Reading Difficulties of Secondary School EFL Learners in Timor-Leste

Abstract

In government secondary schools in Timor-Leste, English as a subject receives less representation in the curriculum compared with neighboring countries and reflects the complex language policy of the country’s constitution, which recognizes four languages. This paper reports the results of a study of the difficulties encountered by secondary school students when they read English texts. The research sought to identify the main obstacles to students’ reading fluency as well as their causes. 200 students completed a questionnaire about their English reading experience and habits. Based on the questionnaire results, ten students were selected to participate in focus group discussions about their reading difficulties. Five students were assigned to a ‘challenged’ reader group, while five were assigned to a ‘coping’ reader group. The results indicate that many of the students have difficulty in reading English texts. Inadequate vocabulary knowledge and a lack of reading strategies were identified as the main contributors. Interestingly, the most serious difficulty reported was the pronunciation of the words of reading texts. This finding suggests that the many students are accustomed to reading texts aloud rather than silently and may not have progressed beyond a sub-vocalizing phase. The majority of the subjects appear to adopt a ‘bottom up’ approach to reading.  Two factors appear to impact upon this unsatisfactory situation: (a) the absence of strategies-based reading instruction within the curriculum, and (b) lack of exposure to a variety of English texts.