Reading Strategies used by Students of Russian

Reading in a foreign language can prove to be a difficult task. For decades, E. B. Bernhardt (1991) and other researchers have studied the various types of reading strategies that students use in order to comprehend foreign language texts. One of the methods that the SLA researchers use to do so is the Think-Aloud Protocol. A Think-Aloud Protocol asks students to read the text out loud, thereby vocalizing their questions, ideas, feelings, concerns, and any other thoughts they might have while reading. Doing so helps researchers better understand the students’ mental processes while trying to comprehend material written in a foreign language, and ultimately, to determine which reading strategies are most effective in doing so. This presentation will discuss and analyze the various reading strategies used by native English speakers while reading Russian. In the summer of 2010, Dr. Meghan Murphy-Lee gathered data at the Middlebury College Russian School, consisting of Think-Aloud Protocols created by students of Russian. The students selected for this research were each given texts selected for their proficiency levels. They were then asked to use the Think-Aloud Protocol while reading the texts. While doing so, the students used multiple reading strategies. Some of these strategies include, but are not limited to, formulating questions, applying linguistic knowledge (lexical and or grammatical), and re-reading. A test was administered afterwards to gauge how much of the material they understood. After these sessions were recorded and transcribed, it was my task as Dr. Murphy-Lee’s research assistant to verify the transcriptions. By analyzing these strategies I was not only able to record the various ones used, but also to ultimately analyze each strategy’s effectiveness. In this presentation, I will discuss the Think-Aloud Protocols, those strategies which the students used, and which of those strategies appeared most effective in comprehending the reading materials