esl reading comprehension amongst second cycle...

ESL Reading Comprehension Amongst Second Cycle High School Students,

Students’ requests

Karl Huot

In partial fulfillment of requirements for

the degree of

Master of Arts, Second Language Education

McGill University

Faculty of Education

Department of Integrated Studies in Education

Submitted February 2013

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Contents

List of Tables and Figures ....................................................................................................................... 3

Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................................... 4

Remerciements ........................................................................................................................................ 4

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 5

Purpose ................................................................................................................................................... 6

Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7

Chapter 2: Literature Review on Reading Comprehension Research ........................................................ 9

Chapter 3: Methodology, Survey and Sample ........................................................................................ 13

Chapter 4: Results and Findings of Questionnaire .................................................................................. 20

Activating Prior Knowledge ........................................................................................................... 21

Reading in the Classroom .............................................................................................................. 21

Students’ Reaction To Not Understanding a Word While Reading in ESL ...................................... 26

Post-Reading Activities ................................................................................................................. 28

Correcting Post-reading Classroom Exercises ................................................................................ 31

Post-Reading Exercises Format ...................................................................................................... 34

ESL Reading Comprehension Versus Other ESL Competencies ..................................................... 36

Reading Comprehension Level of Difficulty .................................................................................. 39

Chapter 5: Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 40

Chapter 6: Limitations and Considerations ............................................................................................. 47

Survey Design and Sample ............................................................................................................ 47

Limitations of Results .................................................................................................................... 48

Chapter 7: Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 49

References............................................................................................................................................. 51

Appendices............................................................................................................................................ 54

Appendix A: Various Authorisation Letters ........................................................................................... 55

Appendix B : Student Questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 60

Questionnaire français ........................................................................................................... 60

English Questionnaire ............................................................................................................ 64

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List of Tables and Figures

Figure 1: Grandes-Seigneuries School Board ......................................................................................... 15

Figure 2: “I like when the teacher randomly assigns students to read some part of the text.” ................... 23

Figure 3: “I like when an audio device reads the text and I can follow along.” ........................................ 24

Figure 4: “If I do not understand a word in the text, I will simply keep on reading and ... ....................... 26

Figure 5: “I think correcting reading exercises is important.” ................................................................. 31

Figure 6: “I would rather have a reading comprehension class than a written production task.” ............ 37

Table 1: Survey Sample by Gender, Grade, Program and Age ................................................................ 20

Table 2: “I like when the teacher discusses the subject before the reading.”............................................ 21

Table 3: “I like when the teacher reads to the class out loud and I can follow the text.” .......................... 22

Table 4: “I feel shy when I am asked to read out loud to the class.” ........................................................ 24

Table 5: “I like to do the reading of a text individually and in silence.” .................................................. 25

Table 6: Comparative table of reading in the classroom teaching methods in percentage ........................ 25

Table 7: “If I do not understand a word in the text, I will ask a classmate.” ............................................ 27

Table 8: “If I do not understand a word in the text, I will look in the dictionary.” ................................... 27

Table 9: Comparative table when students are faced with an unknown word (%) ................................... 28

Table 10: “I think it is important to do reading exercises to see if I understood the text.” ........................ 28

Table 11: “I feel I am learning more when I am doing reading exercises in teams.” by program ............. 29

Table 12: “Discussing reading exercises with teammates helps me understand the reading ..................... 30

Table 13: “I like when the teacher corrects in front of the class and asks students for answers.” ............. 32

Table 14: “I like when the teacher corrects out loud alone on the board.” ............................................... 32

Table 15: “I like when the teacher collects my work, corrects it at home and hands me my corr ............. 33

Table 16: Comparative table of in class post-exercises correcting methods ............................................. 34

Table 17: “I like to answer multiple choice questions with a short ESL text.” ......................................... 34

Table 18: “I like to answer short answer (1 sentence) questions with a short ESL text.” ......................... 35

Table 19: “I like to write an essay with a long ESL text or a book.” ....................................................... 35

Table 20: “I like to write an opinion text with a long ESL text or a book.” ............................................. 36

Table 21: “I would rather have a reading comprehension class than a grammar class.” ........................... 36

Table 22: “I would rather have a reading comprehension class than do an oral project.” ......................... 38

Table 23: “Reading exercises are easy for me.” ...................................................................................... 38

Table 24: “I like reading more challenging material.” by program .......................................................... 39

Table 25: “I like reading easy and simple material.”............................................................................... 40

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Lise Winer for her help throughout this inquiry. I

would also like to express my appreciation to the 2011-2012 secondary four and five students of

La Magdeleine secondary school for their participation in this study. Without their involvement,

this study would not have been possible. I would like to thank all the ESL teachers from this

same institution for the time they allowed me to come into their classrooms to explain and hand

out my questionnaire, as well as for their patience and organisation in collecting the students’

filled-in questionnaires. I would like to thank Principal Nathalie Bérubé of La Magdeleine High

school for allowing me to do this study. I would also like to thank the Grandes-Seigneuries

School Board, which gave me the necessary authorisation to do this project, as well as Lynda

McNeil, representing the McGill ethical review board. Finally, I would like to thank my family,

my friends and my girlfriend, Catherine, who were extremely helpful and supportive throughout

this process.

Remerciements

J’aimerais tout d’abord remercier Dr. Lise Winer, ma superviseure de thèse pour son aide

tout au long de ce projet. J’aimerais également démontrer mon appréciation envers tous les

élèves de la quatrième et cinquième secondaire de la promotion 2011-2012 de l’école secondaire

de la Magdeleine qui ont participé a cette étude. Je tiens également à remercier tout les

professeurs d’anglais langue seconde de l’école de la Magdeleine pour leur précieux temps qu’ils

m’ont accordé dans leurs heures de cours durant lesquelles ils m’ont autorisé à expliquer et

distribuer les questionnaires ainsi que de leur patience et organisation pour m’avoir aidé à

collecter les réponses des étudiants. Je tiens aussi à souligner l’appuie de la directrice de l’école,

Mme. Nathalie Bérubé, qui m’a autorisée à faire ces recherches à l’intérieur de l’institution. Je

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voudrais aussi remercier la Commission scolaire des Grandes-Seigneuries, qui m’a fourni les

autorisations nécessaires afin de faire cette étude. Je voudrais également remercier Mme. Lynda

McNeil, représentante du comité de révision éthique de l’université McGill. Finalement, je

voudrais remercier mes parents et amis, ainsi que ma conjointe, Catherine, qui ont tous été

extrêmement serviable et qui m’ont soutenu tout au long de ce processus.

Abstract

The intention of this study was to investigate what are second cycle secondary students’

favorite teaching techniques regarding learning reading comprehension in a second language

inside the classroom. Another aim was to find out what was their favorite competency to practice

during class hours. The best available method to pursue this study was a quantitative survey

method. The questionnaire focused on different reading comprehension teaching techniques that

are often used inside classrooms. Students had to position themselves in terms or enjoyment of

certain teaching techniques used inside the classroom. Out of the 600 questionnaires sent out to

the second cycle students of La Magdeleine High School, 227 responses were received. The

results of the study indicated that students understand the values of doing the majority of reading

exercises proposed inside the classroom, but were sometimes experiencing some form of anxiety,

laziness and resistance with some of those activities. The principal conclusion is that teachers

need to combine some of the students’ favorite teaching ESL reading comprehension techniques

and also use some techniques that aren’t enjoyed as much by students and attempt to adapt them

in a manner that would keep students motivated throughout those classes.

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Purpose

There are three main components in learning a second language, according to the Québec

high school program: oral production, reinvesting understanding of texts and writing

development1. This study focuses on the second competency: reinvesting understanding of texts.

Reading fluency, which cannot be achieved by simple transfer of oral skills, is much

more important in the long run for most adult students in technical and academic programs

(Norris, 1970). In an English second language learning classroom in the Québec high school

system, a great amount of time is spent on developing this particular competency. Unfortunately,

as a high school second language teacher working in the Québec school system, I witness

unmotivated students when it comes to working on this specific ability.

It has been shown numerous times that motivation generally enhances the quality of

learning of a second language (e.g., Dornyei, 2001b; Hashimoto, 2002; MacIntyre, Clément &

Noels, 2007; Ortega, 2009). Thus, I ask: Which classroom reading comprehension teaching

methods and strategies are most preferred and motivating in the views of second cycle high

school second language students?

More specifically, I want to know what high school students wish to do during their own

classroom time to enhance their reading comprehension skills. Few studies have directly asked

high school students what types of classroom activities they want to carry out when they are in a

second language reading comprehension period of the class. I would hope to clarify this matter

with the findings of this survey-based study.

1 Programme de formation de l’école québécoise, p.177, retrieved from

http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/dgfj/dp/programme_de_formation/secondaire/pdf/prform2004/chapitre053v2.pdf

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Chapter 1: Introduction

As some studies have already focused on determining which methods of teaching second

language reading comprehension are most efficient (e.g. Al-Homoud & Schmitt, 2009; Alyousef,

2005; Carrell, 1984; Kailani, 1998; Klingner, Vaughn, Arguelles, Hughes & Leftwich, 2004;

Lyster, & Ranta, 1997), this study will try to establish which of these methods are usually

preferred by a particular group of students. Hopefully, the findings of this research will help

teachers choose efficient classroom activity methods that are also liked and enjoyed by the

students. I believe that if students can be motivated by a classroom second language reading

comprehension activity that they enjoy, it could greatly help their focus during class time. I

cannot envision how choosing their favourite types of reading comprehension classroom activity

could not enhance their motivation. This way students could be more motivated and thus

increase their application and general effort in reading comprehension activities, which could

lead to a more efficient and general enhancement of learning a second language in terms of speed

and quality.

Educators must always ensure that students are motivated and actually want to increase

their levels of reading (e.g., Sanacore & Palumbo, 2010; Thompson, Madhuri, & Taylor, 2008).

