Comprehension and Sociocultural Factors Teaching Reading in English as a Foreign Language

This paper presents the initial findings of my PhD research to answer the question ‘How can first year Indonesian students’ reading comprehension of academic English texts be improved to support their learning in an Indonesian university?’ Five humanity departments comprising 373 students participated in this research and 20 of them joined focus group interviews. A mixed methods sequential design was applied in order to reveal the students’ learning process as constructed by their sociocultural factors. The students’ level of reading comprehension is analysed and discussed in relation to their response to a paraphrasing protocol, the comparison of the mean of groups paraphrasing scores, and the sociocultural themes that have impacted their comprehension. The findings will be used to put forward factors that should be considered in reading approaches in order TEFL teachers to empower the students to be independent