Difficulties with Reading

All students across the three populations seemed to struggle with reading to a certain extent – regardless of whether they were aware of this or not – and read relatively little for both school purposes and outside of school. However, their challenges varied somewhat depending on whether English was their first or second language. In the next subsections, the unique

experiences of the three distinct student populations are discussed.

5.1.1 Generation 1.5 Students

The four generation 1.5 student participants were aware of their difficulties with reading and, as mentioned in their profiles, they explained that they did not read often and did not like reading, as seen below.

I don’t read and write that much, to be honest. (Ian, Interview 1).

I’m not a big reader or writer or anything of that sort. (Jacob, Interview 1)

I, actually, I, I don’t, I don’t usually like to read […] but if I like just sit down and read by myself and have to take like focus a long time, and I look, like, what does this mean and things like that, yeah, is difficult (Joy, Interview 1).

I usually just read what I have to I mean like I usually don’t read more […] ‘cause I don’t like reading. (Rachel, Interview 2)

They attributed their difficulty with reading to the fact that they did not read often since they did not enjoy the practice as well as to the fact that English was their second language even though they were quite young when they moved to the U.S. (Joy being the exception), as

illustrated in the following excerpts.

If someone asked me my identity as a reader or writer when I was in middle school, I would’ve answered “an infant” or I might not have answered his or her question because I wouldn’t have understand the question. […] summer reading books were always a pain in the butt in high school. I literally spent the whole summer looking up every word in the book on my little electronic dictionary. […]I still have troubles reading and writing. (Ian, Literacy Narrative, EH101)

I’ve had a struggle with it [reading] cause I’m actually a really slow reader from you know the transition between [German and English] that really hurts your reading speed um, but like I’ve been trying to like kind of, you know, read faster, you know, apparently people can like they like they don’t think about the word, cause like I almost think about every word so I could literally talk and read at the same speed (Jacob, Interview 3). I remember the first day of EH 101; you [the instructor] asked everyone in class what we were most worried about in college. And my answer was taking this class (EH 101) since English is not my native language. I know that I am a slow reader and I most of the time cannot comprehend on what I have just read. (Joy, Reflection Essay, EH101)

Have you ever had to learn something new and struggled with it? I certainly did when I moved to the United States from Hong Kong when I was eight. I had to learn a whole new language, English. I can say I had to put lots of effort to get to where I am now as a reader and writer. […] I know people often say the younger you are, the easier it is to learn a new language, but I can tell you that it is not completely true. (Rachel, Literacy Narrative, EH101)

Jacob and Joy also considered their challenges with reading the culprit for what they perceived as low ACT scores (26 and 20, respectively). For example, Joy asserted about the ACT, “I only passed math, like the other things, English, Reading, Science, I fail [laughing] […] Reading and English, and the science, is a lot of reading too, so like my [score] oops.” (Joy,

Interview 3). Likewise, Jacob pointed out: “that’s [reading speed] my main problem on the ACT and the SAT I never finished because I did never read it like even the math problems, I had trouble like finishing” (Jacob, Interview 2).

Although Rachel struggled with reading in English when she first moved to the U.S. at the age of eight and still emphasized that she did not read much because she did not enjoy it (“I don’t read much because I don’t really like reading.” Rachel, Interview 1), she was the only

generation 1.5 student who appeared to have fully overcome most of her reading difficulties. For example, she was the only multilingual participant who did not bring up her reading speed in English as an issue. She was encouraged to read extensively in English throughout her

elementary and middle school years, as explained in Chapter 4, and maintained regular habits of reading in her L1. These practices seem to have greatly impacted her reading skills and

contributed, if not to her love for books, at least to her understanding of the importance of reading. As also reported in her profile in Chapter 4, Rachel believed that in order to be successful in school and life, one needs strong literacy skills.

While the other three generation 1.5 students did not appear to see reading as beneficial as Rachel did, they all seemed to have developed some strategies to cope with reading and for the most part tried to read for the classes in which they deemed reading was necessary as further discussed in the subsection ‘reading in college’ below.

5.1.2 International Students

Like the generation 1.5 students, the four international students in the study did not like reading in English and considered themselves very slow readers. For these students – who were still learning the language – reading in English appeared to be much more challenging, however.

