L2 Reading Strategies and Gender : A Study of Korean EFL University Students

L2 Reading Strategies and Gender : A Study of Korean EFL University Students

  The main purpose of the study is to investigate gender difference in the frequency and pattern of reading strategy use and to see if the gender difference exists, if any, across reading proficiency level. Four hundred sixty six university students who were enrolled in two Korean universities located in Seoul participated in the study. Two major instruments were utilized in the current study. First, the reading strategy survey adapted from Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS; Mokhtari & Sheorey 2002) was administered to the participants to measure their perceived use of reading strategies. Second, a reading comprehension test was used to assess the participants" English reading ability. It was found that there was no considerable differences in the pattern of strategy use between the two groups. However, the results of independent samples t-tests revealed that the female students used reading strategies significantly more often than the male students in general. Then, a multiple analysis of variance was conducted to see if there was gender difference in the three dependent variables (global, problem-solving, and support strategy). The results showed that there was no significant gender difference in the use of global and problem-solving strategies, but there existed a significant gender difference in the use of support strategy and the difference was consistent across the reading proficiency level. It was concluded that the female students showed a higher use of reading strategies in general, particularly in the use of support strategy than the male students, and this tendency was consistent across reading proficiency level.