Academic English Reading Strategies Employed by Thai Chemistry Students at Undergraduate Level with Different Reading Proficiency

Abstract

The objectives of this study aimed to investigate the frequent used of reading strategies in Thai chemistry students in English academic reading context, and to examine the relationships  in the frequency of chemistry students’ reported reading strategy use according to reading proficiency. The samples were 34 second-year chemistry students, purposively sampled according to reading proficiency. Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) based on Mokhtari and Sheorey’s taxonomies (2002) was administered to obtain the students’ use of academic reading strategies, and Academic English Reading Test was collected to determine their levels of reading proficiency. The descriptive data were analyzed through frequency, means, standard deviation and T-test. The results from this study summarized that, on the whole, Thai chemistry students reported moderate level of reading strategies used in all three categories: global strategies, support strategies and problemsolving strategies. In addition, the frequency of students’ overall reported use of reading strategies not correlated significantly on the basis of reading proficiency.