In short
- Reviews of reading research support a short list of strategies: predicting, questioning, monitoring and fixing up, summarising, using story structure and visualising.
- Teach strategies as a gradual hand-over: explain and model one strategy, practise it with the class, then let pupils use it alone.
- Gains in ordinary whole classes are smaller than in small research groups, and smallest on standardised tests.
- A strategy cannot replace the words: EFL pupils need a text they can mostly read before any strategy can help.
Knowing the words on a page is not the same as understanding the story. Strong readers also do things while they read. They guess what comes next, ask questions, notice when they are lost, and sum up. These are comprehension strategies, and they can be taught. This article names the strategies that reviews of research support. It reports what those reviews found and with whom, and shows how to teach one strategy at a time. It also says where the evidence for EFL pupils is thin.
Which reading comprehension strategies does research support?
Six strategies recur in the main reviews of research: predicting, questioning, monitoring and fixing up, summarising, using story structure, and visualising. A strategy is something the reader does on purpose, in their head, to understand a text.
The two best-known reviews list them in slightly different ways. The National Reading Panel (2000) examined 203 studies of comprehension instruction and sorted them into 16 kinds. It found a firm scientific basis for eight of them. These were comprehension monitoring, cooperative learning, graphic and semantic organisers, story structure, question answering, question generation, summarisation, and teaching several strategies together.
Shanahan and colleagues (2010) wrote a practice guide for teachers from kindergarten to third grade. Their panel named six strategies: predicting, questioning, visualising, monitoring, drawing inferences and summarising. Using a text's structure is a separate recommendation in the guide.
| Strategy | What the reader does | A prompt for pupils |
|---|---|---|
| Predicting | Uses the title, pictures and what they know to guess what happens next, then reads to check | What will happen next? What in the story makes you think so? |
| Questioning | Asks who, what, where, why and how questions while reading | Write one why question about this page. |
| Monitoring and fixing up | Notices when meaning breaks down, then rereads or reads on for a clue | Stop. Can you say what just happened? If not, read it again. |
| Summarising | States the main events in a few words of their own | Tell the chapter in three sentences: beginning, middle, end. |
| Using story structure | Looks for the character, the setting, the problem and how it is solved | Who is the main character? What is her problem? |
| Visualising | Makes a picture in the mind of what the text describes | Close your eyes. What do you see in the room? |
Drawing inferences is on Shanahan's list too. It overlaps with the inference questions you ask after reading, so it is covered in Reading Comprehension Question Types, With Examples.
What did the reviews find, and with whom?
The National Reading Panel (2000) concluded that teachers can learn to teach comprehension strategies. When they do, their pupils learn the strategies and improve their reading comprehension. The panel reviewed research on children learning to read. It was not a review of foreign language learners.
Shanahan and colleagues (2010) rated the evidence for teaching strategies as strong, based on 10 studies with pupils from kindergarten to third grade. They are candid about gaps. Predicting helped in five studies, but only one tested it alone. Questioning and monitoring were tested only inside packages. Visualising produced large gains in two studies.
Okkinga and colleagues (2018) note that strategy teaching has worked well in controlled experiments where researchers tutor small groups. They asked whether it also works in whole classes taught by one teacher, and combined 52 studies. The effect on reading comprehension was very small on standardised tests (d = 0.19) and small on tests the researchers wrote (d = 0.43).
The effect on pupils' use of the strategies was medium (d = 0.79). Effects were larger when a researcher taught rather than the class teacher, in grades 6 to 8, and when setting reading goals was part of the package.
For second language learners, Plonsky (2011) combined 61 studies of strategy instruction across all skills, not only reading. He found a small to medium overall effect (d = 0.49). The effect depended on which strategies were taught and how many, on whether learners were in a second or a foreign language setting, and on the length of the program.
Read together, the reviews say one thing clearly. Teaching strategies helps, but pupils pick up the strategies faster than their comprehension scores move. So check understanding itself, not only whether pupils can name a strategy.
