The Relationship between Attitudes toward Reading and Reading Strategies of English e-Journal Articles among NNES Graduate Students

摘要

For a graduate student, it is imperative to thoroughly review the related literature to help focus on the topic and place the research within a proper theoretical setting while writing the thesis. As the majority of scholarly journal articles are published in English, this can make Non-native English speaking (NNES) graduate students feel helpless when reading English journal articles and have a variety of reading difficulties. In addition, with the advent and the convenience of modern technology, NNES graduate students' academic success depends on their ability to read and understand electronic English journal articles (EEJA). However, very little is known about the students' attitude and strategy use while reading EEJAs and how the relationship between these two variables interact. This study helps to fill this gap by determining the NNES graduate students' attitude toward reading EEJAs and what they perceive as the main reading comprehension strategies to use. Data pertaining to reading EEJAs was collected from 286 NNES graduate students from 14 different universities in Taiwan, the findings revealed that students had high positive attitudes toward reading EEJAs and used a variety of EEJA reading strategies frequently. Despite a high level of awareness while using reading strategies, these students reported that it is often difficult to read English e-journal articles and they do not enjoy doing so. Further analysis using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient revealed that the students' attitudes toward reading EEJAs has a significantly medium positive correlation with their use of reading strategies. In addition, significant differences were found in students' attitude toward reading EEJAs by age and perceived English reading ability. Significant differences were also found in students' usage of reading strategies by age and time spent online. This study concluded with recommendations for the improvement of reading attitudes and reading strategies of EEJAs for Taiwanese and NNES graduate students in other counties.