A Study of Science Undergraduate Students’ English Extracurricular Reading in Chuxiong Normal University

Abstract

This study investigated aspects of English extracurricular reading in Chuxiong Normal University. There were 126 students who answered the questionnaire. The sample was divided into three groups based on their performance on China’s National standardized College English Test (CET-6/4) for interviewing. The study found that: 1) 115 students (91 %) claimed that they did English extracurricular reading; 2) Short English passages for CET-6/4 were the most frequently (52 %) read type of extracurricular reading material, followed by newspapers, and magazines; 3) The average amount of time spent on English extracurricular reading for the fourth year students was 0.93 hours each day; 4) A majority (53 %) of students claimed to have a positive attitude toward English extracurricular reading; 5) Many students (45%) claimed learning English through English extracurricular reading is not the best and most effective way; 6) Frequent reading strategies included reading without interruption, getting the main idea at first, looking up unknown vocabulary after reading, and looking up unknown vocabulary while reading; 7) All students who did English extracurricular reading claimed they had problems with it; and 8) No students claimed that there were other factors that lead them to pass CET-6, or CET-4, or not yet pass CET-4. The results of the study have strong implications for what can be done to improve the non-English major’s English proficiency.