ACADEMIC READING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY ARAB ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN AN ENGLISH-MEDIUM LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

The kind of higher order or critical reading required in a university presents challenges to student readers in many environments. These challenges are even more complex for students reading in a second or foreign language, as is the case in this study (Alharti 2017, Nobuhiko and Yumiko 2012). Previous research has shown that explicit teaching of higher order reading skills (HORS) can be of benefit to these leaners (Dalton, 2011). To operationalize such benefits however, requires curriculum responses to reading issues and these can be greatly enhanced by a better understanding of what strategies and awareness student readers possess and apply for their different reading purposes. This preliminary study sets out to develop such an understanding. A reading strategies survey adapted from that developed by Mokhtari and Reichard (2002) was implemented to gather data on students’ reading strategies in our university, at pre-college level, and in the first and second years of study. From the data, the types of strategies employed by student readers in different courses is analyzed and classified according to the categories of ‘global’, ‘supportive’ and ‘problem solving’ (Ibid p249). This allows an examination of any connectivity between reading purpose and text types in each of the courses and the kinds of strategies used by the students in these different environments. Findings indicate that there was a higher reliance on supportive and global strategies in the pre-college programme and a higher application of problem solving strategies in the first and second year. The findings can inform a useful pedagogical discussion amongst teachers on explicit teaching of strategies and ways in which reading materials might be developed and utilized to provide maximum opportunity to student readers to employ these, as well as to enhance reader self- awareness .