Abstract/Summary

The present study sought to examine the effect of instruction based on collaborative strategic reading (CSR) both with and without attributional feedback on Algerian university students’ reading comprehension performance, self-efficacy perceptions, and causal attributions for success and failure. A total number of 104 second year English as a foreign language students (EFL) were invited to take part in the study and were divided into three groups. One group referred to as the CSR Plus group received the CSR instruction as well as the teacher’s attributional feedback on their reading comprehension performance and strategy use. The CSR group received only training on the use of the CSR strategies, whereas, the Control group was not exposed to any training program. Qualitative and quantitative research designs were adopted within the present quasiexperimental study. A pre-post-test design and an intervention was implemented over 10 weeks to provide answers for the research questions addressed. The research data in this thesis were drawn from six main sources: an English language placement test, a reading comprehension test, an English reading questionnaire, a semi-structured interview, learning logs, and an evaluation questionnaire about student’ perceptions of the intervention. Findings of the study revealed that the CSR and the attributional feedback interventions were effective in improving students’ reading comprehension proficiency and sense of self-efficacy. In other words, the Intervention groups significantly outperformed the Control group in both reading comprehension and self-efficacy scores. However, at post-test the CSR and the CSR Plus did not differ significantly in their reading comprehension level, but in the self-efficacy perceptions they did, in that the CSR Plus had significantly higher levels. With regards to the impact of the intervention on students’ causal attributions for success and failure, analysis revealed that the only significant differences observed were at post-test between the Control and the CSR group on internal attributions for success, with higher levels for the Control group. Additionally, the Control group alone showed a change in attributions over time, becoming less likely to attribute success to external causes. Moreover, looking particularly at strategy use attribution, the overall analysis indicated that the CSR Plus group alone significantly increased their strategy attributions for both success and failure at post-test. That is, the attributional feedback intervention was successful in making the CSR Plus students link their success and failure to the internal, controllable, and changeable strategy use factor. Regarding the impact of the intervention by proficiency levels on students’ reading comprehension performance, results showed that for the low proficiency learners, the Intervention groups significantly outperformed the Control group, however the CSR and the CSR Plus did not differ significantly. No such difference was found between the high proficiency learners in the three groups. Moreover, for self-efficacy level, students’ scores did not differ significantly by their proficiency level. In terms of students’ perceptions of the CSR and the attributional feedback intervention, the overall results revealed positive perceptions. In other words, students believed that the intervention was effective and helped them to improve their reading comprehension performance, self-efficacy perceptions, and attributions for success and failure. Accordingly, the outcomes from this research seek to provide EFL teachers in general and Algerian EFL teachers in particular with pedagogical implications for the teaching of reading comprehension to their students to help them achieve well and feel more self-efficacious in dealing with reading comprehension , and in English language learning more generally.