Literature review

Strategies for Reading
Strategies are either observable, such as a student taking notes during a lecture session, or are unobservable, such as inferring. Anderson (1991) pointed out that because strategies are conscious to the L2 reader, their selection and use are very much controlled by him/her. He also added that strategies are related to each other and therefore should be viewed as a process and not a singular and isolated action. Reading strategies are usually subcategorized into pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading activities (e.g., Paris et al., 1991; Wallace, 1992).
Pre-reading Strategies
What a reader brings to the printed page to a large extent determines the understanding he gains. Some researchers point out that the prior knowledge is one of the most crucial components in the reading process (Aebersold & Field, 1997; Grabe, 1991; Koda, 2005). It is therefore extremely important for a reader to organize himself before he reads. The knowledge an individual reader already possesses can be activated through specific activities such as brainstorming with oneself, mind or concept mapping, and the use of pre-questions and visual aids.
In brainstorming, the reader examines the title of the reading material chosen or given and lists all the information that comes to mind about it (Wallace, 1992). Wallace added that these pieces of information are then used to recall and understand the material. This takes place in the mind of the reader. This is where the use of mind mapping becomes very important. Within the mind, the reader puts the main idea in the centre and builds a “mind map” around it (Auerbach & Paxton, 1997; Grellet, 1981).
With the use of pre-questions, the reader can write a set of questions that he/she hopes to answer from the reading material (Wallace, 1992). An advantage of this strategy is that it enables the reader to think about what they will be reading and also pull out relevant information as he seeks to answer the questions.
Another pre-reading strategy readers can use is to have a definite purpose and goals for reading a given text (Chamot, Barnhardt, El-Dinary & Robbins, 1999). This strategy helps the reader to stay focused and also become more attentive. Chamot et al., further indicate that purposes can be developed through questions posed by the teacher, from class discussions or from the reader himself. Teacher can help their students by providing them with overviews and vocabulary previews before they begin reading the assigned materials (Aebersold & Field, 1997; Singhal, 2001). Overviews given by the teacher can take the form of class discussions, outlines or visual aids. These materials help students to form ideas of what the texts are about before they read them (Aebersold & Field, 1997). Furthermore, teachers can also help their students determine reading methods based on the reading purpose or goal.
Auerbach and Paxton (1997) suggest some other pre-reading activities: writing your way into reading (writing about reader’s own experiences related to the topic), making predictions based on previewing, identifying the text structure, skimming for the general idea, and writing a summary of the article based on previewing.