The Study of the Effectiveness of Reading Journals on the Use of Japanese Reading Strategies: Case of graduate students

Abstract

This research studied the effectiveness of reading journals on the use of Japanese reading strategies by examining changes before and after making reading journals for one semester. Samples were three graduate students in a Japanese Studies program at Thammasat University. The reading strategy survey used was developed by Kouider Mokhtari and Ravi Sheorey.

Results were that before compiling a reading journal, samples employed reading strategies at a high level, oftenest using problem-solving strategies. After making a reading record, samples used reading strategies at high level, at an average increasing from 3.95 to 4.09. Analyzing strategy types, samples used the global and support strategies more often than previously. For the global reading strategy, average use of “I take an overall view of the text to see what it is about before reading it” increased most, and average of support strategy “I go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it.” increased most. These findings suggest that reading journals encourage samples to plan before, and promote monitoring while reading. This will lead to more efficient reading.