The Effect of IEPC Strategy Instruction on Teaching ESL Reading: A Study

Abstract

Strategic reading has become a widely recognised phenomenon in the recent years. Researchers now agree to the fact that strategic reading is vital in academic pursuits, where reading often is inseparable from learning, retaining complex, often unfamiliar concepts. Moreover, they also argue that strategy use once understood, can be demonstrated for others. To put it simply, once identified, strategies used by good readers can be shared, through explicit instruction and training, by those who do not use them.This study was conducted as a response to the need to develop effective reading habits in ESL learners and  to find out the feasibility of a few reading strategies in a context where the students are not accustomed to strategic reading in the second language. The context chosen is Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and the students are studying VII class. For this purpose, a reading strategy was adopted namely: Imagination, Elaboration, Prediction, and Confirmation (1EPC), to find out if by using reading strategy a   change can be brought to the whole process of teaching and learning.The findings of this study revealed that the strategy had a positive effect on the students. It was seen that the students were actively participating in the class, they were more articulate and were more confident in their approach apart from the increase in comprehension abilities.