the world (Strevens, 1977; Carrel, Pharise & Liberto, 1989; El-Bashbishy, 1993). Reading 
comprehension is a basic goal for ESL/EFL students to gain an understanding of the world and of 
themselves, enabling them to think about and react to what they read (Karlin, 2006). Moreover, learners 
need reading comprehension to be able to continually increase their knowledge (Sitthiprom, 2012). 
Furthermore, many researchers have tried to find out possibly effective ways to help learners read 
successfully in English. One of the most significant factors positively impacting readers’ comprehension is 
reading strategies (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990; Al-Nujaidi, 2003; Jafari & Shokrpour, 2012). 
Language School located in Hanoi city is one institution offering pronunciation, general English, 
communicative course and TOEIC course for university students near Minh Khai Street. All of students 
coming to Language School had to do the placement test in order that they can be arranged in the right class. 
Therefore, in the author’s class, normally, students are pre-intermediate level and they need to take part in 
English course which equips them with skills to do two main parts of TOEIC test including Listening part and 
Reading part to get TOEIC 450 point. This course lasts for six months, two one-hour-and-a-half lessons per 
week, each two months for listening, reading and practicing test respectively. The lessons are designed to 
TOEIC form and focused on improving the test-taking skills of listening and reading. Because of the lesson’s 
* Email: nguyenvanthang305@gmail.com 
limited time and the objectives to be achieved, the textbooks chosen for them in this course are designed by 
all of teachers in Language School from different sources of TOEIC practice materials such as Tactics for 
TOEIC Listening and Reading Test (Trew, 2008); Building Skills for the New TOEIC test (Longheed, 2009); 
Starter TOEIC (Taylor & Malarcher, 2013). 
The researcher’s teaching experience at Language School has revealed that reading is a big problem 
for students. The researcher informally interviewed students at break time and most of them complained 
that they had problems when doing reading comprehension exercises. In fact, in the lessons, some of them 
failed to answer the reading comprehension questions of the text and others kept quiet when being asked. 
Observations as well as the discussion with the colleagues showed that students usually had difficulties in 
understanding the texts because of unfamiliar words, the text structure; therefore, they hardly recalled the 
texts successfully. In addition, finding out all key words of the text, predicting information are also their 
trouble. This might be because they have not received adequate instruction in how to effectively and acquire 
knowledge. The situation was reflected in their reading scores in the first monthly test, all of them got scores 
under 350. 
Many language theorists showed that the use of cognitive strategies is a good method to develop 
student’s re ... that CRS is one of the useful and practical reading strategies to improve students’ reading 
comprehension ability. 
5.1.2. General attitudes after the CRS program 
Analysis of the students’ answers from the questionnaire revealed that the students in the 
experimental group had positive attitudes towards CRS after they took a course with CRS. Most of the 
students expressed the view that CRS was helpful for comprehending reading texts as it not only helped 
them to overcome the difficulties of reading tasks and made them more confident in reading comprehension 
but also helped them identify the main ideas and summarize the reading text. In addition, most students 
were of the opinion that CRS lessons were more interesting, gave them more pleasure in learning reading. 
Only one student hesitated about participating in the CRS course in the future, while a vast majority of the 
students agreed that other cognitive reading strategies should be taught in the next course. These views of 
the students in the current study are compatible with those of the participants in earlier research such as 
Ibrahim and Saman (2012), Syatriana (2012) . 
All in all, the findings achieved from both the tests and the questionnaire in this study help to confirm 
that CRS had positive impacts on reading comprehension. The findings of the study suggested that the 
students should be given training in utilizing these strategies because of their great benefits to the students’ 
acquisition of the language. 
5.2. Implications 
5.2.1. For the teacher 
This section proposes some implications to promote students’ reading comprehension ability based 
on the discussion of the study’s findings related to CRS. As discussed in Section 4, the major findings of 
the present research have revealed positive effects of CRS on the Language School students’ reading 
comprehension ability. The role of CRS in improving reading comprehension can be undeniable, and so 
more and more studies focus on applying it. Therefore, so as to implement CRS effectively in reading 
lessons to enhance students’ reading comprehension, some solutions for teachers to overcome the problems 
when applying CRS in reading classes for university students should be taken in consideration. 
First, it is suggested that procedural and conditional knowledge of how and when to use CRS should 
be introduced to students to help them read more effectively and comfortably. To assure those positive 
impacts, teachers should provide them with explicit instructions, thorough explanation, careful modeling, 
as well as intensive drill or practice. It can give more opportunities for maximizing students’ achieving 
reading success. 
Second, the value of cognitive reading strategies use in reading should also be made clear to students 
as they cannot make good use of those strategies without a sound understanding of how they will benefit 
them in their reading skill. By getting them to appreciate the utility of CRS, teachers can encourage them 
to take an initiative in internalizing the strategies and then manipulating them better. 
Third, teachers should encourage their students to use CRS by themselves, and discuss the cognitive 
reading strategies for doing tasks with their peers in small groups when doing their homework so that they have 
more time practicing with these strategies and gradually they can apply these strategies more fluently and 
regularly in their learning independent of teachers’ scaffold. 
