Despite the increasing development in the field of educational technology, reading still represents the main source of information and knowledge, both in private life and at school. In the learning process, readers are expected to read the text with understanding, extract the main text content, then memorize the main information, transfer and use it in other areas of life. Just like any other skill, reading needs a lot of practice. Knowledge of different reading learning strategies is essential for effective reading, as this allows pupils not only to learn about the information, but also to select it according to their needs and to use it in a meaningful and efficient manner. Reading learning strategies also play an important role in learning a foreign language, as they help students to understand the text as a whole, to include new information in already existing cognitive structure and to remember new material easier and quicker.
They also help pupils to overcome many linguistic and non-linguistic barriers that occur during learning a foreign language and they can also help them to guide their own learning process to their final goal.
The main purpose of master's thesis was to determine the opinion of pupils on the use of selected complex reading learning strategies, the Strategy SQ3R and The Cornell Strategy, in teaching Italian as a foreign language. Therefore, we were also interested in the differences of opinion regarding the usefulness and effectiveness of the strategies compared to each other. We were also wondering what pupils think about the impact of selected reading learning strategies on memorization of studying material and the level of motivation to continue working with both reading learning strategies in Italian classes and classes in general.
The results show that according to the students both tested strategies proved to be efficient in learning Italian as a foreign language. However, despite many advantages, the students in both strategies also noticed some disadvantages. The biggest problem of all in both was that pupils could not identify the main text idea and were not able to distinguish between important and less important or irrelevant information. The results show that, mostly because of easier derivation of steps and visual display of information, pupils would prefer to use The Cornell Strategy in the future. Although they pointed out that the implementation of The Strategy SQ3R was quite challenging, it was considered useful in various school subjects.
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