The Integration of The Know-Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy Into English Language Teaching For Non-English Majors
The Integration of The Know-Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy Into English Language Teaching For Non-English Majors
The Integration of The Know-Want-Learn (KWL) Strategy Into English Language Teaching For Non-English Majors
2010
第 33 卷 第4期 Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics (Bimonthly) Vol. 33 No. 4
ZHANG Fengjuan
Soochow University
Abstract
The Know-Want-Learn (KWL) strategy, advanced in the 1980s, is an instructional reading
strategy widely used in reading classes in the USA. The KWL process reflects the cognitive
process in language acquisition, and it is currently used in the writing classes on Minnesota
State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) campuses as an instructional writing strategy.
Relevant studies on this strategy have been reported by some overseas educators. Though such
lead-in activities as warm-up or pre-reading derive from similar instructional schemes, KWL
has not so far drawn academic attention from the foreign language teaching community in
China. This paper, taking a lesson plan as an example, attempts to illustrate a manageable way
to integrate the KWL reading strategy and writing strategy in English language teaching for
non-English majors (hereafter referred to as “ELT for non-majors”). The learners’ response to
the KWL instructional scheme will be included in this research. It is hoped that this strategy
can be brought into full play in ELT for non-majors.
Key words: KWL strategy; KWL instructional reading strategy; KWL instructional
writing strategy; integrated application
1. Introduction
Strategy-based instruction projects have been developed by the MnSCU (Minnesota
State Colleges and Universities) Center for Teaching and Learning. While participating
1 This research has been subsidized by the Social Science Research Fund of the Educational Department of Jiangsu
Province (No. 08SJB7400004) and also by the Provincial Teaching-quality and Teaching-reform Project of Soochow
University (All-round Development in the Intercultural Communicative Competence of College Students).
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in the Strategy-Based Instruction Training Program last summer, the author found that
KWL strategy was commonly used in reading and writing classes on MnSCU campuses.
“K-W-L” stands for what I Know, what I Want to learn, and what I Learned. It is argued
that KWL is an instructional reading strategy designed for instructors to help learners
learn from nonfiction texts in any content area. The KWL process reflects the fundamental
cognitive process in language acquisition and is currently used in the writing classes on
MnSCU campuses as an instructional writing strategy. However, this strategy is currently
given little attention in the integrated English course for non-English majors in China.
This course includes listening, speaking, reading and writing classes, which are usually
given by the same instructor in most colleges in China. This paper attempts to address the
integration of the KWL strategy into English courses in ELT for non-majors. Questions
considered include: 1) How can we integrate the KWL instructional scheme into ELT for
non-majors? 2) What response will learners make to this integration? A lesson plan will
be designed as an example on how to integrate the two instructional schemes, and some
empirical data will indicate learners’ response to this integration.
Carr & Ogle (1987) revised the strategy into the KWL-Plus scheme, short for Know,
Want, and Learn plus Mapping and Summarizing. These researchers supplemented the
traditional K-W-L strategy with mapping and summarization strategies for use in content
area texts. These additions to the K-W-L strategy were helpful for remedial and non-
remedial high school students, guiding them in advanced reading (Strangman & Hall,
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2009). Ogle claims KWL helps learners become better readers of expository texts and
helps instructors to be more interactive in their teaching. After doing several KWL-Plus
activities, learners are encouraged to use it as an independent learning strategy to activate
their prior knowledge and also extend their KWL scheme to confirm the accuracy of
their prior knowledge and of what they learn. This helps them set a definite purpose for
reading and record what they learned (Conner, 2006). When mapping, learners refer to
the K step to categorize what they learned. Placing the title at the center of the map, they
form categories as major branches, and add explanatory concepts. When summarizing,
learners number the concepts on the map and choose to make them a written summary.
The summary becomes a useful summative evaluation learners can use to evaluate their
comprehension.
Later, Ogle (1992) further developed his KWL strategy in combination with 5W
questions. The strategy creates an instructional framework where learners list 1) What is
the concept; 2) What I know about; 3) What I want to know; 4) How I find out; 5) What
I have learned. In this sense, KWL functions as an effective assessment tool to evaluate
the comprehension of the text on learners’ part and evaluate the effectiveness of the
instructional process on instructors’ part. Since the first question aims to make the topic
or concept clear, only H (How I find out) is inserted between the K column and L column
in Table 1. Some people, as a result, call it the KWHL strategy.
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writing skills. Some of the steps bridge between H and L in KWL scheme. Strictly speaking,
this writing process involves the steps of reading, talking, writing, revising and evaluating.
