Understanding Academic Reading Strategies

Reading skills are very important for academic success. Proper use of reading strategies enhances reading comprehension skills of learners. This study investigated the use of strategies in reading academic texts by undergraduate EFL/ESL students in Bangladesh. The main objectives of the study were to identify the most frequently used reading strategies and examine the differences in reading strategy use based on students' gender, level of reading proficiency and year of experiences at university. The findings revealed that learners' gender, language proficiency and experiences influenced their use of reading strategies to some extent as statistically significant differences were found in the use of some individual reading strategies. The study suggests for an inclusion of strategy instruction with a special focus on metacognitive reading strategies in classroom teaching. The study also offers important suggestions for materials developers, curriculum designers, ELT teachers and learners as well for better teaching and learning of academic reading strategies in an EFL/ESL context.