Gardner, (as cited in Ortega, 2009, p.171) believes the highest and most facilitative form of

motivation is what he calls integrative motivation. Integrative motivation is a form of motivation

that resides in the student’s true desire to know more about the subject. For example, if he is not

truly interested in a subject, a student who studies hard in order to get good grades could not be

categorized as having an integrative type of motivation. Smith (2007) acknowledges that the

students themselves need to appreciate the importance of using these skills. Norton (1995) argues

that motivation must be understood with reference to social relations of power that create the

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possibilities for language learners to speak. She also suggests that it is their investment in the

target language that will lead them to learning. Nonetheless, we cannot minimize the positive

effects of instrumental motivation, which can also be very effective with high school students

when learning a second language.

In order to achieve integrative motivation, three crucial conditions need to be respected.

First, the precursor of integrativeness itself must be high. By this, I mean that the student can be

truly interested in some subject that he is fond off. This is an attainable objective in a language

classroom as some reading material subjects can be chosen by the teacher. Second, the attitude

towards the learning situation, which includes the teacher’s performance and the curriculum, is

also crucial. As Stinnett (2009) states, ‘‘there is a direct link between a teacher`s approach

toward his or her students and the level of participation” (p. 75). Concerning this matter, I

suggest reading Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom, by Dornyei (2001a), which

is a fascinating book concerning the teacher’s general attitude and proposed guidelines to

maximise the teacher’s performance in order to enhance student’s motivation. Third, enhancing

the three general components of motivation is the final step towards integrative motivation.

According to Gardner (as cited in Ortega, 2009, p. 171), those three components are effort,

investment and enjoyment.

I believe that increasing levels of student enjoyment should lead to an increased amount

of effort and investment by the students, as those three components are closely linked.

Furthermore, Teale (1991) notes “literacy is not something you can teach apart from literate

behaviour. You don’t learn to read; you learn to read something, and you read something

because you want to know something, enjoy a text, or participate in a group” (p. 542). Course

material should reflect the backgrounds, skills, and interests of all students in the class (Vance &

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Fitzpatrick, 2007). According to Lau and Chan (2007), many successful reading intervention

programs adopt a more comprehensive approach, integrating cognitive, metacognitive, and

motivational components in the reading comprehension activities and instructions.

This research study aims to find ways to increase student enjoyment of second language

reading comprehension class activities, while following current research findings concerning

reading comprehension methods and classroom teaching techniques, but first let’s take a look at

previous studies and their findings concerning reading comprehension in a second language.

Chapter 2: Literature Review on Reading Comprehension Research

Many studies have tried to establish the effectiveness of different second language

reading comprehension teaching techniques; some of those studies have found more efficient

second language reading comprehension methods.

For example, Carrell (1984) established the positive effect of building and learning to

activate appropriate background knowledge of text content (content schema) and text rhetorical

organization (formal schema) in order to produce better reading comprehension during pre-

reading activities. Carell emphasizes the importance of schema theory, which is an interactive

process between the text and the reader's prior background knowledge that might be different

from what is used in the ESL reading text. According to Miller and Perkins (1990), this

technique is a manifestation of one of the principles of reading comprehension development

which allows the reader to make the connection between his background knowledge and the text,

and also to establish the difference of his prior knowledge from the content of the text.

Obviously, the choice of items for pre-reading preparation must depend on the text (Norris,

1970).

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Haller (2000) modeled a number of school-based post-reading activities which enhance

learning comprehension through the use of matching exercises, cloze exercises, cut-up sentences,

and comprehension questions. Alyousef (2005) expanded on this matter and suggested that

contemporary reading tasks, unlike traditional materials, involve three-phase procedures: pre-,

while-, and post-reading stages.

While reading, a reader engages in processing at the phonological, morphological,

syntactic, semantic and discourse levels, as well as in goal setting, text summary building,

interpretive elaborating from knowledge resources, monitoring and assessment of goal

achievement, making various adjustments to enhance comprehension, and making repairs to

comprehension processing as needed (Carrell and Grabe, 2002). An ESL class focusing on

reading comprehension in which the student has to read a text, discuss it before and after the

reading, do post-reading team or individual exercises and correct those exercises would be a

class that can correspond to the process described by Carell and Grabe.

As a high school teacher, I observe teachers being confused about how they should do the

reading part of the reading activity itself. Should teachers assign reading aloud to random

students? Should they do the reading themselves in front of the class as students follow along?

Teachers are faced with many options when it is time to proceed to this segment of the

class. A traditional form of reading in a classroom is silent reading in which each student reads

individually the assigned text. Collaborative reading is another reading comprehension technique

that has been closely examined (e.g. Vaughn, Hughes, Schumm & Klingner, 1998; Klingner,

Vaughn, Dimino, Schumm, & Bryant, 2001; Adesope, Lavin, Thompson, Ungerleider, 2011).

Collaborative reading is a classroom technique developed to take advantage of the potentials of

mutual assistance for language development in content classrooms. During collaborative reading,

http://mcgill.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AOO+Adesope&qt=hot_author

http://mcgill.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AT+Lavin&qt=hot_author

http://mcgill.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AT+Thompson&qt=hot_author

http://mcgill.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AC+Ungerleider&qt=hot_author

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students of various reading levels work in small groups to one another assisting each other to

facilitate their comprehension of content area text. Klingner and Vaughn (2000) demonstrated

that teachers interested in collaborative learning in their classrooms provide a structure and

format conductive to high levels of student engagement, which is directly linked to the

investment of the students. Investment is one of the three components of motivation previously

mentioned in this paper. Therefore, we also asked students their opinion on their enjoyment,

investment and general liking for collaborative reading activities and post-reading group

activities in their ESL classroom.

In a related study, Klingner, Vaughn, Arguelles, Hughes and Leftwich (2004) proved that

students in collaborative reading classrooms showed greater improvement in reading

comprehension than students in classrooms where collaborative reading was not implemented.

Some authors, such as Young (1993), have mentioned the importance of scaffolding during

reading comprehension activities. Scaffolding is an instructional strategy that involves

supporting novice learners by limiting the complexities of the context and gradually removing

those limits as learners gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence to cope with the full

complexity of the context. In the survey proposed in this paper, we asked students questions

regarding this process.

Kailani (1998) concludes that students are not given enough time in reading aloud in

classrooms and that, moreover, many students struggle with this particular skill in terms of

articulations of words, flexibility in rate, volume and tone, adequate phrasing and effective use of

pauses. In this study, we asked students which were their preferred manners of proceeding to the

core reading part of the activity.

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Comprehension questions in one form or another are one of the language teaching

techniques most frequently used to train learners in reading. Reading comprehension questions

are useful ways of practicing reading, motivating learners to read and verifying comprehension

of the actual text. They can take many forms, such as short answers, multiple questions, true or

false statements, yes/no questions or longer forms of responses such as essays or opinion texts.

Nonetheless, teachers must remember to make sure their post-reading activities are developing

the learners’ ability to comprehend texts, to test the learners’ performance on their general

comprehension of the text, to have exercises that can lead to constructive feedback and to choose

appropriate text for the students (Nation and Newton, 2009). Those activities should also be

task-based form instead of simple exercises. A task-based form activity does not usually have a

restrictive focus on a single component, while an exercise usually does. This study questioned

the students about which of these reading comprehension types of questions were most enjoyable

for them to answer during a regular ESL class.

Teachers are also faced with many different correcting options when it is time to correct

reading comprehension classroom activities. Lyster and Ranta (1997) demonstrated that

recasting was the least effective method of correcting students when compared to other forms of

feedback such as elicitation and metalinguistic feedback. During the classroom correction

process of post-reading comprehension exercises, I have witnessed some teachers who simply

correct all of their students’ work on their own and then hand back their corrections to each

student individually. I have seen teachers hand out answer keys to students who have completed

the activity. A common correcting ESL reading comprehension method is for teachers to correct

with the entire group in front of the class. When the group participates actively in the correction

process, we could consider this feedback method as more of an elicitation type of method as

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teachers challenge students to answer correctly and do not provide answers immediately. In some

other cases, the teacher is the only one speaking throughout correcting in front of the class, while

other teachers prefer to ask random or volunteer students their answers. We could relate this

method to a form of recasting where students simply listen to the correct answers and correct

themselves. The use of different types of correcting reading comprehension methods inside the

classroom is an issue that was also addressed in the survey that students completed for this

research project.

As fascinating and useful to ESL teachers as these studies are, most of them do not take

the student enjoyment factor into account and it is possible that some of those methods are not

enhancing student motivation as a result of these research studies not taking student preferences

into consideration. In this study, 600 second-cycle high school students were asked about their

preferences amongst a selection of often-used reading comprehension classroom activities in

second language classrooms. This next chapter details the methodology, the survey and the

sample that was used to conduct this study.

Chapter 3: Methodology, Survey and Sample

This study was conducted at École Secondaire La Magdeleine. La Magdeleine High

School is located in the town of La Prairie on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, across

from Montreal. This high school is part of the Commission Scolaire des Grandes-Seigneuries

school board. This high school has approximately 2,300 students, most of them in their second

cycle (secondary grades 4 and 5) and having English as a second language in their weekly

schedule. Most students attending this school are aged 15 to 17 with the exception of the students

taking part in the International program (around 600) who are 12 to 17 years old.

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We could consider La Magdeleine to be a slightly above average quality public high

school for the province of Quebec. For instance, in 2009, the proportion of students coming out

of La Magdeleine High School without any diploma or qualifications was 4%, which is lower

than the 4.3% average of Quebec overall. Furthermore, in 2009 graduating students in secondary

five managed to pass their French as a first language at a 94.8% rate at La Magdeleine while this

number decreased to 90% for the average of Quebec province.

