KITIPAT CHUTICHAIWIRATH (LANGUAGE INSTITUTE THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY)
PRAGASIT SITTHITIKUL (Language Institute)

BASELINE ANALYSIS IN COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING INSTRUCTION: A SMALL-SCALE STUDY IN A THAI EFL CLASSROOM : ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC/SPECIFIC PURPOSES

Learning to effectively read in an EFL context is significantly important. Past studies demonstrated that the importance of reading, the factors affecting reading comprehension, and the demand for reading texts among Thai EFL university students are still emphasized. This small-scale study explored the opinions of Thai EFL undergraduate students toward the CSR instruction proposed by Klingner and Vaughn (2012). The study was implemented as a baseline to see whether CSR had potential for boosting comprehension and whether there was a possibility to modify the CSR instruction in order to suit the context. 27 participants were taught with a CSR lesson in a reading class. The qualitative data were collected from the questionnaires with open-ended questions completed by the participants after the CSR lesson as well as from the head notes, which were written down later after the class by the researcher, during the participant observation. The results from the questionnaires reflected positive opinions of the participants toward the CSR instruction, offering a good possibility of using it to improve reading comprehension. However, the results from the head notes showed some pitfalls that should be considered in order to help modify to be the CSR-based instruction that will be suitable for the students in the context.

Kitipat Chutichaiwirath, Language Institute, Thammasat University A PhD candidate in English Language Teaching at Language Institute, Thammasat University, Thailand. His areas of interest involve teaching methodologies, specifically Collaborative Strategic Reading and Play-Based Language Learning.

Pragasit Sitthitikul, Language Institute, Thammasat University An Associate Professor of the Language Institute, Thammasat University, Thailand. He earned a doctorate in Language and Literacy Studies, with a concentration in second-language reading processes, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. His areas of interest include Second Language Literacy, Cognitive and Sociocultural Factors in Second Language Learning, and Intercultural Issues in Second Language Learning.