Strategies are not question types or worksheets
A strategy happens in the reader's head while they read. A question type is what you ask afterwards to check understanding. Shanahan and colleagues (2010) add that worksheets rarely teach what pupils should do in their heads. Practising a skill such as sequencing does not count either, unless pupils are taught how to think that way while reading.
Grabe (2009), writing about reading in a second language, describes the aim as a strategic reader: one who routinely combines strategies to suit the reading goal and the task. The single strategy is the training step. The strategic reader is the goal.
How to teach one strategy at a time
Shanahan and colleagues (2010) found that strategies can be taught one by one or several together, and that both can work. One at a time may be easier to begin with: a few weeks on one strategy, then the next. As each new strategy arrives, remind pupils to keep using the earlier ones, or they may drop them.
Their panel recommends a gradual release of responsibility. At first the teacher does most of the work. Then pupils do more and more, until they use the strategy alone. In practice, that means five steps:
- Name and explain. Say what the strategy is and why it helps: "Predicting means guessing what comes next, then reading on to check."
- Model it aloud. Read a short passage and say your thinking out loud, including the moments when you are unsure.
- Use it together. Read on with the class. Ask pupils to predict, question or summarise with you, and to give reasons.
- Guided practice. Pupils use the strategy in pairs at marked stopping points while you listen and prompt.
- Independent use. Pupils use it alone, with fewer reminders, and tell you when they used it.
Classroom example: modelling monitoring at A2
Text on the board: "Nadia ran to the bus stop, but the last bus was leaving. Her phone was dead. Across the road, a light was on in the bakery. The baker was cleaning the floor."
Teacher, thinking aloud: "Bakery. I don't know that word. I'll stop."
"The next sentence says the baker was cleaning the floor. A baker makes bread. So a bakery is probably a bread shop."
"Can I say what happened? Nadia missed the bus, her phone is dead, and a shop is still open. Yes. I can read on."
Then ask: "What did I do when I got lost?" Write the steps on the board: stop, look for a clue, check you can say what happened.
One caution from the same guide. The panel believes the gradual hand-over helps pupils learn strategies. But it found no strong causal evidence that strategy teaching with this sequence works better than strategy teaching without it. Treat the five steps as sound practice, not a proven recipe.
Fading: how to hand the strategy over
Fading means taking your support away in small steps until pupils use the strategy without you. The plan below is practice built on the gradual release model; no study has tested this exact schedule.
| Week | What you do | What pupils do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Explain summarising and model it on a short story | Listen, then say which events you kept and why |
| 2 | Summarise with the class, writing their ideas on the board | Suggest the beginning, the middle and the end |
| 3 | Give a frame: "First ... Then ... In the end ..." | Summarise in pairs, using the frame |
| 4 | Remove the frame and mark two stopping points in the text | Summarise in pairs at each stop |
| 5 | Ask for a summary only at the end of the story | Summarise alone in three sentences |
| 6 | Start the next strategy, but still ask for a summary now and then | Summarise without being asked |
Cues help the hand-over. Shanahan and colleagues (2010) suggest linking each strategy to a road sign. A stop sign means stop and say in your own words what is happening. A U-turn means reread the part that did not make sense. A card on each desk can replace your voice.
Watch for these signs that the strategy is becoming the pupils' own:
- Pupils stop and reread without being told.
- Their predictions come with a reason from the text, not only a guess.
- Their summaries get shorter but keep the important events.
- They use a strategy you taught weeks ago, not only this week's.
Adapting strategies for EFL readers
The National Reading Panel (2000) and Shanahan and colleagues (2010) reviewed children learning to read, not foreign language learners. Plonsky (2011) is the exception here, and he found that results differed between second and foreign language settings. So adapt with care. The points below are practice, not tested findings.
- Level the text first. A strategy cannot rescue a story full of unknown words. What Can an A2 Reader Actually Read? shows what pupils can manage at A2.
