• A study of strategies used by L2 readers

One of the most important issues in L2 reading is the development of

reading strategy use among students. To examine this issue, Neil
Anderson (1991) posed two important questions: Will there be
differences in strategy use when students only read a passage versus
when they take a reading test? Will weaker students differ from
stronger students in their use of strategies while doing each task?
For the study, Anderson recruited 28 students to complete two tasks:
(a) take a reading- test and comment on strategies used during the
test and (b) read a text and comment on strategies used while
reading.
Because Anderson wanted to know if strategy use would differ
between weaker and stronger readers, he first gave all students a
reading test (that required no student commentary). The results of
this preliminary test allowed him to divide the students into three
groups: high, intermediate and low level. Students were taught to
give think-aloud comments on a reading task and were then tested
individually. In the case of the experimental reading test, students
were asked to comment on the strategies that they used while
reading and answering comprehension questions at the end of each
passage. Student comments were audiotaped, transcribed and then
categorised according to a list of 47 possible reading strategies.
Results of Anderson's study showed that weaker students were quite
different from stronger students in their reading abilities; students
who were better readers reported using significantly more total
strategies in their think-aloud comments. However, there was no
difference in the number of different strategies used or on their
reading test performance.
In comparing three students as case studies, Anderson showed that
students tended to use similar types of strategies across ability levels
and across tasks. He also noted that the weakest case-study student
could comment on many strategies, but she did not seem particularly
skilled at monitoring the success of these strategies.
For this student, the issue was not if she knew strategies but rather
how she could use them. Overall, there did not seem to be any single
strategy or small set that contributed significantly to reading success.
Most students use a wide variety of strategies and, overall, students
reported using quite a few strategies, both while reading and while
reading test.

This study provides an exploratory view of reading strategy use

among 28 ESL students in the US. It is interesting that students
reported similar strategy use across reading tasks, and that all the
students reported using similar strategies. The study also confirmed
the usefulness of an extensive strategy list for exploring student
strategy use.
Most important, the study revealed that the key differences in
strategy between weaker and stronger readers do not depend
completely on different types of strategies or the number of different
strategies used, but are more likely to depend on total numbers of
successful strategy uses. Finally, Anderson has shown that there is no
magic small set of strategies that separates good readers from
weaker readers. There are not five strategies, for example, that good
readers use but that weaker readers do not know about.