A phenomenological study of university reading: the struggling EFL readers perspective

The purpose of the study was to explore the cognitive representations of the six struggling EFL readers studying at a private university in Malaysia to obtain a rich description of their lived experience. To this end, a qualitative research design was selected to answer a central research question and four sub-questions. Using the transcendental phenomenological approach, the research instruments included the researcher as the primary human instrument, the research participants who were the co-researchers, a research assistant, a reading strategies questionnaire, a motivation for reading questionnaire, as well as participants’ drawings. A group of six EFL students, who struggled with reading academic texts in their respective content areas of study at a private university, were selected by purposeful sampling. Data analysis showed that the struggling readers had reading difficulties and struggled to cope with unfamiliar and difficult content area texts, saw the benefits of group reading discussion with peers and lecturers, exhibited certain behaviours towards university expectations, but were able to rationalise their difficulties with university reading. The findings revealed that they needed and expected university support in reading so that they could persist in their university study and earn their degrees. A key implication of this study suggests a need – support in reading skills suitable for university reading to help the struggling readers.