Reading and Writing Strategies Used by Typical and Struggling Readers: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

Reading and writing are essential skills to master for university students, as research has shown that effective use of reading and writing strategies can lead to academic success. There are contradictory studies regarding whether reading and writing strategies differ between typical and struggling higher education students. The present study aims to compare the quantities variations of learning strategies and the qualities variations to the strategy between typical and struggling students in Greek higher education. It is a cross-sectional survey. The sampling was convenient, consisted of 233 undergraduate Greek students; 46 were self-reported as struggling readers. The research instruments employed in the present study were two scales for reading and writing strategies usage, based on Oxford (1990) classification system. The results suggest that typical students tend to considerably use reading and writing strategies more often than struggling students. Although these students use fewer reading and writing strategies, they tend to use cognitive and metacognitive strategies.