Exploring the academic reading challenges of graduate students of applied linguistics

Abstract

Academic reading and writing abilities are prerequisites to success in postgraduate programs. These should be domains of competence in particular for students in applied linguistics, whose studies and future performance as teachers require insight into these skills. A questionnaire was administered to 194 students, who assessed their own academic reading skills. In addition, open-ended questions added to the questionnaire and interviews with 14 students were analyzed, yielding eight domains identified as particular challenges. The results revealed that students assessed their information literacy to be the weakest one. The eight areas of challenge included: shortage of time, information literacy, content knowledge, critical literacy, writers’ language style and generic features of texts, teachers’ high expectations and vague instructions, insufficient statistical literacy and insufficient interaction with peers.