Reading Strategies in ELT Classrooms in The Digital Era: A Systematic Literature Review and Pedagogical Synthesis

Abstract

This systematic literature review examines how cognitive, metacognitive, and social reading strategies are represented in English Language Teaching (ELT) research and how digitally mediated environments reshape their enactment. Following PRISMA 2020, 268 records identified through Scopus were screened against predefined criteria. Ten empirical journal articles published between 2015 and 2025 were retained for mixed deductive-inductive thematic synthesis and methodological appraisal. Cognitive strategies were identified in nine studies (90%), metacognitive strategies in seven (70%), social strategies in five (50%), and explicit digital enactment in four (40%). The evidence therefore shows a continuing emphasis on meaning-construction processes, including inferencing, identifying main ideas, questioning, summarizing, and critical evaluation. Metacognitive regulation became especially visible in sustained, self-access, and feedback-rich settings, whereas social strategies appeared when peer interaction was intentionally designed into reciprocal, team-based, blended, or online reading tasks. Digital environments did not produce a separate family of reading strategies; instead, they recontextualized established strategies through adaptive feedback, progress tracking, multimodal resources, learner choice, and online interaction. Five pedagogical priorities emerged: explicit strategy modelling, interpretive depth, structured peer interaction, sustained engagement and autonomy, and teacher mediation of platform feedback. The review concludes that effective digital-era reading pedagogy requires coordinated cognitive processing, metacognitive regulation, and socially mediated interpretation rather than isolated strategy instruction or technology use alone.