Omani Students’ Attitudes towards EFL Reading between School and University Foundation Programs: A bridge or a gap?

Abstract

Using questionnaires administered to 1114 school students and 317 university foundation program students, the study aims to investigate students’ attitudes towards English as a foreign language (EFL) reading in the two educational contexts: post-basic schools and university foundation programs. The study also explores the extent to which students feel school has prepared them to the reading requirements of their university foundation programs. The study revealed that there were significant differences between school students and university foundation program students in the cognitive and affective dimensions of reading attitude but there were no significant differences in behavioural attitudes. Students also believed that they could not transfer the reading skills they acquired at post-basic education to the English classes at the foundation program because reading is different in the two educational contexts. The study makes a number of pedagogic and administrative recommendations to help bridge the gap between EFL reading in schools and universities.