Application of Reading Strategies: A Comparative Study between Iranian and Indian EFL Students

Reading as an important skill among the other four language skills, received high attention by the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century and a large number of researchers devoted their research papers to different aspects of reading. However, one of the important issues, over the last few decades, has been strategic reading. Early research in this field considered native language (L1), but in the last three decades the emphasis was on second language reading (L2). Despite the wealth of the studies in the area of reading strategies, there was a comparative dearth of research in the comparison of L1 and L2 reading strategies. In line with these facts, this paper attempted to examine whether L1 and L2 readers use the same reading strategies while reading. Using a Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, quantitative data were collected from 30 EFL Iranian and Indian students. The obtained results indicated that while "social strategy" was the most prevalent among different strategy types between natives; non-natives applied "memory and cognitive " strategies more. Transfer, learning environment, and knowledge of the two languages were among influential factors in the use of strategies by the two groups of respondents. Index Terms—strategic reading, second language strategies, transfer, memory and cognitive strategies, social strateg