A vast majority of Malaysian tertiary learners find reading, interpreting and critically evaluating an academic text, the cornerstone of much tertiary study, simply overwhelming especially when they have to rise to the challenge of presenting their understanding in a written or spoken form. The question that needs to be asked and answered now is what we, as educators, can do to help our learners cope with this demanding task ahead of them. An understanding of what difficulties learners face with academic literacy of this kind required in a tertiary institution will help us identify best practices to adopt to enhance academic literacy levels among these learners. This paper draws from a case study that set out to identify strategies learners employ to read an academic text for the purpose of presenting an oral summary of the text. Data was collected using think-aloud protocols, semi-structured interviews and a background questionnaire. The protocols were transcribed and analyzed for strategy use while information from the interviews and questionnaire help validate the strategies learners employed. The findings reveal that learners are not analytical or critical when they read and tend to use surface level processing of text all of which suggest they are not read to cope with academic literacy. The paper ends with suggestions on measures to help prepare learners for academic literacy.
[1]
Nambiar Mohana Ramaiah M..
DO UNDERGRADUATES UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY READ: AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMPREHENSION MONITORING OF ESL STUDENTS THROUGH THE USE OF TEXTUAL ANOMALIES
,
1993
.
[2]
May Shih.
Beyond Comprehension Exercises in the ESL Academic Reading Class
,
1992
.
[3]
Ruth Spack,et al.
Initiating ESL Students Into the Academic Discourse Community: How Far Should We Go?
,
1988
.
[4]
Andrew D. Cohen,et al.
Strategies in learning and using a second language
,
1998
.
[5]
L. Yokoi,et al.
Some of the Reasons Why Preparing for Exams Is So Hard: What Can Be Done to Make It Easier?
,
1997
.
[6]
Susan Miller,et al.
Is There a Text in This Class
,
1982
.
[7]
Rocco P. Russo,et al.
LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY BEGINNING AND INTERMEDIATE ESL STUDENTS
,
1985
.
[8]
I.S.P. Nation,et al.
Factors Affecting Guessing Vocabulary in Context
,
1985
.
[9]
Stanley Fish,et al.
Is There a Text in This Class?
,
1981,
Campus Wars.
[10]
Peter Afflerbach,et al.
Verbal Protocols of Reading: The Nature of Constructively Responsive Reading
,
1996
.
[11]
Rebecca L. Oxford,et al.
Language Learning Strategies: What Every Teacher Should Know
,
1990
.