Comparative Study of Factors and Problems Affecting Ability of Undergraduate Students at RMUTL Tak to Read English Language Journals

The objectives of the study are to investigate the most significant contributory factors affecting Engineering students’ reading ability in regard to journals, and to identify the problems thus encountered when they read English language journals. The participants in this study consisted of 60 Engineering students who were majoring in Industrial Engineering and Electrical Engineering. The research tool was a questionnaire that consisted of three parts: (1) general information, (2) factors that affect the ability to read English language journals, and (3) the problems that occur during reading of English language journals. The results of the study indicate that the outstanding contributory factors affecting students’ reading ability of English journals are anxiety (x ̅= 4.90) and knowledge of vocabulary (x ̅= 4.77), significant at the level of 0.05. The problems they encounter in reading English journals include the following: the vocabulary is difficult; unable to translate; too lazy to read; misunderstanding the content; journals are difficult; journals have too many pages; and students not interested in reading. Over a range of problems, a common factor was that the content was not related to what they had previously learned.