Is KWL Reading Strategy Effective in Enhancing College Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills?

This quasi-experimental study sets out to investigate the effect of the KWL reading strategy on developing freshman college students’ reading comprehension skills. The experimental group was subjected to an intervention based upon the application of the KWL reading strategy while reading expository texts, lasting for six weeks, whereas teaching reading was conducted traditionally in the control group. The effect of the implementation of the KWL reading strategy on the experimental group’s reading comprehension skills was assessed by administering pre- and post-reading tests. The findings obtained from the test results showed though the experimental group scored slightly higher on the post-test when compared to the control group, there was not a statistically significant difference between the groups. The inductive content analysis of the interview data revealed that the participants had positive conceptions of the strategy yet raised an issue concerning the time needed to answer the questions as applying it.