Effectiveness of Collaborative Strategic Reading Instruction for Tertiary level English as a Second Language (ESL) learners

In the process of language learning, Reading is considered a fundamental skill as it is the only means of access to written documents in a language (Alderson, 2000). With sound proficiency in reading, learners, especially at tertiary level, can achieve their academic and professional goals. This study was carried out in order to investigate the effectiveness of Collaborative Strategic Reading Instruction Approach (CSR) which is a learner centered reading approach closely related to cooperative learning theory (Klingner and Vaughn ,1996; 1998; 2000). The informants of the study were 67 lower intermediate level undergraduates from the University of Peradeniya. Data was collected through the mixed method approach. The qualitative data of the experiment demonstrated that collaborative work during the reading activities lead the learners to learn and think significantly more and better. However, the statistical analysis did not prove this method as a better method than the traditional teaching method. Thus, pedagogical implications for English instruction at university level in Sri Lanka and suggestions for future research based on the findings to further validate the impact and effectiveness of collaborative learning are proposed.