Coping with Reading Difficulty Using Socio-Affective Strategy

Abstract

Reading academic texts requires learners to use a variety of skills and strategies. Among the main types of academic reading are (a) reading for quick reference, (b) reading for pleasure and also (c) critical reading. Students who have just left high schools, reading academic text may post some problems. Hence, readers face challenges when they read academic texts. Different readers face different difficulties when they read different types of texts. Some readers face linguistics challenges while some face non-linguistic challenges when they read academic texts. Fortunately, many academic readers have their own way to cope with the difficulties in reading. This study explored the problem readers face when they read academic texts. This study also investigates show readers use schemata and socio affective strategies to help them cope with difficulties when reading academic texts. The instrument used is a five Likert scale survey with 33 items. Data is analyzed using SPSS version 26 to reveal frequency of responses. Findings bear interesting pedagogical implications to the teaching and learning of academic reading. Contribution/ Originality:This study contributes to the existing literature on reading difficulties that learners face when they read academic texts. In addition to that, this study documents some coping strategies such as using the schemata and socio-affective strategies that readers can use.

Reading Strategies in Enhancing Students’ Reading Comprehension: Are They Still Relevant?

“…In terms of socio-affective strategies, the finding of the study conducted by Rahman et al (2021), who investigated 159 Malaysian respondents as the subject of their research by using a descriptive quantitative research design, revealed it could not be denied that students, during reading activities, did experience few difficulties both in term of linguistics (i.e., vocabulary & syntactic knowledge) and non-linguistics (i.e., attitudes, motivation & background knowledge).…”