An examination of reading strategies awareness among Algerian ESP students at the National Higher School for hydraulics

Abstract

Promoting students’ knowledge of the reading process as well as their metacognitive awareness of reading strategies has become a crucial issue of ESP teaching and undoubtedly an obligatory subject in higher education. Relevant to this, the present paper tries to examine Algerian ESP students’ awareness and use of reading strategies, especially while reading academic material in English. The study is realized through the administration of Mokhtari and Sheorey’s (2002) Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) to 100 students enrolled in first year engineering classes at the National Higher School for Hydraulics (ENSH), mainly to find out: (1) frequency of students’ reported use of different reading strategies (Global, Problem-solving and Support reading strategies); (2) difference(s), if any, between female and male students’ reading strategies use; and (3) students reported use of any other strategies which are not included in the SORS. Findings reveal that Algerian ESP students, as medium users of reading strategies in general, tend to use Problem-solving more than other categories of reading strategies; the absence of significant differences between males and females reported use of reading strategies; meanwhile, students report use of some strategies other than those mentioned in Mokhtari and Sheorey’s Survey. Consequently, an adapted version of the SORS is designed to fit the Algerian context of EFL for specific purposes.