An investigation into the reading abilities in English of Chinese English major students : a case study

Abstract

The purposes of this survey study were 1) to identify the reading abilities of English major students at the Chinese college; and 2) to compare the reading abilities of different levels of English major students at the Chinese college in reading to identify strengths and weaknesses in their reading abilities. The participants in the study were 285 English major students at Yunnan Minzu University including 73 first-year students, 83 second-year students, 66 thirdyear students and 63 fourth-year students. A standardized English Reading Test of 50 items chosen for this purpose was the main instrument of the study used to identify the reading ability levels of these four groups. The English reading test scores were used for identifying the reading strengths and weaknesses of each group. Semi-structured interviews were the second instrument used for collecting students’ thoughts and opinions on the English Reading Test they took. The findings of the study revealed that as a group, the reading scores of the first-year students were significantly lower than those of students in the upper years with the test scores of the fourth-year students scoring the highest reading test scores. The data collected from the questionnaires showed that the junior students mainly lacked vocabulary and effective reading strategies. Although the senior students scored the highest, they believed that the lack of reading strategies affected their reading speed, which means that the students’ weak reading abilities lay in the lack of vocabulary and reading strategies. The semi-structured interview data showed that the poor English reading abilities were due to not only the students’ own problems, but also the teachers’ neglect of the training of reading strategies and incorrect teaching methods