Items ALW USU SOM SEL NEV Mn SD
3. I keep on improving my English reading ability.
4. The school or the department provides sufficient English journals for graduates to read. (including Chinese and English materials.)
5. I can read general English articles fluently.
6. I can read academic English articles related to my major fluently.
3 (ALW→ always; USU→ usually; SOM→ sometimes; SEL→ seldom; NEV→ never;
Mn→ mean score; SD→ standard deviation)
Vocabulary
As to the viewpoints toward vocabulary, graduates strongly believed vocabulary was important toward academic English reading that 86 % of them considered vocabulary was always or usually important toward academic English reading (GS Item 7, Always, 50 %;
Usually, 36 %; Sometimes, 12 %, Seldom, 2 %, Never, 1 %). The other three items in this category showed that high percentage of graduates applied strategies to solve the problems caused by unfamiliar vocabulary. They used prefixes, suffixes, roots, and content clues to predict the unknown vocabulary and picked the key words for comprehension. Fifty-four
percent of graduates always or usually used prefixes, suffixes, and roots to predict the meaning of vocabulary (GS Item 8, Always, 14 %; Usually, 40 %; Sometimes, 31 %, Seldom, 9 %, Never, 5 %). In addition, 66 % of graduates always or usually used content clues to predict the meaning of vocabulary (GS Item 9, Always, 22 %; Usually, 44 %;
Sometimes, 27 %, Seldom, 6 %, Never, 1 %). Sixty-five percent of graduates always or usually picked out the key words of the content (GS Item 10, Always, 19 %; Usually, 46 %;
Sometimes, 26 %, Seldom, 8 %, Never, 1 %). The results were shown in Table 4.2.
According to the interview data, 11 of the 19 interviewed graduates mentioned that vocabulary, especially academic vocabulary, was a serious problem that influenced their reading comprehension. That is, vocabulary blocked their comprehension and the knowledge of academic vocabulary affected their academic English reading more than general vocabulary did. Based on the results of survey, graduates applied strategies frequently to overcome the problems resulted from limited vocabulary. Moreover, Graduate F mentioned “I had to look up the vocabulary very often and it hindered my reading fluency.” He said that the time spent trying to figure out the meaning of academic compound words hindered his reading. Undoubtedly, looking up the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary in academic texts slowed a student’s reading efficiency. Graduate D brought up that “reading difficulties resulted from the academic vocabulary, which was not involved in a general dictionary or an electronic dictionary.” Academic words are crucial for
understanding a text; but a great deal of such words that students might encounter are likely to be omitted in an ordinary dictionary.
Table 4.2
Graduates’ Viewpoints Toward Category 2: Vocabulary
Items ALW USU SOM SEL NEV Mn SD
7. Vocabulary is important toward academic English reading.
8. I use prefixes, suffixes, and roots to predict the meaning of vocabulary.
18
9. I use content clues to predict the meaning of vocabulary during academic English reading. during academic English reading.
24
As to the influence of grammar, graduate students did not consider grammar as important as vocabulary. Thirty-eight percent of graduates stated that they always or usually used grammar knowledge to analyze the sentence (GS Item11, Always, 5 %;
Usually, 33 %; Sometimes, 40 %; Seldom, 20 %; Never, 2 %). However, they still had problems in recognizing syntax. Only 18 % of graduates could always or usually recognize the parts of speech (GS Item12, Always, 2 %; Usually, 16 %; Sometimes, 44 %; Seldom, 25 %; Never, 13 %). Moreover, graduates had difficulties in handling lengthy sentences
that only 6 % of graduates could always or usually handle lengthy sentences (GS Item 13, Always, 0 %; Usually, 6 %; Sometimes, 44 %; Seldom, 25 %; Never, 13 %). Especially, finding the meaning of vocabulary in a dictionary did not necessarily lead to an actual understanding of the sentence. After they looked up the unfamiliar words, no graduate was sure that he/she could always understand the sentences and only 19 % of graduates claimed to usually gain a legitimate level of comprehension (GS Item 14, Usually, 19 %;
Sometimes, 34 %; Seldom, 33 %; Never, 14 %). The results were shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3
Graduates’ Viewpoints Toward Category 3: Grammar
Items ALW USU SOM SEL NEV Mn SD
11. I use grammar knowledge to analyze the sentence during academic English reading.
12. I can recognize the parts of speech during academic English reading.
3
13. I can handle lengthy sentences during academic English reading.
0
14. I understand the meaning of sentences after looking up unfamiliar words.
0
Not many graduates mentioned the problem of grammar during the interview.
Graduate K explained “if the grammar of the sentence confused me, I would not understand the meaning of the sentence even I figured out the meaning of the words.
Vocabulary was not a problem because I could look them up. I was familiar with the background knowledge, so it was also not a problem.” The survey results showed the main grammar problem for graduate students was to understand lengthy compound sentences.
This result echoed Cheng’s study (1995) which demonstrated that readers usually get more confused with long or complex sentences rather than short or simple sentences due to grammatical problems.
Even though graduates checked the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary, they were still confused with the sentences. Graduates A, L, and P indicated they might still be confused with the content even after they have checked the meaning of every word. Graduate A indicated “even if I knew every word of the sentence, I could not put them together to make a complete understanding, especially long sentences.” Graduate L revealed “when reading a sentence, I might know the meaning of all the words but still not realized the meaning of the whole sentence.” Graduate P also pointed out “sometimes, even checking every word in the content, I was still confused with the texts. It might result from a lack of grammar knowledge.” Graduate C also said that “long passages usually made me confused, and my understanding of the content was sometimes different from my teacher’s.” The lengthy sentences were the main grammatical problems for non-English major graduates.
Formal Schemata
The fourth category was related to formal schemata. Most graduates realized that writing style of Chinese articles and that of English articles was different. Seventy percent of graduates knew the writing style of Chinese articles was different from that of English articles (GS Item 16, Always, 29 %; Usually, 41 %; Sometimes, 23 %; Seldom, 33 %;
Never, 1 %). However, not so many graduates knew different articles adopting different writing styles and understood the writing style of academic English articles. Only 39 % of graduate always or usually understand different articles adopting different writing styles (GS Item 15, Always, 8 %; Usually, 31 %; Sometimes, 32 %; Seldom, 21 %; Never, 9 %) and only 18 % of graduates knew the writing style of academic English articles (GS Item 17, Always, 2 %; Usually, 16 %; Sometimes, 37 %; Seldom, 33 %; Never, 12 %). During academic English reading, 40 % of graduates always or usually picked out topic sentences for comprehension (GS Item 18, Always, 7 %; Usually, 33 %; Sometimes, 40 %; Seldom, 18 %; Never, 2 %). The results were shown in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4