Assessment of Reading Comprehension of Saudi Students Majoring in English at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia

Waleed B. Al Abiky

Abstract


Recent studies have shown that there has been a continual decline in the average reading ability of college-aged students with approximately one third of a four-year college students considered “at risk” for low academic attainment. The current study assesses English reading comprehension of senior Saudi students majoring in English and Translation in fall 2012 at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. The study, moreover, investigates the potential impacts of students’ age and GPAs on their reading comprehension. One hundred three students participated in the study in which quantitative method was used. Two reading passages with different length and topics were given to the students followed by 10 multiple questions for each passage. Major findings of the study indicate that 1) participants of the study showed an overall low reading comprehension X= 9.8, 2) GPA was found a statistically significant factor that impacted students’ reading comprehension, 3) students’ age, on the other hand, had no significant effect, 4) reading courses at the mentioned department seemed to generally focus on reading strategies whereas they should have adequately considered comprehension instruction since reading and decoding words without comprehension becomes meaningless.


Keywords


Assessment; Reading comprehension; English

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

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