An Investigation of the Relationship between Reading Strategies and Reading Comprehension among Undergraduates

• Main Authors: Shu-Ming Hsu, 許書銘
• Other Authors: Jia-Yeuan Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/24d2y5

碩士 === 中原大學 === 應用外語研究所 === 103 === The main purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the use of reading strategy and reading comprehension among university students. In addition, the study also explores whether the awareness of reading strategy use can facilitate Taiwanese college students’ reading comprehension. The research questions are (1) What is the relationship between reading strategies use and English proficiency among university students? (2) Which types of reading strategies are used most frequently by college students and which are not? (3) Are there any differences between male and female college students in terms of reading strategy use? What are their preferences on reading strategy use among university students? In order to answer these questions, 400 participants were randomly selected from ten freshmen English classes of a university in northern Taiwan. All of these college students are non-English majors. Two instruments are employed in this study, including the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) (Mokhtari &; Sheorey, 2002) and Intermediate Level of General English Proficiency Test (GEPT). The data of the SORS and GEPT are reported and analyzed. The descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and frequency), t-test, correlation were utilized in the study. The research findings of the results in this research are that there are differences in reading strategy used between male and female college students. Moreover, the preferred strategies used by undergraduates are illustrated in this study; for example, over eighty percent of participants usually utilized what they knew to help them understand better(80.8%) ; on the other hand, the least used strategies are also demonstrated in the study; for example, over sixty percent of them seldom asked themselves questions(69.2%) . More importantly, it is stated that the use of more reading strategies by college students may be a strong predictor for students’ English reading proficiency in language classrooms. Suggestions are also presented at the end of the study.