Effects Of Language Learning Strategy Instruction On Rural Junior High School Students’ English Reading: A Case Study

As an important factor affecting students’ language learning,language learning strategy(LLS)is closely related to language learners’ reading ability.The appropriate use of reading strategies can effectively improve students’ reading performance.Therefore,many scholars have conducted language learning strategy instruction(LLSI)experiments,trying to teach the strategies used by successful language learners to those less successful one.Despite this,there are few strategy instruction studies target at rural junior high school students.Due to the special English learning context in rural areas,many teachers do not pay attention to the cultivation of students’ reading strategies,which is not conducive to the improvement of students’ reading ability.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct reading strategy instruction at rural junior high schools,which will have a positive impact on their English teaching.This study takes the LLSI experiment as an example to explore the effects of LLSI on rural junior high school students’ English reading.In a rural junior high school,the author randomly selected two classes in grade-7(39 in the experimental class and 38 in the control class)as participants,and conducted a 14-week LLSI experiment in the experimental class.Under the guidance of Oxford’s(1990)LLS theory,this strategy intervention involved the teaching of combined and orchestrated strategies useful for reading through an explicit strategy instruction approach.This study used the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning(SILL)to investigate the frequency of students’ strategy use before and after strategy instruction,and used SPSS 26.0 to quantitatively analyze the reading scores of the two classes before and after the experiment.In addition,semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data on students’ experiences and opinions with LLS to support relevant quantitative data.This study found that after LLSI,students’ strategic awareness and reading performance improved.This finding confirms previous research that LLSI is effective in improving strategic reading.There is an important positive relationship between strategy awareness-raising and reading comprehension improvement.These quantitative findings are further supported by qualitative data gathered from the semistructured interviews.The current study has successfully identified strategy training for use in students’ reading ability cultivation and suggests the applicability of this research to rural China or a similar context.Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research were also identified.