Reading across the curriculum in a bilingual context: reading strategy use in three upper secondary schools in Brunei

Abstract

The students in the Brunei mainstream education system eventually learn most subjects in English, which is not the first language for most of them. Reading in English is valued as it provides access to knowledge across the curriculum for the majority of students in Brunei as elsewhere too. Reading both for comprehension and learning are two areas of interest in this study. This thesis looks at the strategy use of (upper) secondary students of different abilities from three schools in Brunei when reading their academic materials in English. It aims to compare reading strategies the students used and which strategies the teachers taught (the use of) in two subject areas: English Language and Content Subjects.

Adopting both quantitative and qualitative approaches, data was primarily collected from upper secondary students in three schools in Brunei; one of which consists of high ability students while the other two schools have mixed ability students. In the quantitative part of the study, students responded to the questionnaire on the perceived reading strategies used when reading. In the qualitative part of the study, twenty five students participated in semi-structured interviews where ten of them did a think-aloud reading activity.

In terms of reading strategy use, the quantitative results showed that students employed cognitive reading strategies more than metacognitive strategies when they read in English. The qualitative results also revealed that students of different ability groups, in general did not differ greatly in the types of strategies they used. However, the frequency in the use of strategies and in the elaboration and execution of these strategies do vary among the students and across the two subject areas. Findings of the study further suggest that; (a) reading in the two subject areas differ in the emphasis of reading strategies, (b) ability may contribute to the differences in strategy use among students in the two subject areas.

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