The importance of reading for academic study cannot be overemphasized. At the postgraduate level, students are faced with complex text interpretation processes. Yet, while concerns have been expressed regarding the English as a second language literacy (Fitzgerald, 1995), few international students have been asked for their views on their learning, specifically their reading approaches. This paper, part of a longitudinal study, using metacognitive and framing theories, explores aspects of framing and metacognition used by a cohort of Thai postgraduate students when reading at an Australian university. Through the use of individual interviews and pair think aloud protocols it was found that there were significant changes in the students' reading practices between first and third semesters. However, it was shown, too, that incongruent background knowledge could lead to misinterpretations. The participants' reflections provided some explanation for the differences in their cognitive and metacognitive strategy use.