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Presenters
Hamed Barjesteh and Mohammad Bagher Khatibi, Lecturer
Islamic Azad University,
Ayatollah Amoli Branch

Title
Facilitating learners To Be Successful Readers Through A Strategy Training

Abstract

     Why is facilitating learners with strategies how to learn important? The answer might lie on the fact that strategy is quite amenable to change, and by nature, teachable as well as learnable (Oxford,1990). Nuswantara (2008) also found out that the successful learners were triggered by the courage of using various learning strategies, the more varied the learners are willing to try out, the broader the chance for success. Training is the way that can be selected to present to the learners’ various strategies that they can choose and at the same time employ when learning is taken place. This article investigates the impact of strategy training on Iranian EFL learners’ learning process in a reading comprehension strategies programme: detecting probable changes in the learners’ behavior, investigating their internal learning process, probing strategy-specific changes in the learners’ approach to foreign language study and particularly identifying their attitudes towards foreign language learning. The analysis of students’ reports indicated that it was a useful practice in identifying students’ particular areas of difficulty and interest. The present study contributed to the expansion of strategy training evaluation beyond quantitative test-score-based methods. The changes in learning processes, behaviors, attitudes, strategy use, and comprehension abilities were potential evaluation criteria to be considered. The impact of strategy training on the learner not only lead to the improvement of language proficiency, but, more importantly, engaged with dynamic internal changes in the learning processes.

Key words: Language learning strategies, Strategy training, attitudes, Reading comprehension strategies, Working Journal