Summary of Pilot Study Interviews

Before the interview began, the interviewer thanked all the students for their participation and in order to make the participants feel relaxed they were asked some general question such as how are you? What are your hobbies? How are you feeling at the interview? All interview questions were divided in a way that, first of all the students were to answer some questions about the reading habits questionnaire and then about the reading test. The students’ perceptions on the reading habits questionnaire and the reading test are given below.

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3.5.5.1 Students’ Perception on the Pilot Reading Habits Questionnaire

Prior to the interview, each interviewee was given her/his completed questionnaire for the review and then s/he was asked some questions. The first question with most of the students was: ‘what changes would you like to make in this questionnaire’. Many students prompted; ‘no change’, however, they suggested some changes when they were asked by pointing out to a specific question in the questionnaire. For example, almost all the interviewees agreed that six options from ‘1 never’ to ‘6 daily’ be maintained. However, the majority of them suggested option 5 ‘twice weekly’ should be replaced with several times weekly. One Sindhi student forcefully said, ‘I read at least five times a week, but there was no such option’. S/he also clarified that s/he ticked option 5 ‘twice weekly’. This participant, in the beginning, suggested that there should be seven options, but finally agreed to six point scale.

Similarly, when asked about the format of the questionnaire, almost all the students, except one, agreed the format was understandable. However, the researcher found the majority of participants did not respond to questions 4.1 and 5.1 in the questionnaire. This was because the numbers were given along with the words as 1 Never, 2 Rarely and so on. Additionally, the participants informed that they did not find vocabulary, grammar, and structure problem. However, they suggested that the use of L1 and L2 was confusing for them; hence, L1 and L2 may be replaced with Sindhi and Urdu respectively. Some participants also added that they recite Holy Quran in Arabic, but they do not understand Arabic.

Moreover, a few participants stated that while they speak some regional languages such as Punjabi, Siraiki, Balochi; they do not read in these languages because these languages do not have a standardised written form. Further, some interviewees stated that they did not attempt all questions because they did not study everything. Also, it was the first time they attempted this type of questionnaire so they could not understand properly; hence some training was necessary. Most of the participants suggested that they usually read books in parts so the part of question no 7 ‘from start to finish’ may be replaced as in full or in parts. One participant supporting this said, ‘I have not completed a single book in the last 2 years even’. The participants

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also reported that the qualitative part was very good and necessary. All the respondents stated that the questionnaire included everything about their reading habits and lingual preferences.

3.5.5.2 Students’ Perception of the Pilot Reading Test

The students reported that the reading test was at their proficiency level. The allocated time for the reading test and the division of the reading test into parts and sections were also appropriate. However, a gap was necessary during the test sections. In relation to question regarding the difficulty within all test parts, the interviewees differed in their views. Some of the students said part one was tricky; the majority of the participants thought part two was more difficult and some students were of opinion that part three and part four were the most difficult. The difference of the opinion among the participants regarding the difficulty in the English reading test indicated that all the parts were appropriate to the English reading proficiency of the participants. All the students agreed that the test was interesting and it was not boring at all.

3.5.5.3 Lessons Learned from the Pilot Study

The pilot study suggested that the reading habits questionnaire adapted for piloting was appropriate to measure the students' reading habits in general and their reading habits in L1 and in English in particular. All respondents agreed that the questionnaire included everything about their reading habits and lingual preferences (See Section 3.5.5.1). Similarly, it was also learned from the pilot study that the reading test used in the pilot study was not only appropriate to the level of students but it was interesting too (See Section 3.5.5.2). Therefore the same reading habits questionnaire and the reading test could be used in the main study to measure the students' reading habits (in English and L1) and English reading performance respectively.

However, some important lessons were also learned from the pilot study, which were needed to be addressed before conducting the main study. A detailed illustration of the lessons learned from the pilot study regarding the reading

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questionnaire and the reading test and overall data collection process and how they were addressed before conducting the main study will be given in the discussion of the main study research instruments in Sections: 3.6.1.1, 3.6.1.2 and 3.6.1.3 respectively.

Having discussed the pilot study and some of its findings, it is now important to discuss the main study. Therefore, Section 3.6 below discusses in detail how the main study was carried out in line with the lessons learned from the pilot study.