Although the school is located in La Prairie, students come from a vast territory including

other towns such as Candiac, Delson, Hemmingford, Saint-Bernard, Saint-Constant and Sainte-

Catherine, which are all small suburban towns located on the south shore of Montreal. Figure 1

on the next page shows the school board territory. The orange territory represents where La

Magdeleine regular ESL and Enriched ESL students come from. Students taking part in the

international program come from all yellow, orange and red territories.

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Figure 1: Grandes-Seigneuries School Board2

The ESL classes at the La Magdeleine secondary school are divided into several different

programs. Most students attending regular classes are in the regular ESL program. Some students

attend school in the general regular program with the exception of ESL, where strong ESL

speakers are clustered into enriched ESL classes. Each ESL teacher for secondary three has to

2 Retrieved from http://www.csdgs.qc.ca/public/11f5b828-67f1-486f-8427-

f44638959e4d/mes_documents/sgi/carte_territoire_csdgs_juin_2012.pdf

http://www.csdgs.qc.ca/public/11f5b828-67f1-486f-8427-f44638959e4d/mes_documents/sgi/carte_territoire_csdgs_juin_2012.pdf

http://www.csdgs.qc.ca/public/11f5b828-67f1-486f-8427-f44638959e4d/mes_documents/sgi/carte_territoire_csdgs_juin_2012.pdf

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determine whether a student should be in the regular ESL program or the enriched ESL program.

Finally, the “Projet d’Étude International” (PEI) students are always together in their ESL

classes. Students in grade 6 must pass an admission test to be admitted to the program during the

month of October. These students are generally stronger overall than the regular students, but are

usually considered in between regular and enriched in ESL classes. In this study, we asked

questions of students in all programs.

Considering the research purpose, to establish students’ preferred teaching techniques

during ESL reading comprehension classes, a survey type of study was determined to be the

most appropriate tool of inquiry.

The questionnaire (Appendix B) was built upon already existing approved surveys such

as the C.I.T.E. Learning Style Instrument (Babich, Burdine, Albright, and Randol, 1976). The

survey in this current study contained 26 questions following a five-point Likert scale asking

students about the most and least enjoyable teaching techniques in the classroom, 1 being a

statement they really disagree with and 5 being a statement they strongly agree with. Statements

in the questionnaire all concerned ESL reading comprehension classroom activities that students

had to express an opinion on (e.g.: I like when the teacher reads to the class out loud and I can

follow the text.)

The list of activities used for addressing a selection of methods followed the steps of a

“typical” ESL reading comprehension class in a second cycle high school in the province of

Quebec school system and included, according to teachers from La Magdeleine High School and

my own teaching experience as a regular and substitute teacher, frequently used methods in

classrooms for developing this particular competency. For example, students were asked to

express their degree of liking of different methods of correcting post-reading exercises, such as

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the teacher correcting in front of the class, the teacher correcting at home, the students being

provided with the answer key, and others.

Throughout the survey, students were asked to express their enjoyment level of a number

of different teaching methods used on a regular basis by ESL teachers during developing reading

comprehension activities in the classroom. Students were told before they received the survey

that they should keep in mind an ESL class where they would work during a full period on

reading comprehension activities. This frequently experienced real-classroom scenario meant

reading a short text in the classroom and doing some comprehension exercises that would then

be corrected.

First, the questionnaire asked students if they generally find ESL reading comprehension

classes easy. Second, a question was asked concerning the students’ enjoyment of having pre-

reading discussions. This question was enquiring if the students appreciate activating prior

knowledge, as this is an effective ESL method regularly used in classrooms. Then, a series of

questions was asked concerning student reactions towards a situation where they would not

understand one or more words in the assigned reading. The questionnaire mentioned different

options that are usually available for students, such as asking the teacher or a fellow classmate

for the appropriate meaning, looking in a dictionary or simply keeping on reading without

worrying about this new word.

Another series of questions was asked concerning students’ liking for teaching methods

used in class for reading material. The questionnaire would ask students their enjoyment level of

the most common methods, such as reading individually, teacher reading aloud to the classroom

as students follow along their text or textbook, teacher assigning students to read aloud

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randomly, and teacher using an audio-device that would read the text as students follow along. A

question concerning what should happen when students were shy about reading aloud to the class

was also asked.

Another sequence of questions was asked about how students enjoy different methods

throughout the ESL reading comprehension post-reading portion of the class in which students

have to answer comprehension questions on paper following the reading they just completed.

These methods included doing post-reading activities individually, having discussion groups

concerning the readings, and doing the post-reading comprehension activities in teams. Another

question asked if students felt like they were learning more when they were working in teams

than individually.

Two questions concerned the general significance students awarded reading

comprehension exercises and correction of these exercises. Correcting reading comprehension

exercises was the topic of the next series of questions, in which students stated their level of

enjoyment concerning different ESL reading comprehension correction methods used in the

classroom, such as being provided individually with a paper version of the answer key, teacher

correcting aloud in front of the class without the participation of the students, teacher correcting

aloud in front of the classroom with students’ input, and teacher collecting completed post-

reading exercises from the students at the end of the class to hand back the corrected work with

feedback the following class.

The survey then asked which types of competency students enjoy developing. A series

of questions comparing enjoyment of ESL reading comprehension with grammatical

development, writing production and oral development was asked. To conclude the first section

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of the survey, students were asked to state if they enjoyed doing more complex and challenging

reading or if they liked doing easier and less elaborate types of reading.

In the second part of the survey, students were asked to rate their favorite manner of

answering ESL reading comprehension post-reading exercises on a shorter type of reading

including multiple choice questions, short development answers, writing an essay on the short

reading or producing an opinion text. The same question was asked for the reading being a

longer format novel type of reading. Finally, a series of questions about information concerning

age, gender, level of high school and English ESL program (regular, enriched or PEI) was asked.

The survey was conducted in February and March of Winter 2012. I personally went

into 19 different ESL classrooms and distributed around 600 questionnaires to students. This also

involved 5 different ESL teachers in La Magdeleine High School. The survey was explained in

French and distributed in class along with the parental and student consent forms (App. A). Each

student then filled out the survey and parental consent form at home and handed everything in

during their following ESL class to their teachers, who were instructed to place the two forms in

two different envelopes to make sure the survey remained anonymous. Either the students gave

back both the survey and parental consent form or they gave back nothing. Teachers were not

allowed to accept any questionnaires without a consent form. When a student brought back both

forms, the teacher would first make sure that the consent form was filled out appropriately and

would then put the filled-out questionnaire in a separate envelope from the consent form.

A total of 227 filled-out surveys were brought back by students with the appropriate

consent forms filled out, which represents 37.8% of questionnaires returned. As shown in Table

1, a total of 88 questionnaires was answered by boys (38.8%), while 139 (61.2%) were answered

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by girls. A total of 62 questionnaires was filled in by secondary 4 students (27.3%) while 165

were answered by secondary five students (72.7%). A total of 85 questionnaires was filled in by

students in the International program (37.4%), 101 were regular ESL classes (44.5%) and 41

(18.1%) were enriched classes. Of the 227 questionnaires answered, two were answered by 14-

year-old students (0.9%), 37 by 15-year-olds (16.3%), 116 by 16-year-olds (51.1%), 63 by 17-

year-olds (27.8%), and 9 by 18-year-olds (4%).

Table 1: Survey Sample by Gender, Grade, Program and Age

Characteristic Cluster Frequencies (n) Percentage (%) (of

total)

Total

Gender Boys 88 38.8% 227 (100%)

Girls 139 61.2%

Grade Secondary 4 62 27.3% 227 (100%)

Secondary 5 165 72.7%

Program PEI 85 37.4 % 227 (100%)

Regular 101 45.5%

Enriched 41 18.1 %

Age 14 years old 2 0.9 % 227 (100%)

15 years old 37 16.3 %

16 years old 116 51.1 %

17 years old 63 27.8 %

18 years old 9 4.0 %

In this chapter, we acknowledged that the quantitative survey method was used to carry

out this study. The questions asked in the survey were also described and explained. The 227

questionnaires received were analysed to establish different results that you can read in the next

chapter of this study.

21

Chapter 4: Results and Findings of Questionnaire

Activating Prior Knowledge

A vast majority of students enjoy activating prior knowledge as a form of introduction to

a reading comprehension type of classroom activity. In fact, Table 2 shows that only 7 students

(3.1%) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement of enjoyment of activating prior

knowledge before proceeding to reading comprehension activities.

Table 2: “I like when the teacher discusses the subject before the reading.”

Frequency (n) Percent(%)

Combined Percent

(%)

Strongly disagree 1 0.4 3.0

Disagree 6 2.6

Neutral 29 12.8 12.8

Agree 60 26.4 84.1

Strongly agree 131 57.7

Total 227 100.0 100.0

Reading in the Classroom

There are many different teaching methods used in the classroom to proceed to the

reading portion of an ESL reading comprehension class. Teachers use different methods such as

reading aloud themselves to the classroom, assigning random students to read aloud to the

classroom, using an audio device reading the material to the students and simply giving some

classroom time for students to read individually. As shown in Table 3, results concerning the

22

enjoyment of the teacher reading aloud in front of the class are very distributed: 33.9% of the

students dislike this classroom activity, while 27.8% are neutral and 37.4% agree or strongly

agree with this classroom method. However, if we take a closer look at PEI students, only 18.8%

of them do not agree with this method, which suggests PEI students are fonder of this method

than regular ESL and Enriched ESL students.

Table 3: “I like when the teacher reads to the class out loud and I can follow the text.”

