The Effects of the story grammar strategy on grade eight bhutanese esl readers'reading comprehension of narrative texts

Abstract

The purposes of the study were to 1) examine the effects of the instruction by using the story grammar strategy on grade eight Bhutanese ESL readers’ reading comprehension of narrative texts 2) compare the abilities of grade eight Bhutanese ESL readers in both the experimental and the control groups in writing a story recall after the instruction 3) compare how grade eight Bhutanese ESL able and less-able readers in the experimental group used the story grammar strategy to comprehend narrative texts and 4) explore the readers’ opinion in the experimental group on using the story grammar strategy in reading narrative texts. Forty grade eight Bhutanese ESL students from Dechentshemo Middle Secondary School located in the western part of Bhutan were randomly selected to participate in the study. They were divided into experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 20 participants. The same narrative texts were used to teach the research participants in both groups for 3 consecutive weeks. The story grammar strategy was employed to teach the participants in the experimental group while the traditional method was employed to teach the participants in the control group. The same test was given to the participants in both groups as pre- and post- tests. After the post-test, the participants in both the groups were asked to write a story recall.