Investigating Students’ use of Reading Strategies for Reading Literary Texts: The Case of First Year students of English at MMUTO

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating the Reading Strategies used by first year students for reading literary texts in the Department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou. It attempts to determine the extent to which the students are aware of the appropriate use of these strategies. In order to gather reliable and valid data, we opted for the Mixed Methods Approach that combines both qualitative and quantitative data. Thus, a questionnaire is designed to fifty five (55) first year students and an interview is conducted with seven teachers of reading and writing module of the same department. The outcomes are analyzed according to the SQ3R reading strategy, Qualitative Content Analysis and statistical methods of analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. On the basis of the results of the study, it is concluded that students use a range of strategies which are, Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. However, learners use these strategies unconsciously which reveal that they are not aware of their appropriate use.