Perceived Difficulties and Use of Online Reading Strategies: A Study among Undergraduates

Abstract

Online reading materials are considered as one of the important sources for EFL students. This is caused by the increasing number of learners who read texts and learn from online sources. The purpose of this quantitative research is to investigate the perceived use of online reading strategies among undergraduate students. To achieve the objective of the research, a 5 Likert-scale survey based on reading difficulties (Abeeleh and Al-Sobh, 2021) and online reading strategies proposed by Amer et al ( 2010) is utilised. This survey focuses on reading difficulties, global reading strategies, problem-solving reading strategies and support reading strategies. The survey obtained responses from 232 participants. Findings of the research suggested that, relating to reading difficulties, it is pertaining to the students' perception that made them feel that reading academic texts is a difficult task. Looking at the global strategies and problem-solving strategies, these learners have the tendency to refocus their attention, so that they are able to obtain better comprehension of the academic texts. In relation to supporting reading strategies, the learners depended on their translation abilities, as well as referred to other materials to gain more understanding. Several pedagogical implications are also addressed in the present study.