The Effect of Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction on Reading Comprehension of Upper Primary Grade Students

Abstract

This article describes a quasi-experimental study that adopted a pre-test-post-test design with
a control group to examine the effect of an explicit reading strategy instruction on students’
reading comprehension. Two intact eighth grade classes were randomly assigned into an
experimental (n=33) and a control (n=32) condition. The experimental class was explicitly
taught to use REAP reading strategy for 10 lessons, and students’ reading comprehension
progress during each lesson was evaluated. The control class was taught using the regular
method of teaching reading for 10 lessons, and their reading comprehension progress in each
lesson was assessed using open-ended item worksheets. The reading comprehension
performance of the two groups was measured both before and after the experiment (separate
pretest and posttests). Analyses of the pretest-posttest reading comprehension scores revealed
that the experimental class significantly outperformed the control class. Analyses of students’
reading comprehension progress in each of the lessons also indicated that those in the
experimental condition demonstrated consistent improvement in their reading comprehension
scores than those in the control condition. The findings suggest that explicit reading strategy
instruction is effective in enhancing reading comprehension of upper primary grade students
with limited prior experience of utilizing reading strategies.