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International Journal of Pedagogics

Peer Reviewed | Open Access | E-ISSN: 2771-2281
Published Article

Reading Anxiety, Strategy Use, And Inclusive Scaffolding in EFL Reading Development: An Integrative Study of Comprehension, Metacognition, And Learner Support

Reading Anxiety, Strategy Use, And Inclusive Scaffolding in EFL Reading Development: An Integrative Study of Comprehension, Metacognition, And Learner Support

Authors

  • Lucía Fernández Moreno
    Department of Language Education, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

Keywords:

EFL reading metacognitive strategies

Abstract

Background: Reading in English as a foreign language is a cognitively demanding and emotionally mediated process that requires learners to coordinate vocabulary knowledge, syntactic processing, strategic behavior, inferencing, motivation, and self-regulation. For many learners, especially those who struggle with reading or who study in anxiety-inducing environments, reading is not simply a matter of decoding text. It is a site where linguistic limitations, emotional tension, instructional design, and educational inclusion intersect. The literature provided for this study spans major lines of inquiry related to EFL reading comprehension, foreign language reading anxiety, metacognitive strategies, collaborative strategic reading, visual-syntactic text formatting, reading assessment, and learner support, including inclusive and special-needs perspectives.

Objective: This article develops an integrative original research-style synthesis of how reading anxiety, metacognitive strategy use, instructional scaffolding, and inclusive support shape EFL reading comprehension and learner development. It also explores how these factors relate to broader educational outcomes such as self-efficacy, participation, and skill development.

Method: The article employs a qualitative integrative review design based strictly on the provided references. Through thematic synthesis, the literature was organized into interrelated domains: conceptual foundations of reading, reading anxiety, metacognitive and self-regulated strategy use, collaborative and scaffolded reading interventions, digital and visual-syntactic support, assessment and text effects, and inclusive implications for struggling learners and learners with disabilities.

Results: The synthesis indicates that EFL reading performance is influenced by a network of interacting variables rather than a single factor. Reading anxiety is consistently associated with reduced fluency, impaired lexical processing, and weaker comprehension. Metacognitive awareness and strategic behavior appear to mediate reading success, especially when supported by explicit instruction. Collaborative strategic reading, digital scaffolding, visual-syntactic formatting, flipped instruction, and inference-focused teaching all appear to support comprehension under specific conditions. Inclusive educational research further suggests that struggling readers and learners with disabilities benefit from structured, scaffolded, and confidence-supportive learning environments.

Conclusion: Effective EFL reading instruction should be simultaneously cognitive, affective, strategic, and inclusive. Reading development is strongest when teachers address anxiety, teach strategies explicitly, scaffold text interaction, and design learning environments that recognize learner diversity. A socially just and pedagogically robust model of EFL reading must therefore move beyond narrow skill transmission and toward integrated learner support.

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