3.2 Participants
On the basis of the KWL scheme (Table 1) and the classroom observation (Appendix 1),
an empirical experiment was conducted in October 2008, in an attempt to find an effective
way to integrate KWL into ELT for non-majors and discover the degree of acceptance
on learners’ part. Eighty non-English majors participated in this experiment. They were
freshmen from two classes, one majoring in chemistry, the other in medicine. One was
the experimental group, instructed using the KWL scheme, and the other was the control
group. The participants were at an intermediate level of English language since their total
scores varied from 70 to 79 of 100 points on the proficiency test at the beginning of the
course and their writing scores varied from 6 to 8 of 10 points.
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and the concluding remarks drew materials from the summative discussion. Later on,
the expected writing activity was finished according to Steps 5 to 10 (Appendix 1). Since
English was the language of both the reading and writing experiments, the communication
in peer revising, peer editing and peer evaluation contributed to learners’ speaking and
listening as well. Meanwhile, the writing process was computer-assisted so that much time
could be saved for revising, editing and copying. Appendix 3 describes the time allocation.
At the end of the experiment, the participants in the experimental group were asked
to complete a questionnaire about their evaluation of the KWL scheme. The questionnaire
consisted of 4 questions (Appendix 4) and was designed on a 5-point Likert scale of
agreement, where 1=Don’t agree at all, 2=Only agree a little, 3=Agree to some extent,
4=Agree rather much, and 5=Agree very much. The participants were asked to circle one
of the numbers. The data elicited from the questionnaire survey was analyzed by SPSS
13.0.
Two other instructors, along with the author, were invited to grade the final journals,
judging structure, content, presentation and meaning fluency. The structure and content
reflect learners’ comprehension of the text, and the presentation and meaning fluency
reflect their writing ability. The content, structure, presentation and meaning fluency were
graded on a 5-point scale, where 1=Not at all acceptable/related, 2=Only a little acceptable/
related, 3=To some extent acceptable/related, 4=Well acceptable/related, and 5=Very well
acceptable/related. The total points amounted to 20. The average of the points given by
the three instructors was used as the final score for an essay. An independent-samples t test
was employed to determine the statistical significance of the mean differences between the
two groups.
According to Levene’s test for equality of variances in Table 2, F= .192 and P= .662 (>0.05)
assume equal variances. And in t-test with equal variances assumed, results t=2.161 and
p= .034 (<0.05) show a significant difference in the means between two groups. This
means that the KWL strategy had brought improvement in comprehension and writing
performance on the part of the experimental group. The written work was based on the
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comprehension of the particular text and norms for grading the paper covered both the
comprehension and writing abilities. Thus this research has 96.6% of the confidence
that subjects in the experimental group, instructed in KWL strategy, had acquired better
abilities in comprehension and writing than the controlled group. In the following
semesters, the author has practiced the KWL scheme on several occasions, with similar
findings to this experiment. Due to the limited space, these findings are not supposed to
be described in this paper.
The questionnaire survey showed that about 75% of the participants circled “4”
and “5”, indicating that they were in favor or strongly favor of the KWL strategy. Only
7.5% gave a low rating of the strategy. The mean (4.05) indicated that the majority of
the participants had a positive attitude toward the integration of KWL into ELT for non-
majors.
The findings illustrate a manageable way of integrating the KWL reading and writing
strategies in ELT for non-majors. Active learning, as shown in this study, can be well
implemented in KWL instructional scheme, and most important of all, learners prefer
such active learning through the KWL scheme.
4. Conclusion
The KWL strategy motivates active learning and instructing on the parts of both learners
and instructors. This study made contributions as follows: 1) It illustrated a detailed
process for integrating the KWL scheme into ELT for non-majors. 2) It shows that such
integration involves efforts on the part of both learners and instructors. KWL can work
as a very effective strategy in attaining the ultimate goal of all-round development in
learners’ listening, speaking, reading, writing and interpretation abilities. KWL is an
effective instructional strategy worthy of our attention.
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1 Vocabulary learning 10
3 Summative assessment 5
Not at all Only a little To some extent Rather much Very much (agreeable)
1 2 3 4 5
How would you rate the KWL scheme in each of the following areas?Use the scale above for your
responses.
Did the KWL strategy help you understand the text? 1 2 3 4 5
Did mapping and summarizing help make your writing clear? 1 2 3 4 5
Did group discussion help you with your speaking and listening? 1 2 3 4 5
Do you think KWL facilitate your active learning? 1 2 3 4 5
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