Abstract
Literacy in reading and understanding printed words is significant for all undergraduate students to succeed in their academic career. Developments in digital technology improved the quality of academic texts in terms of design, format and layout. Further, availability of academic related English language resources in electronic versions gave readers to access and read the content on computer screens or download a text to make a hard copy. These developments on the printed pages of English course books helped the readers to identify letters of English alphabet precisely. However, vocabulary and sentence structures presented in the text remained difficult to the ESL students. A study was conducted to assess the reading strategies of engineering students across the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Subjects of the study were 52 students pursuing engineering education in the engineering colleges affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, India. The primary source of data was obtained through think-aloud verbal probe. Findings of the study reveal that engineering students feel disappointed and frustrated when the content presented in the course is beyond their comprehension. This research paper presents qualitative data obtained through think-aloud verbal probe. Insights from the verbal reports on reading strategies presented in this paper give new directions to the teaching-learning of English in ESL undergraduate classrooms. Findings presented from the study are significant for English teachers, researchers and curriculum designers to develop quality reading materials for ESL classrooms.
Highlights
Innovations in science and technology across the world influenced most of the administrators, diplomats, businessmen, engineers, scientists and medical practitioners to use English as a common medium for interpersonal communication
Since our research focuses on exploring reading strategies of engineering students in Andhra Pradesh, we felt think-aloud probe would be useful to elicit the mental processes or sequence of steps that students make while reading an academic related text
The think-aloud verbal probe used in this study elicited the mental processes of undergraduate engineering students while reading a semi-technical reading text
Summary
Innovations in science and technology across the world influenced most of the administrators, diplomats, businessmen, engineers, scientists and medical practitioners to use English as a common medium for interpersonal communication. The realisation of English as a global link language triggered universities imparting engineering education to introduce English as a subject of study at the undergraduate level. Most of the engineering institutions in India have introduced English as medium of instruction at the undergraduate level. In the context of globalization, the English language has gained world-wide recognition and most of the international journals and books on engineering are published in English. Undergraduate students have to refer to journals and other current periodicals to update their knowledge in the field of engineering and technology. This requires engineering students to have proficiency in the English language to understand, interpret and analyze the content related to their academics as well as other fields of knowledge. The primary focus of reading instruction should be on developing the reading abilities of engineering students in order to make them independent readers
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