Skimming and scanning strategies to develop reading comprehension in EFL students

Abstract

Reading comprehension in English as a foreign language remains a challenge for many students, despite years of study. Because teaching methods such as translation and memorization are prioritized, ignoring useful strategies such as skimming and scanning. That is why the aim was to determine the reading comprehension level achieved in EFL students by integrating skimming and scanning strategies. Therefore, a qualitative and quantitative approach was used to collect and analyses data through a pre-test, a post-test with readings of urban legends from the Pujili canton, and a grading rubric with 16 fifth-semester students from the National and Foreign Language Teaching programme at the Technical University of Cotopaxi. The study results showed that the students exhibited deficiencies at the inferential and critical levels. Furthermore, after a pedagogical intervention, their grades improved considerably, as reflected in the post-test results. The study reveals that the implementation of reading strategies contributes to reading efficiency. It is concluded that it is essential to expose these strategies to students as they can greatly help students to process and understand the content of texts, books and readings as time and accuracy are key to increase academic performance. It is recommended that teachers encourage the correct use of these strategies as they enrich and contribute to students' knowledge by provoking reading productivity.