I’m such a slow reader because everything is so new in English, um I read some in English of course like I said online and stuff (But it’s different?) yeah it’s academic reading stuff so it’s a little heavier […] because I’m like reading stuff and I, it’s

frustrating cause I can’t understand and whatever […] so uh uh English yeah I wanna be better in reading probably be faster in reading. (David, Interview 1)

N: Yeah. So I sometimes…. I cannot I cannot finish uh reading assignments

to…yeah…understand fully. […] First the assignments is a lot but but it’s like I can do it and yeah… yeah…it is also tough to read and write and speak and listen English all of them are English. (Narushi, Interview 3)

As a non-native English speaker, English is a not an easy subject for me. (Xue, Reflective Essay, EH101S). Yeah I think it…it is at a high level you need to read and write well so you can understand well like what instructor is talking about eh so I need uh I think I need more time to um get used to it (yeah) I think yeah […] that’s that’s what I don’t think I’m not very good at reading […]I think I’m pretty slow. (Xue, Interview 3)

Uhhh a little difficult [the EH101S class] because I have to read something in class but I reading speed is too slow. (Yu, Interview 1)

They claimed to have read little in their EFL classes prior to coming to the U.S. as the primary focus of the English classes in China and Japan was grammar and translation of sentences and paragraphs for university entrance exams. Yu said the following in our first interview: “English uh teacher in China is no good, they just teach you how to finish the exam […] we just study a lot about grammar (Yu, Interview 1)”. Similarly, Narushi explained the

following in his literacy narrative for EH101S:

With the previous education system, we just learned how to read English sentences and how to translate into Japanese. We were just required to understand sentences that are written in English. A lot of questions on our exams were required to answer translations. Learning English is mostly for the entrance exam for Japanese universities; such as correcting grammar errors, reading paragraphs deeply in order to be able to translate into Japanese. (Narushi, Literacy Narrative, EH101S)

David did not specify what his EFL classes emphasized, but explained that he did not read much in school but did some reading in English on his own instead, especially after he had decided to come study in the U.S. These readings consisted of online news and articles about hockey and sports in general. Yet, although David appears to have been more exposed to reading in English than the other three international students, he explained that reading for class was more difficult and time-consuming because of the academic style of the texts, as aforementioned,

a comment that also made by the other students. Their struggles with academic texts are explored in more detail in the subsection ‘reading in college’.

5.1.3 Native-Speaking Students

Unlike the multilingual students discussed above, the native-speaking students did not mention having any particular struggles with reading, and – as a matter of fact – they all said they enjoyed reading at some point in their lives. They were also the only students to talk about reading books for pleasure during the interviews.

If I can find a good book I can get into, I love it. (Aaron, Interview 1)

Whenever I could buy them [House of Nights book series] or whenever go to the library and get them. It was really good. And then I went through Twilight and… the Hunger Games series (yeah) and um my English teacher in 9th and 10th grade, he would give us books about the Holocaust and stuff and um I went through each book that he had and whatever book he was able to give us. (Carrie, Interview 1)

I still do quite a bit of reading, I like I like to read. (Dalton, Interview 1)

Actually I don’t think I would change it [her literacy story] at all because the situation that I grew up in it made me a stronger person as well as a stronger reader, you know (yeah), it really shaped the readings that I read. I would read anything thrillers, I would read magazines, TV guides, all… if it was a reading, I would do it [chuckles] and I would try to put myself there so yeah it really shaped me. […] I have over 40 books in my dorm room to this day [chuckles]. (Tenesha, Interview 1)

Even though these students did not bring up any difficulties related to reading and appear to have read in English more than the multilingual students, three of them were placed in

EH101S, with the studio component, mostly likely because of their low ACT scores in the reading portion of the test. While Carrie recognized that her low ACT score was the reason why she was in EH101S, Tenesha claimed to have asked to be placed in EH101S because she wanted to have a “refresher” in English. I wonder, however, how she was even informed that taking

EH101S was an option if the course had not been recommended to her. As for Dalton, though I do not have his ACT score, he had previously taken EH101 in two different community colleges

and was still placed in EH101S at the institution, which I believe is a strong indicator that his ACT reading score was also low. Aaron’s ACT score was higher, and he was enrolled in a

regular EH101 class, yet he did not read often (other than social media) and claimed that books did not capture his attention any longer (“I just really can’t find books that hold my attention very well like I can start a book but if it doesn’t hold my attention, I put it down.” Aaron,

Interview 1).

In addition, the native-speaking students had the lowest grades as a student population in the study, and the three students in EH101S (i.e., Carrie, Dalton, and Tenesha) faced many challenges in their classes. This apparent lack of awareness of their abilities versus their needs was a common trend in the native-speaking students’ data and is further discussed in Chapter 7.