Approaching Reading Course at Tertiary Level in a Strategic Manner

Reading is a very important skill for any university students to acquire in order to gain access to knowledge in the academic books. Nonetheless, a considerable number of university students commence their studies with less adequate reading strategies. These students enter university with limited understanding how to approach academic reading text strategically. They face difficulties in comprehending their academic reading materials. Consequently they are unable to perform beyond a basic literacy skill as a university student. Currently, reading is taught in a receptive and static manner where emphasis is on students retrieving information from the reading text and to answer the set of questions at the end of the text. The process does not allow the students to engage with the reading materials. They read at surface level. Therefore, lecturers and instructors of reading need to approach the teaching of reading strategically. Thus, this paper proposes approaching reading course strategically to enable reading instructors to scaffold and assist university students to engage with the reading materials better.