The integration of popular culture into English language learning has recently been formalised in the Hong Kong New Senior Secondary curriculum, with the development of critical reading indicated as one of the key objectives. Whether and how students respond to popular culture texts is, however, under-researched. The present paper reports findings…

Developing an appropriate competence in reading in English as a second language is a key factor for subsequent academic success. This study investigated second language reading anxiety of secondary school students. A questionnaire was distributed to 72 female students and focus-group interviews were conducted with 19 volunteer students. Overall…

This article reports the findings of an action research stydy aiming at fostering interest, participation, and self-expression in an EFL classroom at a public school in Usme, in the southeast of Bogotá. The study focuses on students' responses to the use of songs with social content within a framework of literacy as a situated social practice and…

The effects of meta-cognitive strategy use on learning reading comprehension have gained much interest of researchers and educators (Chumpavan, 2000; Shmais, 2002; Phakiti, 2003; Aegpongpaow 2008; Subasi, 2009; Zhang and Wu, 2009). Available literature indicated a positive correlation between learners' meta-cognitive strategy use and their…

Integrating both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study examined the knowledge and application of strategic reading among Taiwanese adolescents learning to read English as a foreign language. A total of 144 Grade 11 students participated in this study. Correlational analysis and t-tests were applied to analyzing quantitative data,…