Abstract

This paper reports a study of one-semester implementation of reading strategy instruction to college students in Taiwan. Strategies selected for instruction were generally top-down, interactive or metacognitive strategies, including 'using prior knowledge,' 'guessing word meaning from context,' 'skimming for main ideas,' 'scanning for information,' 'summarizing,' and 'self-questioning and prediction.' The instruments for the study included a pre- and post- strategy questionnaire, students' journal entries and interviews with four students. Results of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis evidenced that reading strategy instruction could raise students’ awareness of strategy use and change some students' misconceptions of reading. More importantly, results showed that to effectively implement reading strategy instruction, the teacher can gradually proceed from slightly easy articles with story readings to more difficult ones, start with an easy-to-learn reading strategy like the prediction strategy, and integrate the instruction with a student-centered approach and cooperative learning approach to stimulate students' interest, confidence and sense of achievement.