English

Program

Strongly

disagree

(n)

Disagree

(n)

Neutral

(n)

Agree

(n)

Strongly

agree

(n)

Total

(n)

PEI n 8 8 20 19 28 83

% 9.6 9.6 24.1 22.9 33.7 36.9

Regular n 21 28 30 15 7 101

% 20.8 27.7 29.7 14.9 6.9 44.9

Enrich n 3 9 13 11 5 41

% 7.3 22.0 31.7 26.8 12.2 18.2

Total n 32 45 63 45 40 225

% 14.1 19.8 27.8 19.8 17.6 100

It is also interesting to notice how much students in general dislike having students

chosen to read aloud in the classroom. Figure 2 shows that only a total of 38 students (16.8%)

agreed or strongly agreed with the teaching method of assigning random students inside the

classroom to read aloud to the class.

23

This statistic could be related to the fact that many students are shy about reading aloud in the

classroom. Guiora and his colleagues (1972) found support for the claim that inhibition is a

negative force, at least for second language pronunciation performance. As shown in Table 4, a

large percentage of students are shy about reading aloud in the classroom; only 37% disagreed or

strongly disagreed with being shy about performing such a task in the classroom.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

100

80

60

40

20

0

7.1% 9.7%

22.1% 24.8%

36.3%

Frequencies (n)

Figure 2: “I like when the teacher randomly assigns students to read some part of the text.”

24

Table 4: “I feel shy when I am asked to read out loud to the class.”

Frequency (n) Percent (%)

Combined

percent (%)

Strongly disagree 53 23.3

37.0 Disagree 31 13.7

Neutral 49 21.6 21.6

Agree 34 15.0

41.0 Strongly agree 59 26.0

Total 226 99.6 99.6

It seems that doing a listening activity with an audio device reading the text to the

students as they follow along is the method least appreciated by the students amongst in-class

reading methods proposed in this study. Results in Figure 3 show that 54.5% of students strongly

disliked this reading activity. Furthermore, only 8.8% of the students agreed or strongly agreed

with this method.

Figure 3: “I like when an audio device reads the text and I can follow along.”

Strongly AgreeAgreeNeutralDisagreeStrongly disagree

Per

cen

t

60

50

40

30

20

10

01.8%

7.0%

18.1%17.6%

54.6%

25

Finally, reading individually and in silence is a method that is far from being disliked by

students. Table 5 shows us that only 18.6% of students either strongly disagreed or disagreed

with this teaching method in ESL reading comprehension classes.

Table 5: “I like to do the reading of a text individually and in silence.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 21 9.3

Neutral 58 25.6 25.6

Agree 46 20.3 55.2


Total 226 99.7 99.7

As a final point, Table 6 compares each in-class reading methods proposed in the survey

which students had to express their level of enjoyment.

Table 6: Comparative table of reading in the classroom teaching methods in percentage

In class

reading

methods

Strongly

disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly

agree

Total

Reading

individually

9.3% 9.3%

25.6%

20.3%

35.2%

100%

Teacher reads

aloud

17.6% 19.8%

27.8%

19.8%

14.1%

100%

Teacher asks

random

students

35.3%

24.8%

22.1%

9.7%

7.1%

100%

Audio device

reads

54.6%

17.6%

18.1%

7.1%

1.7%

100%

26

Students’ Reaction To Not Understanding a Word While Reading in ESL

We also asked students their opinion concerning what they usually do in a situation

where they are reading an ESL text in the classroom and are faced with a situation in which there

is a word in the text that they do not understand. The survey proposed different options such as

asking another student, asking the teacher for the meaning of the word, looking up the word in a

dictionary or simply keeping on reading without worrying about this new word. As shown in

Figure 4, nearly half (44.6%) of the students agreed or strongly agreed that they usually simply

keep on reading without any concern about this unknown word.

Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

30

20

10

0

16.7%

26.9% 26.9%

21.2%

7.9%

Percent

Figure 4: “If I do not understand a word in the text, I will simply keep on reading and not worry

about it.”

27

Asking a classmate and looking in a dictionary were the most popular methods in the

classroom for students to understand an unknown word in an ESL reading text. Table 7 shows

that 47.6% of the students agreed or strongly agreed with asking a classmate the meaning of an

unknown word. Table 8 shows that 47.5% had the same opinion regarding looking up the

unfamiliar word in the dictionary.

Table 7: “If I do not understand a word in the text, I will ask a classmate.”

Frequency (n) Percent (%) Combined Percent


27.3 Disagree 37 16.3

Neutral 57 25.1 52.4

Agree 81 35.7 47.6


Total 227 100.0 100.0

Table 8: “If I do not understand a word in the text, I will look in the dictionary.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 31 13.7

Neutral 56 24.7 24.7

Agree 60 26.4 47.5


Total 226 99.7 99.7

Apparently, the least popular method for the student to extend their own ESL vocabulary

lexicon is to ask their teacher. As shown in Table 9, only 37.9% of the students either agreed or

strongly agreed with this method.

28

Table 9: Comparative table when students are faced with an unknown word (%)

Students’

reaction to an

unknown word

Strongly

Agree Agree Neutral

Disagree

Strongly

disagree

Total

Look in the

dictionary 21.1 26.4 24.7

13.7 13.7 100%

Keep on reading 16.7 26.9 26.9

21.1 7.9 100%

Ask a classmate 11.9 35.7 25.1

16.3 11.0 100%

Ask the teacher 10.6 27.3 24.2

23.3 14.5 100%

Post-Reading Activities

Teachers have many options concerning the activities and evaluation portion of a reading

comprehension activity. Teachers have a variety of teaching methods, such as simply making

each student work individually on a questionnaire concerning the reading that just took place.

Teachers can also form student teams to work on such a questionnaire and discussing the

reading. As seen in table 10, it is interesting to know that only 11.9% of students rejected the

usefulness of doing post-reading activities in ESL reading comprehension classes.

Table 10: “I think it is important to do reading exercises to see if I understood the text.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 20 8.8

Neutral 56 24.7 24.7

Agree 98 43.2 63


Total 226 99.7 99.7

29

Girls seem to realize even more than boys the importance of reading exercises, as only

10.1 % did not agree in any manner with this statement. This number goes up to 14.8% when we

only look at boys. The grade level also seems to have an impact on this matter. In fact, 67.3% of

secondary five students agreed or strongly agreed with the importance of doing reading exercises

in the classroom while this number goes down to 51.6% when we only consider secondary four

results, a difference of 15.7%. Concerning the teaching method for post-reading exercises inside

the classroom, it might not be a surprise from my own high school teaching experience to look at

the result and find that only 26.5 % of the students agreed or strongly agreed that they were in

favor of doing individual reading exercises. As seen in Table 11, It seems that students do not

only want to work in teams for the enjoyment of it, but also because they feel they learn more

working in teams.

Table 11: “I feel I am learning more when I am doing reading exercises in teams.” by

program

English

Program

Strongly

disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

agree

Total

PEI 3.5% 8.2% 25.9% 27.1% 35.3% 100.0%

Regular

6.9% 13.9% 24.8% 34.7% 18.8% 99.1% (1 student

missing)

Enrich

4.9% 14.6% 39.0% 17.1% 22.0% 97.6% (1 student

missing)

Total

(all

students)

5.3% 11.9%

27.8%

28.6% 25.6% 100.0%

17.2% 54.2%

30

Even if 27.8% of students were neutral about this statement, a majority of 54.2% of

students believed they learned more and understood more from reading comprehension activities

when they were working in teams. However, only 39.1 % of students in the enriched level of

English agreed or strongly agreed that they learn better when they are working in teams

compared to 62.4% in the PEI level and 53.5% within the regular ESL program.

Discussion groups prior to reading comprehension post-exercises are another teaching

method frequently used in classrooms. Results show that 70% of the students agreed or strongly

agreed with this method. As we can see in Table 12, more girls than boys agreed with the

classroom method of discussing readings in teams after readings are completed. As a matter of

fact, 77.7% of girls agreed and strongly agreed with this method while this number went down to

59.1% for boys, a difference of 18.6%.

Table 12: “Discussing reading exercises with teammates helps me understand the reading

more than if I work alone.” by gender

Gender Strongly

disagree


agree

Total

Boys 2.3% 14.8% 23.9% 29.5% 29.5% 100%

Girls 1.4% 6.5% 14.4% 36.0% 41.4% 100%

Total

(all

students)

1.8% 9.7%

18.1%

33.5% 37.0% 100%

11.5% 70.5%

31

Correcting Post-reading Classroom Exercises

Many different teaching methods are available when it is time for teachers to proceed to

the correction of ESL reading comprehension exercises in the classroom. Although a number of

students (23.4%) was neutral regarding this statement, Figure 5 shows that only 5.3% of students

disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that taking time to correct reading

comprehension exercises is important, regardless of the way this is done.

According to this survey, the least favorite correction method in the classroom for

correcting post-reading comprehension ESL exercises is for teachers to provide each student

29.9%

41.4%

23.4%

3.9% 1 . 3 % Strongly Agree

Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

Figure 5: “I think correcting reading exercises is important.”

32

individually with the answer key and have students correct themselves on their own in the

classroom. In fact, no more than 17.2 % of students agreed or strongly agreed with this teaching

method.

The second least favorite teaching method is for teachers to correct reading

comprehension post-reading exercises in front of the class involving students in the correction

process. Table 13 shows that only 38.8% of students either agreed or strongly agreed with this

teaching method.

Table 13: “I like when the teacher corrects in front of the class and asks students for

answers.”

Frequency (n) Percent (%) Combined Percent


Disagree 38 16.7

Neutral 69 30.4 30.4

Agree 61 26.9 38.8


Total 227 100.0 100

It seems students enjoy it more when teachers correct post-reading exercises in front of

the classroom on their own without involving students in the correction process. As shown in

Table 14, a 54.6% majority of students agreed or strongly agreed with this teaching method.

Table 14: “I like when the teacher corrects out loud alone on the board.”

