EFL Instructor, UzSWLU

Subject area: EAP for PreSETT students (Year 3 and 4). 

• 70% of my students do not do assigned reading of “Integrated Course on Foreign Language Teaching.”

• 30% read the assigned chapter and partake in discussions

How do I feel about home-assigned reading?

What I am doing to support my students to read home-assigned chapters?

Exploring others’ perceptions

-What do my students feel or say about home-assigned readings?

- What do my students want to see in the home-assigned reading texts?

- What do my colleagues say about home-assigned reading?

Exploring behaviour

-When I assign the home reading texts, which ones do students do (which they don’t do)?

-When I assign the home reading texts, what do I do to make sure that they do the home assigned reading? (do I tell them about my expectations or are my instructions clear?)

1. My reflections,

2. Literature review,

3. Informal discussion with colleagues

   
   

   To explore others' perceptions

4. Survey from students

   
   

   To explore behaviour

5. My critical friend's notes from observation

6. Students' performance (written)

   
   

• provides students with great insights into the topic

• understand in detailed or get additional sources to support the idea

• engage in in-depth discussions on a subject that will further their learning

• more opportunities for success in their coursework and degree programs

• if students don't complete the readings, it creates hinders for effective discussions or activities

What I am doing to support my students to read home assigned chapters?

• Assign weekly chapters

• Reading logs/ articles

• 3-5 minute reading reflection at the beginning of lesson

• Purposeful reading assignments

• Ask them jot down reading notes or write summary

• Time (very important-10, somewhat important-4)

• Difficulty of the material (very important-4, somewhat important-9, not important-1)

• Actual subject matter (very important-5, somewhat important-9)

• Desire to participate in-class discussions (very important-5, somewhat important-6, not important-3)

• Personal desire to learn (very important-8, somewhat important-4, not important-2)

• Sense of obligation (very important-5, somewhat important-5, not important-4)

• Wanted to please the course teacher (very important-6, somewhat important-7, not important-1)

Attitude towards home-assigned reading:

• 42.9% students assessed their assigned reading materials in the course as important

• 57.1% noted as somewhat important.

What actions students expect from their course teacher?

• Give less reading- 7.1%

• Pick better things to read -28.6%

• Use reading material in discussion -28.6%

• Provide a reading guide or questions to use as we read -28.6%

• Give points for readings-7.1%

Link to the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bSMMmYEHk0yMinP4kTbn-iTrEz3xSns9XTI_lARmiS8/edit

• only 20–30% of undergraduate students complete required readings (Kerr and Frese,2017).

• more than 50% of students fail to complete the required readings, and this is frequently due to instructors assigning too much (Deale & Lee, 2022; Hoeft, 2012).

• we should not blame students as the source of the problem, ignoring the role of instructors (Brost and Bradley, 2006)

  Brost and Bradley (2006) suggest:

• Course instructors should create appropriate learning conditions that can actually foster and reward the behaviour that we seek from students

• give students a sense of ownership of the reading process so that students can be motivated to prepare the readings we assign them. (Brost and Bradley, 2006)

• Laziness (health issues, not having good conditions, mobile distraction, lack of control by instructors, emotional ss)

• Some students are not good at reading (not developed reading skills) unpreparedness, lack of knowledge

• Lack of motivation (topics not interesting or too complicated to understand, lack of reading comprehension, multi-level, disabilities)

• Time constraints (having part time job, family cares, family and marriage issues, commute)

• Underestimation significance of reading to the pedagogical process

• Belief that instructors will discuss important information in readings during class

• Faculty library cannot provide enough physical coursebooks, students struggle with printing, have to read online formats that is not preferred by all students

• We can only share e-books, we cannot put pressure them to print the books out.

• Fully funded students who do not commit any extra-curricular activities to promote reading culture in comparison, students in foreign countries organize clubs, extra-curricular activities

• 30-35% students are active in group discussions, answer the questions, and highlight key points from home-assigned reading

• 65-70% students are passive because of non-compliance

• I myself gave the main points from reading during the lesson

• My approach was the traditional way of assigning students to read chapter one and come prepared to discuss the main points from the reading (again).

• 30% students read as they are autonomous; 70% don't read because of lack of reading habits and rhetorical reading strategies (no guidance, no template)

How did I improve my students' reading habits and interest in home reading assignments?

Steps of Action Level:

• Select the most effective reading assignments to encourage students to read more (include not just readings but also videos, other primary documents, quizzes, short writing assignments, reading review, concept-mapping)

• Use rubric for each home-assigned readings

• Use rhetorical reading strategies

• I encouraged use of supplemental materials connected with home-reading assignments to motivate students to read more;

• included not just readings but also videos and other primary documents to increase reading habits;

• 90% students showed good results from quizzes and doing concept-maps collaboratively based on home-assigned readings

• students found rhetorical reading strategies useful for home-assignments

• students’ compliance and motivation for home-assigned readings have increased (85% of students are active in discussions)

• students' quiz results are feasible;

• using rubrics to assess their knowledge and skills

• have developed reading strategies

Brost, B. D., & Bradley, K. A. (2006). Student compliance with assigned reading: A case study. Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(2), 101-111. Retrieved from

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ854930

Hoeft, Mary E. (2012) "Why University Students Don't Read: What Professors Can Do To Increase Compliance," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 6: No. 2, Article 12. Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2012.060212

 Kerr, M. M., & Frese, K. M. (2017). Reading to learn or learning to read? engaging college students in course readings. College Teaching, 65(1), 28-31. doi:10.1080/87567555.2016.1222577

Smale, M. A. (2020). “It’s a lot to take in”-Undergraduate Experiences with Assigned Reading, Impact vol. 9, no. 1, winter 2020. Published version available at http://sites.bu.edu/impact/previous-issues/impact-winter-2020/its-a-lot-to-take-in/

Starcher, K., & Proffitt, D. (2011). Encouraging students to read: What professors are (and aren’t) doing about it. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(3), 396-407. Retrieved from http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/articleView.cfm?id=1057