Becoming successful strategic readers in EFLL is a true challenge for children. Our study indicates that although there is a statistically significant difference in reading results in relation to the use of some comprehension strategies, young learners are not fully aware of a range of strategies and their effective application.
Acquiring literacy in English as a foreign language (EFL) is a complex and long process, and a child developing early reading skills in English faces a lot of challenges in different aspects of mastering oral reading and reading comprehension. Since reading difficulties at word and text levels are common part of the process, fostering reading development in early foreign language learning (EFLL) is a true challenge in classroom contexts as regards limited classroom time weekly and great learner diversity. The research reported here is part of a larger study of individual and contextual factors affecting reading achievement, and it aimed to determine types of EFL reading strategies and their correlation with reading achievement. The participants were 502 eleven-year old young learners (YLs) drawn from six state primary schools located in geographically distant parts of the country. A mixed-methods approach was used in the study, including a strategy survey completed by the sample, and a prompted think-aloud protocol interview conducted with a sub-sample of 12 focal learners. The results indicate that there was a statistically significant difference in reading comprehension results in relation to the use of some cognitive and socio-affective comprehension strategies (1. guessing the meaning by looking at the picture in the text (p = .000); 2. skipping the word (p = .014); 3. predicting what will happen (p = .030); 4. asking for help (p = .031), and that there was a negative correlation between the reading test results and the total number of self-reported strategies. This calls for reading strategy development in a YL classroom. To become independent readers, YLs need to develop awareness of a range of reading comprehension strategies and skills and to apply them effectively.
