Enhancing Reading Strategies of Arab EFL Students Using I-CARe Program: A Case Study

Abstract

Online reading has become increasingly popular in English foreign language learning, and its effect upon students' comprehensive language ability and their use of reading strategies are apparent. Not mastering adequate reading strategies by some poor English foreign language (EFL) learners could lead to reading comprehension failure (Dentisk, 2010). With the aid of a web-based computer-assisted language learning tool (CALL), six students were allowed to develop their reading strategies. This paper describes the I- CARe program (Interactive Computer-Assisted Reading) and examines its effectiveness upon Arabic-speaking EFL students' reading strategies. The data was collected over an 8- week period that incorporated the qualitative tools of interviews, weekly reflections, and observations. The findings indicated that I-CARe enhanced students' abilities to effectively utilize several strategies, including rehearsing, focusing on meaning, inferencing to guess meanings, predicting outcomes, and resourcing by employing first language reference materials. However, while the results trended towards improved reading, cognitive reading strategies were more prominent amongst the students than the metacognitive and social-affective strategies. The study provides some pedagogical implications for EFL instructors to use CALL effectively to foster students' reading comprehension.