The usage of reading strategy by EFL university students in Taiwan

• Main Author: Chao, Pin-Yi
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2015
• Subjects: 428
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.695299

This qualitative study explores what reading strategies are most and least commonly used in Chinese (first language) and English (foreign language) by bilingual or multilingual EFL university students in Taiwan when they read an academic Chinese and English text. Do the students use Chinese reading strategies and transfer the strategies to English when they read an academic English text? Do they use the same or different reading strategies when they read an academic Chinese or English text? This study examined the experiences, perspectives, and beliefs of 130 bilingual or multilingual Taiwanese university students who study in the English department of TW University in Tainan, Taiwan. Questionnaire and interview data were gathered and analysed by employing Change (2010) model of qualitative data analysis, which contains five steps: (1) transcribing; (2) conceptualising; (3) propositionalising; (4) graphing; and (5) theorising. Participants explained that they had used some certain strategies for reading comprehension in order to understand texts better when they read academic Chinese and English texts. On the other hand, the participants addressed that they seldom use the other particular strategies while reading texts in both languages. The findings also demonstrated that the Taiwanese EFL university students mainly employ the same strategies when reading the Chinese and English texts, and they have transferred the Chinese reading strategies to English strategies use, The aim of this study is to fill the gaps identified in existing studies into reasons why university students use reading strategies, that is, to explore the reasons why bilingual or multilingual Taiwanese EFL university students use certain reading strategies as most and least commonly used strategies in Chinese and English reading respectively with explanations as to the reasons