Frequency(n) Percent (%)

Combined Percent

(%)


16.7 Disagree 25 11.0

Neutral 65 28.6 28.6

Agree 65 28.6 54.6


Total 227 100.0 100.00

33

The most enjoyable teaching method according to students was for ESL teachers to

simply collect all post-reading comprehension exercises that were completed during class time,

correct those at home and hand in the results and correction the following class as 63% of

students were in favor for teachers to take correcting matters into their own hands and take the

time to correct at home or outside classroom time.

A difference was observed concerning this matter between secondary four and secondary

five students; only 9.7% of secondary four students are not in favor of their teachers correcting

ESL exercises at home on their own, and handing in the corrected paper to the students the next

class while this number goes up to 22.4% with secondary five students as Table 15 shows.

Table 15: “I like when the teacher collects my work, corrects it at home and hands me my

corrected work the following class.”

Grade Strongly

disagree


agree

Total

Secondary 4 0% 9.7% 21.0% 30.6% 38.7% 100%

Secondary 5 12.7% 9.7% 17% 27.9% 32.7% 100%

Total

(all students)

9.3% 9.7% 18.1% 28.6% 34.4% 100%

19% 63.0%

Finally, Table 16 compares each in-class post-reading correction method proposed in the

survey for which students had to express their level of enjoyment.

34

Table 16: Comparative table of in class post-exercises correcting methods

Correcting

methods

Strongly

disagree Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly

agree

Total

Teacher corrects

at home 9.3% 9.7%

18.1%

28.6%

34.4% 100%

Teacher corrects

in class with no

students input

5.7% 11%

28.6%

28.6%

26.0%

100%

Teacher corrects

in class with

students

14.1% 16.7%

30.4%

26.9%

11.9%

100%

Students correct

on their own with

answer key

33.5% 24.2%

25.1%

9.3%

7.9%

100%

Post-Reading Exercises Format

Table 17 shows that a good majority of students’ favorite type of reading comprehension

post-reading activities would be a multiple choice question type of activity; 56.4% of students

strongly agreed with answering reading comprehension questions in the form of multiple choice

answers with a short text classroom activity.

Table 17: “I like to answer multiple choice questions with a short ESL text.”


Combined Percent

(%)

Strongly Disagree 27 11.9

18.5 Disagree 15 6.6

Agree 32 14.1 70.5


Erroneous answers 3 25 11.0 11.0

Total 227 100.0 100

3 Approximately 11% of the students answered this section of the survey erroneously.

35

However, this number decreases to 42.3% for students who strongly agreed with

answering reading comprehension questions in the form of multiple choice answers with a long

text or a novel. As seen in table 18, the second favorite type of comprehension activities was

post-reading activities in the form of short answer: 50.2% of the students agreed and 18.1%

strongly agreed with this type of post-reading activity.

Table 18: “I like to answer short answer (1 sentence) questions with a short ESL text.”


Combined Percent

(%)

Strongly Disagree 16 7.0 20.7

Disagree 31 13.7

Agree 114 50.2 68.3


Erroneous answers 25 11.0 11.0

Total 227 100.0 100.00

Table 19 shows that if students have to write a longer form of text response, they would

rather write an opinion text than an essay, as 60.4 % of students disagreed or strongly disagreed

with writing an essay as a reading comprehension exercise or evaluation method while Table 20

shows this number went down to 53.3% for writing an opinion text.

Table 19: “I like to write an essay with a long ESL text or a book.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 66 29.1

Agree 36 15.9 28.2



Total 227 100.0 100.0

36

Table 20: “I like to write an opinion text with a long ESL text or a book.”


Combined

Percent (%)


Disagree 51 22.5

Agree 40 17.6 35.2



Total 227 100.0 100.0

ESL Reading Comprehension Versus Other ESL Competencies

Even though this study mainly focused on reading comprehension when learning ESL, a

few questions in the questionnaires were asked concerning students’ enjoyment of developing

reading comprehension in the classroom over other ESL competencies such as oral and writing

production. According to the results of the survey, Table 21 shows that grammar exercises are

the least popular ESL classes as only 7% of students would rather do grammar exercises over

reading comprehension exercises.

Table 21: “I would rather have a reading comprehension class than a grammar class.”


Combined

Percent (%)


Disagree 9 4.0

Neutral 65 28.6 28.6

Agree 61 26.9 64.3


Total 227 100 100

Figure 6 shows results concerning the students’ enjoyment of doing a writing

development focus activity: more than one out of five students (22.9%) would rather have a

classroom activity focused on writing development in which they are encouraged in writing

37

production rather than focusing on an ESL reading comprehension activity. Conversely, 48% of

students would rather work on reading comprehension than on writing, while 28.6% were

neutral.

Results concerning the preference of students for having oral-based classroom activities

in which the main focus of the class would be to develop and organize a form of oral production

were similar to the previous results of enjoyment of doing reading over writing development

exercises. The results in Table 22 show that approximately 1 out of 4 students (24.7%) would

rather have some form of oral classroom activity than an ESL class focusing on reading

comprehension, while 48% of students would rather focus on reading than working on oral skills.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

30

20

10

0

22.9% 25.1%

28.6%

16.7%

6.2%

Figure 6: “I would rather have a reading comprehension class than a written production

task.”

Percent

38

Table 22: “I would rather have a reading comprehension class than do an oral project.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 33 14.5

Neutral 62 27.3 27.3

Agree 42 18.5 48.0


Total 227 100.0 100

One of the reasons that could possibly explain the fact that reading comprehension ESL

exercises are the students’ favorite type of competency to develop in the classroom could be

explained by the fact that in general, ESL students who answered the survey find ESL reading

comprehension to be a generally easy task to do in the classroom. In fact, Table 23 shows that

only 5.7% of the students disagreed or strongly disagreed that doing a typical reading

comprehension activity in class was easy.

Table 23: “Reading exercises are easy for me.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 12 5.3

Neutral 58 25.6 25.6

Agree 111 48.9 68.7


Total 227 100.0 100

39

Reading Comprehension Level of Difficulty

The last topic of the survey concerned the students’ enjoyment of being challenged by

more difficult types of reading material in their ESL classes. As seen in Table 24, students are

much divided on that topic, as 31.3% of the students disagreed or strongly disagreed with that

statement, while 35.2% were neutral and the remaining 33.5% either agreed or strongly agreed

with this statement. If we take a closer look at the results according to the ESL programs, we

notice that PEI students have a slightly different opinion on the matter, as 47.1% of PEI students

disagreed or strongly disagreed with enjoying these types of reading compared to 21.2% for

enriched ESL students and 21.8% for the regular ESL students.

Table 24: “I like reading more challenging material.” by program

Enrich level PEI level Regular level Total

(n) % (n) % (n) % (n) %

Strongly disagree 5 12.2 26 30.6 11 10.9 42 18.5

Disagree 4 9.8 14 16.5 11 10.9 29 12.8

Neutral 15 36.6 25 29.4 40 39.6 80 35.2

Agree 14 34.1 13 15.3 31 30.7 58 25.6

Strongly agree 3 7.3 7 8.2 8 7.9 18 7.9

Total 41 100 85 100 101 100 227 100

Table 25 shows that in general, students are a little more in favor of doing some relatively

easy and unelaborated ESL reading comprehension reading and post-reading exercises than more

challenging and difficult ones. However, the results are divided, as 33% of students were neutral

40

on this statement, 23.8% either disagreed or strongly disagreed, while 43.1% were in favor of

having easier types of ESL reading comprehension classes.

Table 25: “I like reading easy and simple material.”


Combined Percent

(%)


Disagree 37 16.3

Neutral 75 33.0 33.0

Agree 60 26.4 43.1


Total 227 100.0 100

This chapter detailed the results from the survey study conducted at La Magdeleine High

School. Tables, figures and comparative charts established student preferences amongst different

teaching techniques focusing on reading comprehension frequently used inside second language

classrooms. The following chapter discusses those results and also makes some

recommendations regarding how teachers should interpret and use some of these outcomes.

Chapter 5: Discussion

The first conclusion from this survey is that teachers should definitely activate prior

knowledge by having some form of introduction or class discussion in order to discuss and

introduce the subject which the class reading will touch upon. Not only do students enjoy having

teachers doing this part of the class during ESL reading comprehension classes, but as we have

already seen, this is a teaching method that is beneficial when learning a second language. In the

end, activating prior knowledge and doing proper pre-reading activities are effective teaching

techniques, and are also very motivating for a great majority of students as they enjoy proceeding

to such activities during ESL reading comprehension classes. ESL teachers should not start a

41

reading comprehension class without taking the time to do such an activity. Furthermore, if the

pre-reading activity is original, interesting and intriguing to students, this could increase

motivation amongst learners.

Students also realize the importance of doing reading activities and favour doing all pre-

reading and post-reading activities during reading comprehension classes. The fact that a

majority of 88.1% of students do not disagree with this statement shows some form of

engagement in the student’s willingness to learn ESL in the school format. Furthermore, even if

students would rather have the teacher doing it for them, they also realize the importance of

correcting post-reading exercises when they are completed, which shows a certain degree of

dedication from students in their learning. Teachers should always have some appropriate form

of post-reading exercises and take the time to correct them. A teacher deciding to skip those

steps might decrease student motivation for doing the core reading segment of the class if there is

no form of post-reading activity or exercise connected to the reading.

Concerning the reading part itself of a reading comprehension ESL class in second cycle

student level, using an audio-device (CD, Podcast, etc.) to read a text aloud to the students is a

teaching method that teachers should not use. Other types of listening comprehension activities

might be more liked by students, but this particular method should not be used to read a text to

students, as students clearly dislike and aren’t motivated by this type of ESL teaching format.

Instead of using this method I would suggest that teachers change methods from time to time,

going from giving time in the classroom for students to read individually and sometimes for the

teacher to read aloud to the students.

