Lin, L. F. (2017).

Impacts of the problem-based learning pedagogy on English learners' reading

comprehension, strategy use, and active learning attitudes. Journal of Education and Training
Studies, 5(6), 109-125.

Summary
This study randomly assigned two intact English classes in a Taiwanese university to the
experimental and control treatment conditions. The experimental group received problem-based
learning (PBL) instruction that featured with the small group scaffolding, whereas the control group
did not. Two reading comprehension (RC), pre- and post-, tests and the English active learning
questionnaire were given to collect the data. The Independent Samples t test showed a significant
difference between the 2 groups in the total score of the RC post-test, indicating that 1) the PBL
approach significantly improved the participants’ RC ability, and 2) the PBL participants’ strategy
use for identifying the subject matter and supportive details was better than that of their
counterparts. Also, the questionnaire results revealed a significantly positive correlation between
RC ability and English learning attitude. The PBL participants showed a significantly higher degree
of active English learning attitude than those non-participants.

Review
After reading this journal, although the experiment took place in university, it makes me think
of my school lives about English readings. In my high school, there were two semesters that we had
to read a book where there were lots of short articles and three to five questions for each article.
Our teacher made us read it independently and completed the questions by our own. Then the
teacher gave us answers the next class. Also, we had to present the translation of the article that we
were in charge of every week. For me, I enjoyed reading those articles by myself, checking out
every vocabulary that I didn’t know, absorbing the new knowledge in the articles. But for my other
classmates, they were suffering from the works they didn’t like, so they copied other students’
notes. However, if my teacher had used the problem-based learning approach at that time, made
small-group discussion to discuss the problems together, we would have enjoyed the English
articles though. Reading together has more funs than reading independently.
Unfortunately, it’s a pity that I couldn’t see the problems that the participants in this article
discussed in their groups or some records about how they carried on the discussions. I like the
procedures which mentioned in this article, it makes me think of the possibility to use it in my
future English teaching. I would like to make the entire procedure easier for my students to make
them enjoy English learning through discussing problems.