The relationship between readers' beliefs and reading strategies

There has been an impressive body of research in the field of reading. Recently, the topic of "learner beliefs" has attracted reading researchers' attention and studies on beliefs have shed light on reading research.; The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the relationship between readers' beliefs and reading strategies. Of particular interest were Chinese students' beliefs about reading in English as a foreign language and the reading strategies they would employ while reading for academic purposes and reading for pleasure.; The participants were seven Chinese graduate students at a state university in the northeastern United States. Data were collected through interviews and read/think-alouds. The interviews were focused on the information about the participants' personal background, their English language learning experience, their beliefs about reading in English as a foreign language, and the strategies they would use for different reading tasks. The read/think-alouds were administered to gain an insight into the participants' actual use of reading strategies while reading different texts with different purposes.; Data analysis revealed that the participants not only had beliefs about reading in English as a foreign language, but they could clearly state their beliefs. Some of their stated beliefs were: (1) It was important to read in English for comprehension for academic purposes; (2) Reading extensively in English would help expand a reader's English vocabulary and improve a person's overall English language skills; (3) Reading in English was also for information and for pleasure; (4) Reading comprehension was based on the reader's linguistic knowledge as well as other knowledge sources such as the reader's background knowledge; and (5) Good readers use different strategies to read with good comprehension and at a fast rate.; The read/think-aloud protocols demonstrated that the participants employed different reading strategies depending on the purpose for the reading. Some reading strategies that were recorded were: (1) Making predictions; (2) Self-monitoring; (3) Looking for main ideas; (4) Making use of prior knowledge; (5) Using the context to figure out the meaning of unknown words; (6) Reading critically; and (7) Employing different strategies for different reading tasks.; Finally, a close relationship between these participants' beliefs about reading in English as a foreign language and reading strategies was observed. Based on the results, implications were drawn for the English language teaching in China and suggestions for further research were offered.