Adult learners'' characteristics and their academic reading strategies

This is a qualitative case study which was designed to investigate the influence of adult learners'' characteristics (self-concept, experience and time perspective) on their choice and use of the academic reading strategies (ARS). The case study was conducted over 19 weeks, involving 24 academic reading texts. Three instruments; student diaries, participant observations and think aloud protocols were used to triangulate the data collection. The constant comparative method was used in the data analysis. Cohen Kappa''s (1960) test of agreement was conducted in the middle of the data analysis and a comfortable value of .93 was obtained allowing the researcher to proceed. This study has discovered several interesting findings. Besides confirming earlier findings and several theories in the literature, it has also contributed new findings with special reference to the influence of the adult learners'' characteristics on their ARS.