This study explores four Korean college students’ ways of understanding English texts and discusses their awareness and use of reading strategies. Using a case study approach, I looked at how four college students approached the reading of an expository passage in English by themselves silently and described how they arrived at their understanding of the text. In a focus group interview, they discussed each other’s reading strategies and current English reading practices in formal educational setting. The data analysis revealed that the two female students who were more confident in English were more aware of their reading strategy use and also applied more types of metacognitive strategies such as determining what to read and noting textual characteristics than did the male students. Additionally, the students self-reported that they became more aware of useful reading strategies by participating in the study. The students seemed to rely primarily on test-taking strategies when dealing with English texts at the college level and identified these skills as their primary reading strategies. Despite this, students showed a marked interest in learning how to apply different types of reading strategies to various types of text. Pedagogical implications regarding the findings are also addressed
This study explores four Korean college students’ ways of understanding English texts and discusses their awareness and use of reading strategies. Using a case study approach, I looked at how four college students approached the reading of an expository passage in English by themselves silently and described how they arrived at their understanding of the text. In a focus group interview, they discussed each other’s reading strategies and current English reading practices in formal educational setting. The data analysis revealed that the two female students who were more confident in English were more aware of their reading strategy use and also applied more types of metacognitive strategies such as determining what to read and noting textual characteristics than did the male students. Additionally, the students self-reported that they became more aware of useful reading strategies by participating in the study. The students seemed to rely primarily on test-taking strategies when dealing with English texts at the college level and identified these skills as their primary reading strategies. Despite this, students showed a marked interest in learning how to apply different types of reading strategies to various types of text. Pedagogical implications regarding the findings are also addressed
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