Concerning assigning random students in the classroom to read aloud to the entire class,

it is clear that a great percentage of students dislike this particular method. Furthermore, an even

42

greater percentage of students admit to being shy and uncomfortable while being this student

who must read aloud to the entire class. As we know that being shy can affect negatively at times

the production of language in the classroom, teachers assigning random students to read aloud

can make things difficult for the learning process of some students. Teachers are also faced with

the decision of either always picking volunteers who are willing to read aloud in class or forcing

some very uncomfortable students to read aloud, which can be very difficult for them

emotionally, or at least not help them increase their motivation and some aspect of their ESL

proficiency. Kailani (1998) established that more time should be given to students to read aloud

inside the classroom. It is important that students practice reading aloud in order to develop their

general oral skills and pronunciation as well as their reading development. ESL teachers might

want to alter the method of assigning random students to read aloud to the entire classroom as

this is a teaching activity that is often conducted in ESL classrooms and one which a large

percentage of students clearly dislike.

A good alternative could be to form collaborative reading groups in which small teams of

students take turns reading to each other aloud. This method could encourage shy students to

take risks as reading to 2 or 3 peers could be less intimidating than reading to an entire class.

This would also accord with the majority of students in favor of working in teams during post-

reading exercises as a form of motivation. This would also be in line with the positive findings

from Klingner, Vaughn, Arguelles, Hughes and Leftwich (2004) and Lucas (2005) concerning

collaborative reading.

In light of this study, teachers should favor team work during ESL post-reading

comprehension exercises in the classroom as 54.2% of students feel they learn more when they

are working in teams. This does not mean teachers should always form teams to do these types of

43

exercises as students will probably have to do reading comprehension evaluations individually

throughout the school year, but should use a team format type of activity on a fairly regular

basis, as a majority of students enjoy team work and find this post-reading exercise format to be

a useful manner of developing ESL reading comprehension competencies. Of course, an

appropriate class structure and adequate class management need to be in place in order to keep

students on task during such group activities as it is possible that the 54.2% majority of students

feeling they learned more in teams answered this statement positively in order to be with friends

in a lighter atmosphere during classroom hours. Teachers must make sure that students are doing

their team tasks and not procrastinating. Teacher might want to use disciplinary measures if

necessary to establish a class philosophy where team task means being productive and working

proficiently.

When we look at the results concerning post-reading discussion groups, we realize that

girls are even fonder of this method than boys. In fact, they are distinct preferences for males and

females depending on the learning contexts in which specific reading strategies are being utilised

(Liyanage and Bartlett, 2012). This is particularly interesting for some teachers who sometimes

have classes with only one gender or a strong majority of either boys or girls in some specific

high school programs. For example, a teacher could employ more often group discussion in a

classroom of girl students. Teachers teaching classrooms of boy students might not want to

avoid group discussions, but should include an activity in which boys have to self-monitor

themselves in such a task as Liyanage and Bartlett (2012) also concluded that males reported

greater self-monitoring aptitudes than females. A simple self-evaluation document to fill out

after a specific reading comprehension task could be a good example.

http://mcgill.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AIndika+Liyanage&qt=hot_author

http://mcgill.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AIndika+Liyanage&qt=hot_author

44

According to the results of this study, students also realize the importance of correcting

post-reading comprehension exercises, as 94.7% of students participating in the survey did not

disagree or strongly disagree with the importance of this segment of the class. Results show that

the worst correcting method according to the students is providing each student with a paper

version of the answer key as they correct themselves individually. Most students agreed or were

neutral with the teacher correcting the reading exercises in front of the class following the

exercises.

What we could consider as disappointing results in the study is that when teachers are

correcting in front of the class, a larger majority of students would rather not be involved in the

correction of post-reading comprehension exercises. This goes against the findings of Lyster and

Ranta (1997), as students involved in the corrective feedback have more chances of responding

positively and learning some new words than if they are simply being given the correct answers

out loud and on the board in front of the class. Teachers correcting in front of the class by

themselves is a form of group correction that is closer to recast than it is to other more useful

feedback methods. The most popular method in the students’ opinion is for teachers to collect

students’ post-reading exercises and correct them outside of the classroom time with students.

This could be considered a disappointing result as students seem to understand the importance of

correcting post-reading exercises, but prefer it when someone else does the work for them.

However secondary five teachers should be aware that approximately one out of five students

does not agree with this method which could be explained by they’re having more mature

students than secondary four.

Even if involving students in the correction process goes against some of the findings of

this study, as students prefer not to be involved, I would still suggest that teachers attempt to

45

engage students in the correction process of post-reading comprehension exercises. I would

recommend at times, in order to keep students motivated and attempt to diversify class content

and rhythm throughout reading comprehension class, that teachers do collect students’ work and

correct some of it outside classroom regular hours. However, I would also suggest that teachers

take the time to correct post-reading exercises in class on a regular basis, and try to involve and

engage students in participating in the correction process as this can only be beneficial for them

in developing their general ESL reading comprehension skills. Maybe teachers should try to be

enthusiastic about their classroom correcting method and attempt to differentiate it. Having a

form of Power Point presentation including some tiny animation to correct with student instead

of correcting monotonously on the blackboard could be an interesting alternative.

When we look at all the competencies ESL classes are working on developing (oral,

reading comprehension and writing production), it seems that reading comprehension is the

favorite competency for students to work on.

First, reading comprehension seems to be much more appreciated than grammar

exercises. This suggests that students would rather have an ESL lesson where the main focus is

reading instead of working on developing grammatical knowledge. This of course does not mean

teachers should always favor reading comprehension over grammar, as obviously teaching

grammar is necessary when learning a second language. On the other hand, teachers should keep

this in mind and possibly have some reading involved with grammar exercises or balance their

activity in a way that can slightly advantage reading exercises. In addition, students appear to

favour reading comprehension over oral production in the classroom. This could be explained by

the fact that many students are shy to speak in a language in which they are not comfortable,

especially in an atmosphere where they can feel judged by their peers. As teachers absolutely

46

need to have some form of oral exercises in the classroom, teachers could at least make sure

students are not pressured to speak to the entire class, but perhaps have small discussion groups

that could also be a form of evaluation without the attention of the entire classroom.

The majority of students enjoy short types of answer when they are doing reading

comprehension exercises and most of them dislike writing essays or opinion texts on something

they read as a type of exercise or evaluation. I suppose it is no surprise to find that students

dislike producing writing material as a form of reading comprehension task, but it is interesting

to see that students do not dislike answering multiple choice questions possibly because it is the

form of activity that requires the least effort.

Even if writing longer forms of text during reading comprehension tasks does not seem

motivating to the students, it is interesting to learn that they would rather write an opinion text

than an essay about their general comprehension of a text. This might be because there are fewer

analytical skills required, and students have no way of being wrong when they write an opinion

text. Teachers should keep that in mind, and perhaps favor opinion writing for reinvesting

reading of a text when this is possible. Students’ writing about their opinions seems a little more

motivating as they will have no choice at some point about proceeding to a longer writing task

even if, in general, this is one of the least favorite tasks for students. Choosing a text that has

content which is easier for students to have a strong opinion about, such as raising or lowering

the legal driving age, could be a good way for students to execute such a task.

In this discussion, the outcomes of this study were analyzed and some recommendations

on how to interpret them and use these results for building course outlines that would favor some

of the findings of this study were proposed. Nevertheless, like any studies, they are some

research limitations and elements to consider that are detailed in the next chapter.

47

Chapter 6: Limitations and Considerations

Survey Design and Sample

The first limitation to this study is the population who answered the survey in terms of

their ESL program. The fact that 37.4% of students who returned the questionnaire are taking

part in the International program does not represent this program population within the school as

in reality PEI represents about 25% of the school population in terms of ESL classes in La

Magdeleine 2nd

cycle high school students and not all high schools in Quebec have this particular

program, which is usually reserved for elite students. Furthermore, although the total number of

questionnaire answered and analyzed for this study is statistically satisfactory, with a total of 227

students, it is difficult to analyze more clustered data such as the students enrolled in the

enriched ESL program, from which we only received a total of 41 questionnaires. The same

limitation applies to secondary four results, in which we collected a total of only 62

questionnaires.

Another problem which is likely to happen when using a five-point Likert scale is the

high percentage of students who responded as neutral (i.e. 3) regarding many affirmations of

degree of enjoyment of a specific teaching method or classroom activity. Moreover, regardless of

the explanations that were provided to students, some of them (11%) did not fill in the second

section of the questionnaire correctly as many of them did not respect the instructions that asked

them to classify in order of enjoyment post-reading ESL reading comprehension exercises. In

fact, many of them simply answered this section as if this was still section 1 of the questionnaire.

Finally, the population of students studied in this survey only covers a small geographical

part of Quebec Province. This school is comprised almost completely of French-speaking

48

Quebec students and therefore not really well representative of immigrants and other cultures.

The results of this study would probably have been different in a school located on the Montreal

Island with a higher multicultural diversity.

Limitations of Results

Teachers using these results to influence their classroom curriculum should know that it

is fundamental that an important number of pre-requisites have to be respected with all of the

teaching methods mentioned in this study. For instance, group discussion following a class

reading should be structured and organized. Students should also be supervised and have clear

discussion topics in order to focus on tasks and not switch to a subject other than the reading

itself or even worse, code switching to their L1. Careful class organization and discipline are

essential for this type of activity to function.

If a teacher wants to follow some of the trends found in this study, some of them could be

difficult to implement. For example, this study shows how much a majority of students

appreciate and enjoy when teachers take the time to correct students’ work outside the classroom

on their own time and distribute results and appropriate corrective feedback the following class.

With this particular example, it would be extremely difficult for a regular ESL secondary five

ESL teacher to take 180 copies or so of work and correct every ESL reading comprehension

exercises throughout the year as this is an extremely heavy workload to commit to outside of the

classroom. Furthermore, a certain percentage of students do enjoy other correction methods.