Fourth, preparing materials and designing CRS for reading passages are time-consuming. Therefore, it is 
advisable that teachers should cooperate with other teachers of English, discussing and sharing ideas as well as 
experience to construct CRS for reading texts in the curriculum. 
Fifth, it is essential for further studies on how to train and use CRS in a reading program, successful 
at university in Vietnam. These would assist teachers who would like to apply the strategies to their teaching 
in preparation for their students’ independent reading program like an extensive one to have suitable 
activities in their program. 
5.2.2. For the students 
It cannot be denied that the effectiveness of CRS depends heavily on learners, therefore, learners are 
expected to be responsible for their own learning to the extent that they use CRS to do their reading on a 
regular basis. However, some students may not fully understand the benefits they can get from joining this 
useful program, sometimes they may be too busy learning or doing part-time job to practice regularly CRS. 
Thus, students are advised first to be familiar with the CRS benefits and then to find time to practice CRS 
every day. Furthermore, learners should find their own way, take charge of their learning, and make their 
own opportunities for practice the language inside and outside the classroom; and be active when practicing 
CRS. 
Briefly, the instruction of CRS should be integrated into teaching reading comprehension with a view 
to enhancing students’ reading performance. Besides, students should be active and find their own way to 
practice CRS in reading comprehension inside as well as outside classroom. 
6. Conclusion 
 This study has explored the effects of CRS training in the students at Language School. CRS training 
as a remedial approach to reading instruction has some beneficial effects on learners’ reading ability and 
has improved their reading comprehension ability significantly. These findings suggest that we should adapt 
CRS instruction to the daily English reading lessons more actively. 
As the results of the current study, CRS can have effects on reading comprehension. The first research 
question was answered by the reading comprehension tests. The test results showed that both experimental 
and control groups made progress in their test performance. However, the test scores of the experimental 
group were more significant. The students in the experimental group outperformed more than their peers in 
the control group. This reveals the significant effectiveness of CRS on university students at Language 
School because CRS helps students understand the reading text more easily, identify the main ideas and 
summarize the text. Therefore, it can be proposed that CRS can improve the university students’ reading 
comprehension performance. 
The second research question was answered through the data collected from the questionnaire which 
was developed on the basis of the literature review on CRS. The results of the questionnaire demonstrates 
that the majority of students have positive attitudes towards the use of CRS in reading lessons by making 
reading lessons more interesting, easier to understand. Thus, it can be reconfirmed that CRS can be 
implemented in teaching and learning in order to enhance the university students’ reading comprehension 
proficiency. 
In conclusion, the researcher hopes that the current study would be of some aid for developing new 
approach to improving learners’ reading comprehension. In addition, the results of this study on the effects 
of CRS on reading comprehension improvement of the students at Language School will serve as a good 
step to continue with further research. 
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ẢNH HƯỞNG CỦA VIỆC DÙNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TRI NHẬN ĐẾN ĐỌC 
HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN VÀ THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI CHIẾN 
LƯỢC ĐỌC TRI NHẬN 
TẠI TRUNG TÂM LANGUAGE SCHOOL 
Tóm tắt: Tác giả đã thực hiện nghiên cứu bán thực nghiệm trong tám tuần để tìm hiểu chiến lược đọc 
tri nhận ảnh hưởng như thế nào đến khả năng đọc hiểu của học viên không chuyên tiếng Anh cũng như 
thái độ của sinh viên đối với chiến lược đọc tri nhận tại trung tâm Language School. Hai lớp với 36 học 
viên được chia thành 2 nhóm, nhóm thực nghiệm (TOEIC120) và nhóm kiểm soát (TOEIC119). Dữ 
liệu được thu thập từ bài kiểm tra đọc hiểu và bảng câu hỏi về thái độ. Dữ liệu được thu thập từ bài kiểm 
tra được phân tích bằng T-test và điểm kiểm tra được xếp loại để đo khả năng đọc hiểu của học viên 
trước và sau khi nghiên cứu. Dữ liệu thu thập được từ bảng câu hỏi về thái độ được tính hệ số Cronbach’s 
alpha và chuyển về phần trăm để điều tra thái độ của học viên đối với chiến lược đọc tri nhận. Kết quả 
nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng khả năng đọc hiểu của học viên tăng đáng kể ở cả hai nhóm nghiên cứu nhưng 
nhóm thực nghiệm tăng nhiều hơn so với nhóm kiểm soát. Thêm vào đó, kết quả cũng thể hiện rằng học 
viên có thái độ tích cực đối với chiến lược đọc tri nhận. Vì vậy, qua nghiên cứu này có thể kết luận rằng 
chiến lược đọc tri nhận có thể giúp học viên cải thiện khả năng đọc hiểu và đề xuất có thể đưa chiến 
lược đọc tri nhận vào công tác giảng dạy đọc hiểu. 
Từ khóa: Chiến lược đọc tri nhận, hướng dẫn chiến lược đọc tri nhận, đọc hiểu, thái độ