This study investigates the relationship between strategic reading instruction, the process of learning second language-based reading strategies and English reading achievement for Thai university students of science and technology. In a course in reading general English texts for 16?weeks, 82 students were taught using a strategies-based approach (experimental cohort), whereas another 82 students were taught using a traditional, teacher-centred approach (control cohort). A pre-test/post-test research design was employed, and a portfolio approach was used to investigate the experimental cohort students' process of learning reading strategies. The results showed that the experimental cohort outperformed the control cohort in the post-course standardised English test. The higher-level reading proficiency learners in the experimental cohort were also found to be better than their low-level peers at learning to use second language-based reading strategies effectively. Implications are discussed for alternative instructional practice of reading in English as a foreign language (EFL).