Abstract:
The objectives of this study were 1) to study the effects of the reading instruction using Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) and reading strategies on reading comprehension ability of eleventh grade students and 2) to explore the reading strategies that the students from high and low reading ability groups use in reading cycles. The sample included 44 eleventh grade students studying at Nawamin Trachutit Matchim School in Nakhonsawan. The instruments used in this study were 1) the English reading comprehension pre- and post- tests 2) student logs 3) semi-structure interview to find out the process of answering questions and the reading strategies the students used. The data were analyzed using mean scores, standard deviation, and a paired sample t-test.
The findings revealed that 1) the mean score of the reading comprehension posttest was higher than the mean score of the pretest at the significant level of 0.05; 2) the students had positive attitude towards English reading and the interest in answering reading questions had increased considerably. Moreover, the students from both high and low reading ability groups could explain concisely the reading strategies they used for each type of questions. However, the low reading ability students had problems with some reading strategies, the language use and background knowledge which hindered the ability to read and answer some types of questions.
