ERIC Number: EJ1379124
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0270-2711
EISSN: EISSN-1521-0685
Reassessing Reading Strategies in the Engineering Classroom
Reading Psychology, v44 n3 p326-340 2023
Engineering undergraduates face difficulties in comprehending discipline-specific study materials because the reading skill has been neglected at the school-level, and the students themselves have not been motivated adequately to read. This paper hypothesizes that instruction-sessions on reading strategies enable tertiary-level learners to understand their engineering texts better. In this study, the teacher-researchers distributed a questionnaire to find out the students' difficulties in academic reading, their attitude to the reading strategies taught, and the usefulness of the instruction-sessions. They also interviewed the students, and systematized the data collected. The analysis showed a mixed reaction from the students. Some of them reported that learning the strategies fostered a positive change in advancing their reading skills, while others testified that strategies had only a negligible role in doing so. Therefore, this study suggests a 5 D approach to strategic reading -- Decipher, Digest, Deduce, Detail and Discuss -- to overcome the difficulties in reading.
Descriptors: Reading Strategies, Engineering Education, Teaching Methods, Undergraduate Students, Reading Comprehension, Instructional Materials, Student Attitudes, Academic Language, Positive Attitudes, Reading Instruction, Instructional Effectiveness, English for Academic Purposes, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Familiarity
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A