A culture of thinking (CoT) is defined as "a place where a group's collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as the regular, day-today experience of all group members" (Ritchhart et al., 2011, p. 219). This study aimed to determine the effects of a CoT implementation on Lao English as a foreign…

Two groups of English as a second language students engaged in a fourteen-week repeated reading (RR) treatment: (1) a 3x group (n = 16), which engaged in three readings per session, and (2) a 5x group (n = 15), which engaged in five readings per session. Reading rate and background knowledge were measured at five points to assess the effect of…

This study compared the reading speed, comprehension and perceptions of two groups of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Each group addressed one of two types of narrow reading: same genre and same title. The same genre texts were three graded readers in the "Sherlock Holmes" series, and the same title texts were "The…

A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the impact of extensive reading (ER) on reading proficiency. This study gathered 71 unique samples from 49 primary studies published from 1980 to 2014 involving a total of 5,919 participants. Effect sizes were generated separately according to two different study designs: experimental-versus-control…

This study aimed to examine the effects of different text difficulty levels on foreign language reading anxiety (FLRA) and reading comprehension of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. To this end, 50 elementary EFL learners were selected from two intact classes (n = 25 each). Each class was assigned to a text difficulty level (i.e.,…

This paper reports a study of the reading strategies used by twelve Arabic-speaking undergraduates at a major Gulf university when reading texts in English. The procedure employed was a think-aloud protocol followed by a semi-structured interview. Three research questions were addressed: (a) What are the primary comprehension problems encountered…

The progression of silent reading rates and reading comprehension were examined among Japanese university students (N = 55) over one academic semester. Participants were divided into three quasi-experimental groups. The first group practiced a combination of timed reading and repeated oral reading with attention paid to chunking and prosody. The…

This study attempted to examine the influence of a decrease in translation on the number of words read, reading comprehension, and reading rate in an extensive reading (ER) program. The participants were 70 first-year university students who experienced ER both in and outside the classroom for 15 weeks. The results of regression analyses confirmed…

Thirteen English as a foreign language students read 26 passages during a 13-week period. Each passage was read five times, and students answered comprehension questions after the first and the fifth reading. Another 13 students read the same number of passages but without repetition and only answered the comprehension questions once. All students…

This study investigates the effect of timed reading (TR) and repeated oral reading (RR) on 35 adult students of English as a foreign language. Students in the TR (n =18) and RR (n =17) groups read 52 and 26 passages respectively over a 13-week period. Reading rates and comprehension levels were measured at three occasions: pre-intervention,…

This study investigated the effects of a 16-week reading instruction program with discourse structure graphic organizers (DSGOs) on the development of English reading comprehension among college-level English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. A total of 340 first and third semester students of non-English majors at a Chinese university…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of extensive reading (ER) and shadowing on performance on reading comprehension tests. This study addressed the following research questions: (a) Can extensive reading improve students' reading comprehension? and (b) can shadowing enhance the effects of extensive reading? The participants in the…

To develop reading fluency, a 13-week timed reading activity was integrated into a normal curriculum with the aim of improving students' reading rates. Participants were 84 college students divided into an experimental and a control group. The test instruments involved pretests and posttests on reading speed and comprehension. Students'…

Second language vocabulary can be learned incidentally while the learner is engaged in extensive reading or reading for meaning, inferring the meaning of unknown words (Huckin & Coady, 1999; Hulstijn, 1992; Krashen, 1993; Pigada & Schmitt, 2006). 12 Korean learners of English read authentic literary texts and were tested on their knowledge of…

The present study examines the effects of 3 kinds of glosses--first-language (L1) Chinese glosses plus second-language (L2) English example sentences, L1 in-text glosses, and L1 marginal glosses--in comparison with a no-gloss condition in reading an English passage, to explore whether providing glosses can facilitate reading comprehension and…