Reading Comprehension Problems Faced by Undergraduates in Selected
Reading Comprehension Problems Faced by Undergraduates in Selected Colleges of UAEU and the Strategies Used to Solve Them Dr Martin J. Endley Department of Linguistics United Arab Emirates University UAEU martinjendley@uaeu. ac. ae
Background Success in reading related to frequent and varied use of reading strategies (Anderson, 2002; Block, 1992; Mokhtari, 2008; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2004; Phakiti, 2003; Pressley & Gaskins, 2006; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001) Good readers have awareness of and capacity to control strategies which they deliberately employ with the aim of facilitating and enhancing reading comprehension (Baker, 2002, 2008; Erler & Finkbainer, 2007; Pressley, 2002)
Background Studies conducted with v L 1 Arabic university students in other middle east countries (e. g. Malcolm 2009; Sobhani, 2013) v L 1 Arabic university students in ESL context (e. g. Alsheikh & Mokhtari 2011) v L 1 Arabic pre-university students (e. g. Alsheikh, 2014; Elhoweris et al. , 2011) Little research undertaken on reading strategies employed by students engaged in academic study at tertiary level within the UAE
Background Endley (forthcoming) (a) undergraduate students in the Gulf region have relatively high metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (b) these students display a preference for using problemsolving strategies to overcome comprehension difficulties, rather than global reading strategies or support reading strategies Both these findings are consistent with those reported in a number of other studies undertaken in recent years
The Present Study Investigation into contextualized reading strategy use and individual learner differences Procedure: Reading comprehension task and concurrent think -aloud protocol Variables: Correlations between reading strategy use and a) Language proficiency b) Gender c) Academic discipline
The UAEU Context National university of UAE Established in 1976 Nine colleges, each subdivided into several departments Language of instruction: English Predominantly (circa 95%) UAE nationals Internal 70/30% female/male demographic Gender-segregated
Research Questions 1. What are the primary comprehension problems encountered by UAEU students when reading academic texts in English? 2. What reading strategies do UAEU students actually employ in order to solve their reading problems? 3. To what extent can the demographic variables of English language proficiency, gender and academic discipline be used to reliably predict UAEU students’ use of reading strategies in English?
Participants L 1 Arabic undergraduates (n=12) (9 female, 3 male), 18 – 23 years, studying in various colleges at UAEU Stage 1: Pre-test Stage 2: 1 st Concurrent think-aloud protocol & semi-structured interview Stage 3: 2 nd Concurrent think-aloud protocol & semi-structured interview
Materials Reading passages selected from IELTS practice exams Reading #1 “Light Pollution” Flesch Reading Ease Rating 60. 5; Flesch-Kinkaid Level 9. 9 45 sentences, divided into 10 paragraphs Total word count = 913 (average sentence length 20 words) Reading #2 “Investigating Children’s Language” Flesch Reading Ease Rating 38. 9; Flesch-Kinkaid Level 13 39 sentences, divided into 8 paragraphs Total word count = 870 (average sentence length 22 words) Texts followed by questions adapted from same IELTS source
Coding of Strategies initially encoded using SORS (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002): Global strategies: “intentional, carefully planned techniques by which learners monitor or manage their reading” (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002, p. 4) Problem-solving strategies: “localized, focused techniques used when problems develop in understanding textual information” (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002, p. 4) Support strategies: “basic support mechanisms” (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002, p. 4) used by the reader to aid comprehension of the text NB. Cohen’s kappa of. 84 obtained, indicating that the inter-rater reliability was acceptable
Overall strategy use for Reading #1 Overall strategy use reflected tendency to favour problem-solving and support strategies, rather than global strategies Partially consistent with findings of several recent studies of perceived metacognitive awareness/use of reading strategies with participants from various L 1 backgrounds and socio-cultural contexts: • • • Botswana (Magogwe, 2013) Iran (Tabatabaei & Assari, 2011) Morocco (Mokhtari & Reichard, 2004) Turkey (Temur & Bahar, 2011; Yuksel & Yuksel, 2012) UAE (Endley, forthcoming) Above found tendency to favour problem-solving strategies
