Procedure

studying, and information about reading course material in higher education from student counselors or others before and when they started. The next topic was reading large amounts of English course materials (Topic 4) with regard to expectations, whether or not it influences their student life and challenges they experienced when reading English course material.

Following this, academic reading (Topic 5) was discussed in detail focusing on the aspects tapped into by the questionnaire.

The participants commented on how they read Norwegian and English course materials and compared them in terms of fluency, recognition of unknown words, and how previous knowledge about a topic influence their reading. Strategy use was discussed starting with looking at whether or not the participants remember receiving any reading strategy instruction, in lower- or higher-education, and whether they use these or not. The respondents also described their reading process in greater detail with regard to taking notes,

summarizing, looking up unknown words, studying for examinations. They were also asked about their personal experience in reading academic texts, as well as their general impression of how beginner students’ experience academic reading. Whether or not the reading of English texts could lead to additional pressure and stress for new students was also tapped into. The last question was about whether or not the compulsory, first-year English course in upper secondary school is adequate preparation for higher education (Topic 6) and whether it gave the respondents the skills needed for the reading of English course material in higher education. All in all the interview guide included six main topics and several subtopics that elaborate the questions in the questionnaire and included some new points of views to the present study. Because the interview was semi-structured, the topics were in some cases discussed in different order than how they appear in the interview guide, influenced by the different factors that played a part during the interviews.

Because the present study aims to investigate how beginner students in higher education experience the reading of English course material, these criteria were set to partially ensure that the sample provided desirable results. The survey was limited to the University of Oslo for practical reasons, first and foremost time constraints. The requirement of English texts on reading lists also precludes a random sample of respondents, which means that the present study has a stratified purposeful sample based on a number of criteria. Johannessen, et. al, (2011) explain that with stratified purposeful sampling “first categories are constructed based on central characteristics, before recruiting informants that fall under the categories.” (p.

401). Isabelle Royer and Philippe Zarlowski (2001) further explain that “the method is based on the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the phenomenon under observation and the criteria chosen for segmenting the population.” (p. 150).

For the present study it was important to set certain criteria when choosing the lectures in which the survey was to be handed out, in order to try to ensure the most

appropriate sample was selected in relation to the construct of the study. The three faculties that were of chosen to participate were the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine. These are interesting areas of study at higher education and can be compared with regard to English instruction and level in upper secondary school. One of the points that this thesis was developed on is the expectation that students who specialize in science and mathematics in upper secondary school and want to study this further at higher education, only follow the compulsory English course their first year of upper secondary school. In addition, pupils get extra credits for completing advanced courses in mathematics and natural sciences in upper secondary school, which may make these courses more desirable to chose compared to social science and language courses.

These extra credits can be necessary to get accepted into higher education and are given to motivate pupils to specialize in natural sciences and mathematics.

To find lectures in which the questionnaire could be distributed, each faculty was contacted and asked to suggest one or two beginner courses with English texts on their reading lists. The courses suggested were double checked with regard to English course material before the lecturer of each course was contacted for permission to hand out the questionnaire during a lecture, and to discuss possible dates and times to distribute these.

3.4.2 Qualitative study

At the end each questionnaire a final item was included that asked whether the respondents would allow to be contacted for a follow-up interview. If the answer was yes, the respondents were asked to include contact information so they could be contacted. It was important that the respondents be contacted in short time after the questionnaire was answered because it was late in the spring semester, and exams were only a short time away. This could mean that it was possible that a number who had answered yes at the time of the questionnaire could have changed their mind because they had too much to do at the end of the semester. When choosing which respondents who were to be contacted, a number of criteria based on certain questions in the questionnaire were set and considered. Because the present study want to examine beginner students in higher education, respondents with no prior higher education (Item 5) were preferred, and it was also desirable that the respondents only had the

compulsory, first-year English course in upper secondary school (Item 7). Items 10 and 11 were also considered when it was desirable that the respondents had not lived or studied in an English-speaking country, since this may have a strong influence on their English reading proficiency. When some respondents had been eliminated based on the criteria set above, the remaining questionnaires were examined with regard to the items about reading

comprehension in English (Items 20-25), and how the respondents handled unfamiliar

English words (Items 31-37). Respondents who indicated that they, to some degree, struggled when reading English course material were chosen and contacted. Choosing students who indicated that they somewhat struggle with reading English course material was based on the belief that these respondents may give interesting information about why and what they struggle with and their experience in reading English. Furthermore, since the interviews were designed to follow-up and complement the data collected in the quantitative survey, talking to those who struggle with reading was most logical when previous studies (Hellekjær, 2005, Hellekjær and Hopfenbeck, 2012) show that Norwegian university students struggle with reading English course material.

Choosing which respondents to contact in this manner have some risks and might be considered a limitation to the study. How do I, as the researcher, know that these are the respondents who have the information I seek? Nor do I have control over how the respondents answered the survey and whether or not they were being truthful in their

answers. Moreover, the survey did not ask what part of Norway the respondents are from, so I will not know in advance whether or not they are all from the same area or even, in the

exceptional case, if some of the chosen respondents have had the same English instructor in upper secondary school.