An Investigation into the Critical Reading Skills of Engineering Students at 2 Private Universities in Malaysia and Vietnam

Abstract

This study compares the critical reading proficiency of engineering students from two private institutions in Malaysia and Vietnam. It examines the degree to which PISAbased critical reading test scores of first- and final-year students vary. 182 engineering students, including 86 Malaysian and 96 Vietnamese undergraduates, were involved in this project. Descriptive and quantitative analyses were performed on the data. According to the findings, most students at two universities exhibited moderate critical reading skills. Moreover, the study’s outcomes revealed no substantial disparities between the critical reading levels of the final year Malaysian and Vietnamese students. By contrast, the performance of first-year students at two universities varied significantly on some test items. Some considerations regarding the selection of Western-based texts and the use of open-ended questions in the PISA reading test that might cause difficulties for Eastern students are also demonstrated in this study.
 Keywords: critical reading, Pisa 2018 reading assessment, engineering students, higher education