Overall strategy use for Reading #1 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Global Problem Support
g d tin ry na io ict g n tio ra sin Pa ra ph te n at er os Cl ng ad i g lin /c irc -re ng Re ni rli de ns ul Co Un Most frequently used strategies for Reading #1 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Overall strategy use for Reading #2 Use of problem-solving and support strategies broadly similar to Reading #1 Use of global strategies showed a further decline
Overall strategy use for Reading #2 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Global Problem Support
g d tin ry na io ict g ra sin Pa ra ph ng n tio ad i -re Re te n g lin /c irc at ng er os Cl ni rli de ns ul Co Un Most frequently used strategies for Reading #2 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Summary of Findings RQ 1. What are the primary comprehension problems encountered by UAEU students when reading academic texts in English? All participants had difficulty with some low frequency vocabulary (paradigms, unobtrusive etc. ) LPR particular problem with word recognition, inefficient parsing, & building meaning (reflected in ineffective paraphrasing)
Summary of Findings RQ 2. What reading strategies do UAEU students actually employ in order to solve their reading problems? General tendency for all participants to favour problemsolving and support strategies, rather than global strategies • Most frequently employed strategies either problem-solving or support strategies (i. e. , underlining/circling, re-reading, paying closer attention, paraphrasing, consulting dictionary) • Overall few global strategies employed (esp. Reading #2)
Summary of Findings RQ 3. To what extent can the demographic variables of English language proficiency, gender and academic discipline be used to reliably predict UAEU students’ use of reading strategies in English? • Global strategies were least frequently used, but HPR made greater use of these than LPR • LPR used more problem-solving & support strategies, than HPR (esp. underlining/circling)
Strategy use of high vs. low proficiency readers (Readings #1 and #2 combined) 180 160 140 120 100 High Low 80 60 40 20 0 Global Problem Support
Most frequently used strategies (Readings #1 and #2 combined) 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 HPR g ra sin Pa ra ph ry io ict ns ul Co Un de rli tin ni g d ng at er os Cl na lin /c irc tio te n ad i -re Re g n ng LPR
Summary of Findings RQ 3. To what extent can the demographic variables of English language proficiency, gender and academic discipline be used to reliably predict UAEU students’ use of reading strategies in English? LPR participants a) Focused attention at word level, failed to build words into higher-level meaning b) Parsed complex grammar inefficiently c) Employed dictionary inconsistently & ineffectively
Focusing attention at word level, failure to build words into higher-level meaning “. . . overly bright security lights can actually force neighbours to close the shutters, which means that if any criminal activity does occur on the street, no one will see it” Participant #5: ‹‹What he trying to say (…) the pollution of light makes easy to find who do the crime›› Participant #3 (in interview): ‹‹I try to thinking (. . . ) I just focus on hard words and lose the meaning of the sentence (. . . ) I forget what the paragraph about››
Inefficient parsing of complex grammar “Migrating birds, confused by lights on skyscrapers, broadcast towers and lighthouses, are injured” Participant #5: ‹‹broadcast towers and lighthouses are injured››
Inconsistent & Ineffective Use of Dictionary Often apparently satisfied with the first definition found; did not consider definition in context of the passage, e. g. “. . . the observers and their equipment are unobtrusive” Participant #4: ‹‹ok (. . ) not clear (…) or something like that›› “. . . the results provide evidence that supports or falsifies the original hypothesis” Participant #6: ‹‹it means (. . ) to fake›› “. . . two main research paradigms are found” Participant #3: ‹‹I don’t know this word›› [Did not consult dictionary; in interview unable to say what it meant or provide any synonym]
Limitations Data reflects text processing operations employed by twelve individual readers in one specific reading situation Different readers & different texts may have produced different strategies
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