Barriers to reading-comprehension success of English-majoring prep students

Abstract

In the background to this study lie the problems experienced by the researcher and by his high-intermediate level students during a three-year reading comprehension instruction. Considering the three dynamic and complex elements of reading in foreign language instruction; the reader, the text and the context, the curent study was undertaken to investigate mainly the reading comprehension problems of the English- majoring students studying reading skill in prep-classes. The subjects for the study were 45 English major students in the Department of English Language and Literature at KTU. The students, according to their university enterance marks, had upper intermediate level of proficiency. The study used researcher's classroom observations, tasks asigned to the subject students, a short questionnaire as data gathering instruments. The data coming from the instruments were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings of the study indicated that there are a number of problems/challenges and negative factors whinch block the students reading comprehension competency in English. These could be grouped under four main categories: (1) problems with difficult vocabulary; (2) problems with reading strategies; (3) problems with the text itself, and (4) problems with the reader himself. The study attempted to investigate each of these categories very closely with their subcategories. The study suggests that identification and interpretation of potential challenges in the study of reading comprehension and designing the course, the materials, the classroom activities based upon these problems with a "problem solving" characterictic, will be of vital importance in any EFL teaching program. II