USING THINK ALOUD METHODS (TAM) EFFECTIVELY TO IDENTIFY THE USE OF READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES IN FL MULTILINGUAL CONTEXTS: towards effective meaning construction (PART II)

Abstract

This paper provides an additional basis for the understanding of practical use of Think Aloud Methodologies (TAM) in SLA and FL research. It explores TAM, i.e. reliability and veridicality and some major hurdles to answer one main question on the use of reading strategies and text meaning construction by learners and users in an EAP context.  TAM revealed to be a reliable and trustworthy research tool in SLA and FL multilingual contexts to search/identify for reading strategies, when the adequate instructions and precautionary measures are taken into account and followed suit. The study revealed the use of a varied battery of reading strategies by FL participants, i.e. cognitive, metacognitive and essentially supply strategies to compensate for any gaps regarding the process of construing comprehension. A novel reading strategy, sight translation, was revealed to be used by participants as a vital recourse to text comprehension construction. The conclusions suggest further studies to comprehend the dearth of sight translation in FL reading comprehension and probable inclusion in the list of support reading strategies in multilingual EFL contexts.