Postgraduate Students' use of Reading Strategies in L1 and ESL Contexts: Links to Success 1

The article reported the results of an investigation conducted in a university in the United Kingdom. The general research question addressed in the study was: How did students approach the task of academic reading. Data for this study came from five sources: audio taped interviews of 17 postgraduate students; a demographic questionnaire; the Adult Survey of Reading Attitude (ASRA); a reading efficacy belief instrument; and three texts that measured reading comprehension. Results of the study revealed that: a) ESL students rated anxiety and difficulty highly, whereas, L1 students rated modalities on the ASRA as more important; b) L1 students rated scores on both efficacy items on the reading efficacy belief instrument higher than ESL students; c) interviewees from both groups showed a clear preference for cognitive strategies, followed by metacognitive and support strategies (however, where L1 students reported high and frequent use of metacognitive strategies, ESL students reported more frequent use of support strategies); and d) reading comprehension scores were similar for both groups of students on the instruments used.

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