The purpose of this study was to determine whether an approach to teaching
reading through integrating strategy training into the instruction would result in better
reading performance than teaching reading following the coursebook alone at upper
intermediate level. It was an exploratory experimental study. The data were collected
via quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments. The pre-test and the posttest
results provided the quantitative data, and the qualitative data came from the
students’ feedback journals which were completed after each strategy training session
according to the guiding questions that the teacher provided. In addition, each of the
students in the experimental group was interviewed by the researcher to see if the
students make use of these strategies outside the class and if they benefit from them.
Two upper-intermediate level classes at BUSEL participated in the study. The
study lasted for 8 weeks. At the beginning of the study, a pre-test covering the
objectives that the students were expected to achieve in reading such as understanding
main ideas and text cohesion, guessing meaning from context was administered to both
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groups. Since the researcher was unable to use the mid-term exams in the institution,
the pre-test was designed by her considering the objectives of the level and the
students’ interests and proficiency levels. The test was administered to another upperintermediate
class to get the reliability of the test and it was found to be 0,97. After the
pre-test, the students in the experimental group received strategy training for 8 weeks
while the students in the control group continued to follow the coursebook only.
During the training sessions, the students were made aware of the strategies used in
reading and were encouraged to use them in their further reading as well. They also
kept a feedback journal in which they were asked to answer the questions that the
researcher provided them with after each session. Then, at the end of the 8-week
training, both groups took a post-test, again designed by the researcher, to see if there
was a difference in the students’ performances after the training they had received. In
the 8
th
week, each student in the experimental group also had an interview with the
researcher.