We also concluded that collaborative reading in small teams was a good alternative to

avoid one student reading aloud to the entire class. If teachers decide to do this, they should be

extremely careful in the manner they build the class teams. For example, a teacher might not

want groups of rowdy friends to team up as this could disturb the class working atmosphere.

49

Teachers reading this study need to consider those limitations of design and results if they

want to apply some of the concepts proposed in this study.

Chapter 7: Conclusion

I believe the overall results from this study show some very positive signs concerning the

students’ level of commitment when learning a second language. The fact that a high percentage

of students values the importance of reading comprehension classes and the necessity of

activating prior knowledge, and having some form of reading comprehension exercises and

correcting them, does demonstrate that students are somehow committed to their ESL learning.

Unfortunately, other results in this study illustrate some forms of “laziness” in this

dedication in learning a second language. A majority of students pointed out how they like short

and easy readings, how they prefer answering multiple choice forms of post-reading exercises,

and how their favorite manner of correcting exercises is when the teacher corrects outside class

hours, and how they prefer in-class correction when the teacher does not involve students in

participating in the correction process.

I do think that using students’ favorite teaching methods when working on reading

comprehension in the classroom can be very helpful at times in order to increase students’

motivation, but in the end, should a teacher always favor teaching methods that are more enjoyed

by students? Clearly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have reading classes where most of the

time, students read rather easy material and answer multiple choice questions that would be

corrected by the teacher without the involvement of students. Teachers need to find ways to get

around students’ laziness, resistance and anxiety. I believe the key is to attempt to find ways to

increase students’ interest levels. For each teaching method that students are not in accord with,

50

teachers should attempt to find an alternative activity that could help students develop certain

skills with a teaching approach they don’t dislike as much.

For example, we’ve already mentioned collaborative reading as an alternative form to

assigning reading aloud to the classroom. Another option could be reader’s theater in the ESL

classroom. This method involves more than one student at a time and gives time for each student

to practice reading before performing for either the entire class or a small group of peers. Of

course, more studies would be necessary to observe if such a method compared to “normal”

reading aloud to the classroom would be liked by students.

As for post-reading exercises, teachers need to find interesting ways to ask at times for

more elaborate answers than multiple choice forms of questions. For example, another approach

would be for teachers to assign students to build their own multiple answer questionnaires in

groups and then give their questionnaires to other teams. This way, students would work in

teams to build a reading comprehension questionnaire on their own, and still answer a multiple

choice form of questionnaire related to their readings. Obviously, more details and structure

would be necessary for such a type of exercise, but this should be an improvement as a post-

reading exercise that takes student preferences into consideration. Clearly some further

classroom investigation would be necessary to analyze the effectiveness of such a method in

relation to students’ enjoyment and motivation.

Concerning the correction of post-reading exercises, teachers need to find ways to

increase students’ involvement in such activities. A teacher cannot take the entire correction load

on his shoulder and correct outside the classroom at all times as this is simply too much

correction and is not beneficial for students. Teachers should try different, out of the ordinary,

correction methods with students, which the teacher could possibly make into a game, or have

51

some reward point system with students participating in the correction of post-reading exercises.

Here again, further studies would be necessary to assess the effectiveness of such a method.

In the end, teachers should acknowledge the results of this study and use students’ most

preferred teaching methods when it is appropriate and efficient for ESL learners. Teachers

should also acknowledge the less preferred teaching methods in order to attempt to slightly

modify and adapt these methods in a manner that would be just as efficient, but also more

motivating for students, because ultimately, motivated ESL learners will increase their learning

and enjoy them as well.

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Appendices

55

Appendix A: Various Authorisation Letters

Octobre 2011

Objet: Maîtrise sur l’apprentissage de la langue anglaise.

Chère Madame Richard,

Je suis présentement à préparer mon mémoire de maîtrise dans le cadre de mes études en

apprentissage de langue seconde à l’université McGill. Cette recherche a pour thème la deuxième

compétence du cours d’anglais au deuxième cycle du secondaire, soit le réinvestissement de

compréhension de textes. Plus particulièrement cette recherche vise à étudier parmi les méthodes

déjà efficaces celles dont les élèves préfèrent. Le but de cette recherche est de connaître ces

tendances afin d’accentuer la motivation des élèves dans l’apprentissage d’une langue seconde.

Aussi, par la présente, je souhaiterais obtenir votre autorisation afin de procéder à ces recherches

dans votre commission scolaire. Ses résultats me serviront de base de donnés dans le cadre de

mes travaux.

Afin d’obtenir les résultats les plus authentiques possibles, je désirerais sonder la

majeure partie des élèves de l’école secondaire la Magdeleine et possiblement d’autres étudiants

du deuxième cycle d’école de la commission scolaire des Grandes-Seigneuries. Pour ce faire,

j’aurais besoin d’une vingtaine de minutes par groupe sélectionné afin de distribuer et de

recueillir les données. Je suis conscient que le temps des professeurs est précieux, c’est pourquoi

j’obtiendrais au préalable l’accord de chacun ainsi que l’accord officiel de la direction des

établissements concernés.

Je vous remercie grandement pour votre précieuse collaboration.

Veuillez agréer, Madame Richard, de mes salutations le plus distinguées.

Karl-André Huot

En apposant votre signature sur ce document, vous m’autorisez officiellement4 à faire ces

recherches dans les écoles secondaires de la commission scolaire des grandes seigneuries.

Date :__________________________________

Signature: ______________________________

4 Pour avoir l’autorisation officielle, j’obtiendrai également l’accord des directeurs d’établissements ainsi que des

enseignants concernés qui auront également préalablement une copie du questionnaire que je dois distribuer.

56

Letter to the high school principal « La Magdeleine »

Octobre 2011

Objet : Maîtrise sur l’apprentissage de la langue anglaise.

Chère Madame Bérubé,




compréhension de texte. Plus particulièrement cette recherche vise à étudier parmi les méthodes

déjà efficaces celles dont les élèves préfèrent. Le but de cette recherche est de connaître ces


Aussi, par la présente, je souhaiterais obtenir votre autorisation afin de distribuer un

questionnaire5 à vos élèves. Ses résultats me serviront de base de données dans le cadre de mes

travaux.

Afin d’obtenir les résultats les plus authentiques possibles, je désirerais sonder la majeure

partie des élèves de votre établissement. Pour ce faire, j’aurais besoin d’une vingtaine de minutes

avec chaque groupe afin d’expliquer le questionnaire, de le distribuer et de recueillir les données.

Bien évidemment, je suis conscient que le temps des professeurs est précieux, c’est pourquoi

j’obtiendrais au préalable l’accord de chacun et conviendrais du moment le plus opportun pour

eux.


Veuillez agréer, Madame Bérubé, de mes salutations le plus distinguées.

Karl-André Huot

En apposant votre signature sur ce document, vous m’autorisez officiellement à distribuer mon

questionnaire dans votre établissement.

Date : _________________________________

Signature: ______________________________

5 Vous trouverez ci-joint le questionnaire dont je désire faire l’utilisation dans votre établissement

57

Letter to high school teachers

Octobre 2011

Objet : Maîtrise sur l’apprentissage de la langue anglaise.

Cher ______________,




compréhension de textes. Plus particulièrement cette recherche vise à étudier parmi les méthodes

déjà efficaces celles dont les élèves préfèrent. Le but de cette recherche est de connaitre ces


Aussi, par la présente, je souhaiterais obtenir votre autorisation afin de distribuer un

questionnaire6 à vos élèves. Ces résultats me serviront de base de données dans le cadre de mes

travaux.

Afin d’obtenir les résultats les plus authentiques possibles, je désirerais sonder les élèves

de votre cours. Pour ce faire, j’aurais besoin d’une vingtaine de minutes avec chaque groupe afin

d’expliquer le questionnaire, le distribuer et de recueillir les données. Bien évidemment, nous

pouvons fixer ensemble le moment le plus opportun.


Karl-André Huot

En apposant votre signature sur ce document, vous m’autorisez officiellement à distribuer mon

questionnaire a vos groupes d’élèves.

Date :__________________________________

Signature: ______________________________

6 Vous trouverez ci-joint le questionnaire dont je désire faire l’utilisation dans votre établissement

58

Objet: Lettre de consentement parentale

Le 28 Janvier 2012

Chers Parents ou Gardiens,

Je me nomme Karl Huot et je suis professeur d’anglais à l’école secondaire de la Magdeleine. Je

travaille présentement à la rédaction d’une thèse dans le cadre d’une maîtrise en enseignement de

langue seconde à l’université McGill. Mes recherches porteront sur la compréhension de textes lus

dans le cadre d’un cours d’anglais au deuxième cycle du secondaire. Cette étude souhaite mettre en

lumière les méthodes d’enseignement préférées par les élèves parmi les méthodes couramment

utilisées par les professeurs. Les résultats permettront d’identifier les techniques à encourager afin

d’accentuer la motivation dans le cadre de l’apprentissage d’une langue seconde.

Pour ce faire, un court sondage anonyme sera distribué aux élèves afin de recueillir les données.

Avant de commencer le questionnaire, un document de consentement sera remis [voir verso] à votre

enfant expliquant le contexte et le processus de cette recherche de même que le choix d’y participer

ou non. La participation à cette recherche demeure sur une base volontaire et aucun élève n’y sera

contraint. De plus, l’autorisation parentale est également obligatoire à la cueillette d’information.

Bien entendu, j’ai reçu les autorisations nécessaires de la part du comité éthique de l’université

McGill, de la commission scolaire des Grandes-Seigneuries, de la direction de l’école de la

Magdeleine de même que celle du professeur d’anglais de votre enfant. Il est important de noter que

si vous refusez que votre enfant participe à cette étude, celui-ci ne sera aucunement pénalisé ou

ralenti dans ses apprentissages.


