Tracing the Changes in Reading Scores and Learning Style Preferences through Reading Strategy Training

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating possible effects of reading strategy instruction on students’ languagelearning style preferences and their reading proficiency levels. A total of 62 11th grade students from threedifferent classes (one treatment and two control groups) of a Turkish high school took part in thisexperimental study which lasted for eight weeks. In the scope of this study, Learning Style Survey (LSS)developed by Cohen, Oxford and Chi (2005), Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) by Mokhtari and Sheorey(2002) and Key English Test (KET) were applied to the target groups both before and after reading strategyinstruction. The data obtained from these three instruments were compared. Results demonstrated thatreading strategy training may have an effect on students’ language learning style preferences, possiblyleading students to be more synthesizing and field dependent.© 2018 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL). This is an open-accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND)(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).