Understanding academic reading behavior of Arab postgraduate students

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study to investigate academic reading behavior among a group of Arab postgraduate students in social science disciplines. The paper also explores the difference between reading strategies used with Arabic and English text. The study deployed a qualitative research approach. A sample of 33 participants was interviewed to elucidate the reading behavior of the Arabic language speakers. The analysis of the interviews revealed that the participants use various reading strategies to familiarize themselves with the Arabic and the English scholarly content. The data showed that there is a need to train Arab postgraduates on academic reading skills. The results also indicate that reading the English text represents a challenge for the social sciences and humanities Arab postgraduates. This study was conducted on social science and humanities postgraduates. The reading behavior of science disciplines may differ as the teaching language is mainly in English. This study contributes to the field by expanding our understanding of how non-English language speakers read and comprehend the academic text. The value of the current study lies in being the first study that explores Arab postgraduate students’ reading behavior.