To Örebro University

The use of English has been gaining ground in numerous educational contexts where another language was previously used (Gabriëls & Wilkinson, 2021). At university, students are frequently expected to engage with English texts even though the official medium of instruction is the local language. This shift toward English has resulted in new challenges for students, particularly for students who do not have the proficiency required to read English-language publications (Cenoz, 2012). Previous research on academic reading in higher education has primarily focused on the faculty perspective (Gorzycki et al., 2020). In this paper, I illustrate the issue through the Swedish case by discussing the transition from upper secondary school to university, with a particular focus on first-year university students’ experiences with academic texts in English in Swedish-medium instruction programmes. The ability to comprehend academic texts is one of the most important skills that university students who speak English as a second or foreign language need to acquire (Dreyer & Nel, 2003), but previous research has showed Swedish students understand less when the textbook is in English (Pecorari et al., 2011). The potential impact on student retention and academic success means there is a need for more attention to be paid to students’ experiences with reading in higher education. This paper aims to remediate this issue by providing insights into students’ perceptions and attitudes of English academic texts through a sequential explanatory design involving questionnaires and follow-up interviews. Results show that more than half of university students express negative attitudes toward reading in English and perceive reading in English to be considerably more difficult and time-consuming than reading in Swedish. Universities take it for granted that students have the ability to read academic texts in English without any support (Arnbjörnsdóttir, 2018), but I will argue that students' negative attitudes and self-reported challenges are related to a lack of preparation for reading academic English in upper secondary school. 

References

Arnbjörnsdóttir, B. (2018). Using English at university. In B. Arnbjörnsdóttir & H. Ingvarsdóttir (Eds.), Language development across the life span: The impact of English on education and work in Iceland (pp. 143-162). Springer.

Cenoz, J. (2012). Bilingual educational policy in higher education in the Basque Country. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25, 41-55.

Dreyer, C., & Nel, C. (2003). Teaching reading strategies and reading comprehension within a technology-enhanced learning environment. System, 31(3), 349–365. 

Gabriëls, R., & Wilkinson, R. (2021). Two types of reflections about English as a medium of instruction. European Journal of Language Policy, 13(2), 161-180.

Gorzycki, M., Desa, G., Howard, P. J., & Allen, D. D. (2020). “Reading Is Important,” but “I Don't Read”: Undergraduates’ Experiences With Academic Reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 63, 499-508.

Pecorari, D., Shaw, P., Malmström, H., & Irvine, A. (2011). English textbooks in parallel language tertiary education. TESOL Quarterly, 45(2), 313-333.