Reading Strategies Used by Undergraduate University General Education Courses for Students in US and Qatar

Abstract

This study assessed the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies of undergraduate university students in US and Qatar in reading academic materials. To achieve this, the participants were administered the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). The inventory consists of three groups of reading strategies, namely global reading strategies, problem-solving strategies, and support reading strategies. It was given to 127 students (mean age = 21.03 years) in US and 134 students (mean age = 19.78 years) in Qatar enrolled in university general education courses. Descriptive statistics was applied in the data analysis. US and Qatar students were overall highly aware of metacognitive reading strategies, and the groups of strategies that were most used were problem-solving strategies, followed by global reading strategies, and then support reading strategies. The five strategies with the highest use were problem-solving strategies.