- Teach the language of the strategy. Give A1 and A2 pupils frames: "I think ... will happen because ...", "I don't understand ...", "First ... then ...".
- Allow the first language for talk about thinking. The reading stays in English; the explanation need not.
- Model on short texts. One paragraph is enough for a think-aloud at A1 and A2.
- Start monitoring at the word level. Beginners often lose the meaning at a single word, so model what to do with an unknown word first.
Story structure makes a good first strategy for an EFL class. Choose a story with a clear character, problem and solution, so the structure is easy to find. Asking who the story is about and what the problem is also prepares pupils to talk about the moral of the story.
How to tell whether the strategies are working
Okkinga and colleagues (2018) found that pupils' strategy use grew much more than their scores on standardised comprehension tests. A pupil who can name five strategies may not yet understand stories better. So check both: watch the strategy, and test the understanding.
A short quiz after each story checks understanding. Mix literal questions with inference and summary questions. Formative Assessment for Reading in EFL gives quick checks you can run in a lesson and explains what to do with the answers.
A one-sentence summary at the end of a lesson shows you the strategy and the understanding at once. As a rule of thumb: if summaries improve but quiz scores do not, the text may be too hard. If scores are fine but pupils never use the strategy unprompted, keep fading.
How iRead handles this
Strategy teaching happens in your lesson. In iRead, a quiz runs after every session, and practice questions are available between sessions. The questions are generated from the story itself: real sentences from the story, the grammar in it, comprehension of the plot and the moral. Every story and quiz is levelled to the CEFR, from A1 to C2.
The core principle: Teach one strategy at a time, think aloud while you model it, and take your support away step by step. Then check understanding, not only the strategy.
See it in iRead: After every iRead session, a quiz checks the plot, the grammar and the moral of the story. Four word games, rebuilt every 24 hours from the story's vocabulary, keep its words in play.
See the four gamesKey takeaway
A short list of reading strategies is well supported, but gains in ordinary classes are modest and slow. Teach one strategy at a time, with modelling and fading, on texts pupils can mostly read.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main reading comprehension strategies?
Predicting, questioning, monitoring and fixing up, summarising, using story structure and visualising. The National Reading Panel (2000) and Shanahan and colleagues (2010) both support versions of this list, and drawing inferences is often added. Teach them as things the reader does while reading, not as worksheet exercises.
Should I teach one strategy at a time or several together?
Either can work, according to Shanahan and colleagues (2010). One at a time is easier to start with: a few weeks on each strategy, then the next. Keep reminding pupils to use the earlier strategies, or they may drop them when a new one arrives.
Do reading strategies work for EFL learners?
There is some evidence that they do. Plonsky (2011) combined 61 studies of second language strategy instruction and found a small to medium effect. It varied with the strategies taught, the setting and the length of the program. The two best-known reading reviews, though, are about children learning to read, not foreign language learners.
Can beginners at A1 learn reading strategies?
Yes, in simple form. Beginners can predict from a picture, say when they do not understand a word, and retell a story in three short sentences. Let them use their first language to talk about their thinking, keep texts short, and give them sentence frames for each strategy.
Sources
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Reports of the subgroups. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf
- Shanahan, T., Callison, K., Carriere, C., Duke, N. K., Pearson, P. D., Schatschneider, C., & Torgesen, J. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through 3rd grade: A practice guide (NCEE 2010-4038). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/14
- Okkinga, M., van Steensel, R., van Gelderen, A. J. S., van Schooten, E., Sleegers, P. J. C., & Arends, L. R. (2018). Effectiveness of reading-strategy interventions in whole classrooms: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30(4), 1215-1239. doi.org/10.1007/s10648-018-9445-7
- Plonsky, L. (2011). The effectiveness of second language strategy instruction: A meta-analysis. Language Learning, 61(4), 993-1038. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00663.x
- Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Applied Linguistics). doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139150484