Incorporating reading strategies for EFL undergraduate learners in Saudi Arabia: A think-aloud study

The study sample consisted of 26 EFL students from the Department of English Language and Translation at Qassim University that were divided equally by gender (13 males and 13 females). All the students were native speakers of Arabic who were majoring in English. The ages of the participants ranged from 20 to 22 years old. These students were randomly assigned to the study from a group of students who were enrolled in a Reading and Vocabulary Building Course. Afterwards, four students (two males, and two females) were purposefully selected based on their proficiency levels to participate in the reading thinking-aloud task and to answer the interview questions. A mixed-method research approach was utilized in the study as data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Data analysis aims to explore both cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy types that the participants used while engaged in a reading task. Data for this research were gathered during the second semester of the academic year 2021-2022. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The raw scores obtained from the reading tests were coded and calculated using statistical tool SPSS or Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, used for complex statistical data analysis. Descriptive statistics were reported involving minimum and maximum scores, frequencies, mean scores along with the standard deviation. Moreover, data gathered from the semi-structured interviews and the thinking-aloud sessions were analyzed qualitatively.