Karl-André Huot

Coupon à retourner

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

J’autorise mon enfant à participer à l’étude.

Je n’autorise pas mon enfant à participer à l’étude.

Nom de l’enfant : __________________________________

Groupe : __________________________________

Signature du parent: __________________________________

59

Consentement de participation de l’élève

Vous êtes invités à participer à une étude dans le cadre du cours d’anglais langue seconde. Cette

étude est conduite par un professeur de la commission scolaire, Karl Huot, également de l’université

McGill. L’objectif de cette recherche est de déterminer parmi plusieurs méthodes utilisées en classe

d’anglais lorsqu’il est question de la deuxième compétence, soit le réinvestissement d’un texte lu. Le

sondage ci-joint a pour but d’établir quelles sont vos méthodes favorites lors du processus en classe

pour la deuxième compétence déjà mentionnée.

Il est important de savoir qu’il n’y a aucun risque à répondre à ce questionnaire puisque vous avez

le droit d’y renoncer. Par contre ce questionnaire a pour but de connaître ce dont vous préférez faire

en tant qu’élève afin que ces méthodes soient plus utilisées pendant les cours d’anglais de langue

seconde. Les données recueillies seront bénéfiques pour les futurs étudiants du secondaire.

Il est également important de savoir que tous les questionnaires sont anonymes donc nous ne

pourrons pas retracer les résultats de chacun. Il est important de ne pas marquer son nom sur le

questionnaire. Aucune réponse que vous donnez dans ce questionnaire n’aura d’impact sur vos notes

ou sur votre cheminement dans le cours d’anglais dont vous faites partie.

Si vous choisissez de participer, une fois le questionnaire complété, tout simplement remettre le tout

a votre enseignant. Si vous avez des questions concernant le questionnaire vous pouvez me contacter

à [email protected].

Merci de votre collaboration!

Karl-André Huot

mailto:[email protected]

60

Appendix B : Student Questionnaire

Questionnaire français IMPORTANT

Toutes les questions du questionnaire concernent le cours d'anglais langue seconde.

Toutes les questions du questionnaire concernent la partie lecture du cours.

Par exercices de lecture nous supposons qu'il s'agit d'un cours d'une durée de 75 minutes

dans lequel nous répondons à des questions sur un texte suite a une période de lecture.

Partie 1

Encercler un chiffre de 1 à 5 pour chaque affirmation.

Légende :

1 : Fortement en désaccord

2 : En désaccord

3 : Neutre

4 : En Accord

5 : Fortement en accord

1 Je trouve facile les exercices de lectures en classes. 1 2 3 4 5

2 J'aime que le professeur discute du sujet avant de débuter la lecture. 1 2 3 4 5

3 Si je ne comprends pas un mot dans la lecture, je vais tout simplement

continuer à lire sans m'en soucier.

1 2 3 4 5

4 Si je ne comprends pas un mot dans la lecture, je vais demander à un autre

élève.

1 2 3 4 5

5 Si je ne comprends pas un mot dans la lecture, je vais demander au

professeur la signification du mot.

1 2 3 4 5

61

6 Si je ne comprends pas un mot dans le texte, je vais regarder dans le

dictionnaire.

1 2 3 4 5

7 J'aime lire le texte individuellement et en silence. 1 2 3 4 5

8 Je préfère lorsque le professeur lis à haute voix et que je puisse suivre le

texte.

1 2 3 4 5

9 Je préfère lorsque le professeur assigne au hasard des élèves pour lire des

passages du texte. 1 2 3 4 5

10 Je me sens gêné de faire la lecture seul à voix haute dans la classe. 1 2 3 4 5

11 Je préfère lorsqu'un appareil audio me lis le texte. 1 2 3 4 5

12 Je préfère faire les exercices de lecture seule. 1 2 3 4 5

13 J'aime faire les exercices de lecture en équipe. 1 2 3 4 5

14 J'ai le sentiment d'apprendre plus en travaillant en équipe. 1 2 3 4 5

15 Discuter avec des coéquipiers sur l’exercice de lecture m'aide à mieux

comprendre le texte.

1 2 3 4 5

16 Je pense qu'il est important de faire des exercices pour voir si j'ai compris le

texte.

1 2 3 4 5

17 Je pense que la correction des exercices de lectures est importante. 1 2 3 4 5

18 Lors de la correction des exercices de lecture, j'aime lorsque le professeur

corrige à l'avant seul.

1 2 3 4 5

19 J'aime quand le professeur corrige à l'avant et demande les réponses aux

élèves.

1 2 3 4 5

20 Lors de la correction des exercices de lecture, je préfère que le professeur

me donne les réponses à part sur une feuille et que je puisse me corriger

seul.

1 2 3 4 5

21 Lors de la correction des exercices de lecture, j'aime quand le professeur

ramasse les travaux et me remet le tout corrigé au cours suivant.

1 2 3 4 5

22 Je préfère un cours de lecture (texte à lire et exercices sur ce texte) plutôt

qu'un cours sur la grammaire.

1 2 3 4 5


qu'un cours de production écrite.

1 2 3 4 5


qu'un cours ou l'on doit faire des projets oraux.

1 2 3 4 5

62

25 J'aime lire des textes complexes et avancés. 1 2 3 4 5

26 J'aime lire des textes faciles et peu élaborés. 1 2 3 4 5

Partie 2

Classer les affirmations suivantes de 1 à 4 selon votre opinion (1 étant l’énonce avec lequel vous

êtes le moins en accord et 4 étant l’énonce avec lequel vous êtes le plus en accord)

Affirmation 1 :

Quand je dois répondre à des questions de compréhension sur un court texte, j'aime

Répondre à une multitude de questions a choix multiples.

Répondre a plusieurs questions à court développement.

Faire un texte de compréhension sur le texte.

Écrire un texte d'opinion sur le texte.

Affirmation 2 :

Quand je dois répondre à des questions de compréhension de lecture sur un long texte ou un

roman, j'aime

Répondre à une multitude de questions a choix multiples.

Répondre a plusieurs questions à court développement.

Écrire un texte de compréhension sur le texte.

Écrire un texte d'opinion sur le texte.

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Partie 3 : Informations statistiques

Instruction : Encercler votre statut

Anglais :

Enrichi

Régulier

Sexe :

Masculin

Féminin

Présentement en secondaire :

3 4 5

Répondre aux questions suivantes :

Âge : ____________ans

École: ____________________ .

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English Questionnaire IMPORTANT

All questions on this questionnaire concern the English as a Second Language course.

All questions concern the reading comprehension part of the course.

By “reading exercises” we mean questions you are answering, in a 75-minute class, about

a text you have just read in this same class.

Part 1

Circle a number between 1 and 5 for each statement.

Legend:

1: Strongly disagree

2: Disagree

3: Neutral

4: Agree

5: Strongly agree

1 Reading exercises are easy for me. 1 2 3 4 5

2 I like when the teacher discusses the subject before the reading. 1 2 3 4 5

3 If I do not understand a word in the text, I will simply keep on reading and

not worry about it.

1 2 3 4 5

4 If I do not understand a word in the text, I will ask a classmate. 1 2 3 4 5

5 If I do not understand a word in the text, I will ask the teacher. 1 2 3 4 5

6 If I do not understand a word in the text, I will look in the dictionary. 1 2 3 4 5

7 I like to do the reading of a text individually and in silence. 1 2 3 4 5

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8 I like when the teacher reads to the class out loud and I can follow the text. 1 2 3 4 5

9 I like when the teacher randomly assigns students to read some part of the

text.

1 2 3 4 5

10 I feel shy when I am asked to read out loud to the class. 1 2 3 4 5

11 I like when an audio device reads the text and I can follow along. 1 2 3 4 5

12 I like doing reading exercises on my own. 1 2 3 4 5

13 I like to do reading exercises in teams. 1 2 3 4 5

14 I feel I am learning more when I am doing reading exercises in teams. 1 2 3 4 5

15 Discussing reading exercises with teammates helps me understand the

reading more than if I work alone.

1 2 3 4 5

16 I think it is important to do reading exercises to see if I understood the text. 1 2 3 4 5

17 I think correcting reading exercises is important. 1 2 3 4 5

18 I like when the teacher corrects out loud alone on the board. 1 2 3 4 5

19 I like when the teacher corrects in front of the class and asks students for

answers.

1 2 3 4 5

20 I like when the teacher provides us the answer key on a separate sheet of

paper and I can correct myself.

1 2 3 4 5

21 I like when the teacher collects my work, corrects it at home and hands me

my corrected work the following class.

1 2 3 4 5

22 I would rather have a reading class (reading a text and exercises) than a

grammar class.

1 2 3 4 5

23 I would rather have a reading class (reading a text and exercises) than a

written production task.

1 2 3 4 5

24 I would rather have a reading class (reading a text and exercises) than do

an oral project.

1 2 3 4 5

25 I like reading more challenging material. 1 2 3 4 5

26 I like reading easy and simple material. 1 2 3 4 5

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Part 2

Classify each statement from 1 to 4 in order of preference (1 being the statement you like the

least, 4 being the statement you like the most)

Statement 1:

When I have to answer questions regarding a short text I read, I like to…

answer some multiple choice questions.

answer some short answer (1 sentence) questions.

write an essay.

write an opinion text about the reading.

Statement 2:

When I have to answer questions on a long text (or a book), I like to…

answer some multiple choice questions.

answer some short answer (1 sentence) questions.

write an essay.

write an opinion text about the reading.

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Part 3: Statistical information

Instruction: Circle your status

English class

Regular

Enriched

Sex:

Male

Female

Currently in secondary

3 4 5

Answer the following questions:

Age: ____________years old

Name of my school: ____________________ .

esl reading comprehension amongst second cycle...

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