THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFL LEARNERS’ USE OF READING STRATEGIES AND THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF CRITICAL READING SELF-EFFICACY

Abstract

Learners may have difficulties in grasping the texts written in the target language since the texts can have cultural, ideological, and contextual meanings beyond how they seem. For this reason, this study aims to explore whether a meaningful relationship exists between English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ use of reading strategies and their perceptions of critical reading self-efficacy. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to determine the level of EFL learners’ use of reading strategies and the perceptions of critical reading self-efficacy. This study also aims to find out whether EFL learners’ use of reading strategies and the perceptions of critical reading self-efficacy vary according to gender, department, how often EFL learners read English texts, type of English text EFL learners read most, family members’ reading English books, newspapers, and texts and where EFL learners’ family lives. The research was carried out with EFL students at foreign language schools in two state universities. 255 EFL learners participated in the study. In order to select participants at the preparatory school of two state universities, convenience sampling was used. In this quantitative survey-based research, "Demographic Information Form", "Critical Reading Self-Efficacy Perception Scale" and “Reading Strategy Use Scale” were used to collect data. The collected data were analysed by Social Sciences Statistics Package (SPSS) 26.0. The results indicated that EFL learners usually utilize reading strategies and there is a meaningful relationship between EFL learners’ use of reading strategies and their perceptions of critical vii reading self-efficacy. The results also revealed that EFL learners’ use of reading strategy and their perceptions of critical reading self-efficacy do not significantly differ by gender. Moreover, EFL learners’ inquiry capabilities significantly differ in terms of how often they read English texts.