Investigating reading strategies used by Hong Kong primary students learning English as a foreign language

Abstract

Limited research has been done on the reading strategies of primary school children learning English as a foreign language, particularly in the Hong Kong context. To contribute much needed research in this area, this study uses miscue analysis and prompted think aloud procedures to investigate the reading strategies used by higher and lower proficiency native Cantonese speaking students learning English as a foreign language in primary 4. As part of the investigation the study focuses on the strategies that these students use to comprehend unfamiliar words in context and the contribution of graphophonic awareness skills to the reading process. The study found that (a) higher proficiency students have a clearer awareness of the reading process and the importance of overall coherence and comprehension than their lower proficiency counterparts; (b) higher proficiency students were able to make efficient and effective use of the syntactic and semantic cueing systems to reduce their reliance on graphophonic and pictorial cues; and (c) higher proficiency students focused on more sophisticated graphophonic stategies, such as blending chunks of sounds, identification of syllable and association with other words, while lower proficiency students were more likely to engage in lower level pronunciation strategies, such as blending single sounds, or attempting whole word visual recall.