Jalali, Zahra

Investigating reading strategies in culturally relevant texts: Teacher current practices and Persian Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners’ strategy use

Reading strategies are defined as the intellectual activities which occur when readers reach a text purposely and try to comprehend it. Using qualitative research methods and verbal protocols, this study examines thirty different-level Iranian Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners’ use of reading strategies and describes how each Chinese learners employs these strategies while reading culturally-relevant text. It also investigates the strategies used by two CFL teachers while teaching culturallyrelevant texts. The finding indicates that different proficiency levels used different kinds of strategies. From beginners to advanced learners, the use of higher order thinking strategies such as connection to the text and inferential thinking strategy is increased while the use of cognitive strategies, i.e. checking in the dictionary as well as note-taking, is decreased. This study also shows that culture-related texts can lead to learners' feeling of engagement and motivation for learning. Comparing the performance of the two teachers, it was found that the university instructor had never used the correction strategy in culture-related reading sessions, while after rhetorical strategies, the correction strategy is the most frequently used strategy that teacher of institute (TI) has used. The results of this study are useful for language learners, language teachers, and material developers.