Comparing the effects of traditional vs. non-traditional reading instruction on level of reading comprehension, and use of metacognitive strategies in EFL learners in Taiwan

The main purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effects of the use of traditional vs. non-traditional reading instruction (i.e., communicative reading instruction or CRI) on EFL, Taiwanese learners' reading comprehension levels, metacognitive strategy use, and perception of the CRI in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. The correlation between the perception of the CRI instruction and use of metacognitive strategies as well between perception and level of reading comprehension were examined.; The subjects were Chinese-speaking EFL learners in their second year of college education with an engineering major at a private university in Northern Taiwan. One class (N = 40), the control group, received traditional vocabulary and grammar instruction utilizing a paragraph translation teaching methods (TRI). The other class (N = 40), the experimental group, received the communicative reading instruction (CRI) which emphasizes reading for the purpose of understanding and utilizing the knowledge obtained, reading actively to seek answers needed, and reading strategically to extract correct information. Both groups were taught reading strategies to enhance their reading competency. Level of reading comprehension and use of metacognitive strategies in the English acquisition process were utilized as both pretest/posttest measures. At the end of the twelve-week instruction, a post-instruction perception questionnaire was administered to the experimental group to investigate student's perception of the CRI and its correlation with the reading comprehension performance and use of metacognitive strategies.; The result showed that students in both groups made improvement in their reading comprehension scores and use of metacognitive strategies. The ANCOVA analysis further revealed that students in the CRI class outperformed students in the TRI class in these same two domains. In addition, students seemed to favor CRI. Students reported that they preferred to learn sentence patterns by applying them to complete communicative tasks. Their perception of CRI positively correlated with their increase in reading comprehension scores. No significant correlation was found between perception of CRI and use of metacognitive strategies, however. Still, overall, an increase in the reading comprehension score was found to be strongly correlated with an increase in the score of the use of metacognitive reading strategies.