Present a research

Perceived Reading Strategies used by
Thai Pre-engineering Students

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Atima Meednu. I’m a third year student in English major at faculty of Education. Nakhon si Thammarat Rajabhat University. Today I’m going to present a research on Perceived reading strategies used by Thai pre-engineering students by Dr. Ponpun Oranpattanachai. I have divided my presentation into 4 past . In the first past, I will talk about the introduction. Next , I will talk about the research methodology. Then, I will show you the results and conclusion will be the last past of my presentation. OK lest see together.

OK. The first, general overview of the research is in Thailand where English is used as a foreign language, reading skill is an important skill to master. It plays a vital role for Thai students in their academic context. For example, Thai engineering students are required to read the engineering textbooks in English although the medium of instruction is in Thai. This is because most of the engineering knowledge comes from sources such as articles published in the international journals, magazines, and the Internet. In addition, it is the skill that the students have high potentials to use even after they have graduated. Most of the new academic knowledge they need to acquire for improving their professional lives is mostly accessible in English. OK, lest move to the purposes is to help students to handle their difficulties of reading in English, at present reading researchers and educators pay their attention to their reading process rather than reading product. Knowing the students’ reading process or what reading strategy they use and how they use it when they encounter their reading difficulties can help teachers to know how to assist students to improve their abilities in reading.
The second, I will talk about methodology of research. Subject were 90 third- year pre-engineering students from a college of Industrial Technology in Thailand. They were divided into two groups: high reading use proficiency group and low reading proficiency group according to their English grades in their second year and reading proficiency scores.The next, lest move to the research instruments. A metcognitive reading strategies questionnaire was employed in the present study. The first part of the questionnaire dealt with the participants’ background information. The second part dealt with information about the participants’ perceived use of reading strategies while reading. To make sure that the major instrument in this study indeed examine what is intended to examine, the construct validity of the questionnaires was checked before piloting two English teachers in the area of TEFL who affirmed that the items contained in the questionnaire did measure the construct sensibly and acceptably. The questionnaire was then translated from English into Thai by me and the translation was crosschecked by a Thai teacher of English. The problem of slightly different wording was resolved through discussions. The reading proficiency test was a multiple-choice test, consisted of 40 item, all of which were taken from the TOEIC teston the past of reading. The total reading proficiency scores is 40 marks, one mark for each item.The next, lest move the methodology the present study had two stages of data collection: 1) participant selection stage reading (using a background questionnaire and reading proficiency test and 2) reading strategies elicitation stage (using a metacognitive reading strategies questionnaire). The reading strategy elicitation stage began after the selected students had agreed to participate in the study. This stage started with a metacognitive reading strategies questionnaire that was administered to 90 Thai third-year pre-engineering students at a college of Industrial Technology in Thailand. It was conducted during the first semester of the academic year 2008 half a month after a pilot test of the metacognitive reading strategies questionnaire was carried out. The questionnaires were administered to the participants by the researcher of this present study and teachers of English in the English classes.
Ok, Now the third results of research The results showed that the high and the low proficiency readers shared both differences and similarities in their reading processes. The differences in their reading processes were divided into 2 aspects: the frequency of perceived strategy use and the frequency of perceived top-down strategy use. The similarities in their reading processes were divided into two aspects: the rank ordering of perceived strategy use and the style of text processing.
And the last, I want to summary Researchers and teachers recognize that strategy training is an effective way of improving reading and that good readers are strategic readers. As the present study revealed that the perceived use of low proficiency was less than the high proficiency readers, teachers should there fore play a role by training them to use various reading strategies. Also, teachers should train them when, where, why, and how to use strategies appropriately so that the strategies they use are productive in their reading, which in turn, will help them to be more proficient readers.
Finally, since the present study looks at the differences and similarities in reading processes of high and low proficiency readers at pre-engineering level in Thailand, a replication of this study with different participants at high-school or university levels in Thailand or other countries learning English as a foreign language may be interesing.