An examination of the comparative critical English reading ability of U.S.-born and foreign graduate students

This dissertation is a comparative analysis of the critical reading ability of doctoral-level graduate students at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Specifically, this project deals with the measured critical reading ability of two groups of graduate students; one group is comprised of U.S.-born graduate students. The other group of graduate students consists of foreign graduate students. Critical reading ability was ascertained through the administration of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. The Watson-Glaser yields both a total score and five subtest scores. The subtests are (1) Inference; (2) Recognition of Assumptions; (3) Deduction; (4) Interpretation; and (5) Evaluation of Arguments. The levels of significance were.001,.01 and.05 using a t-test for a difference between two independent means. For the foreign students, a Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was used for an analysis between scores on the Watson-Glaser and the TOEFL.; There were 52 U.S.-born graduate students, 26 each, from the Faculties of Educational Studies and the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences. There were 41 foreign graduate students of which 15 were from the Faculty of Educational Studies and 26 were from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Of the 15 in education, 7 were Chinese (PRC) and 8 were Anglophone. In engineering, there were 13 Chinese (PRC) and 13 Indian.; The results found no significant differences between either the two groups of U.S.-born graduate students or foreign graduate students either in total score or subtest scores. The results did find significant differences between the U.S.-born and foreign graduate students in total and subtest scores both generally and as a function of field of study. Further, within the foreign student group, the Indian students, generally, did significantly better than either the Chinese or Anglophone students in both total and subtest scores. The differences between the Chinese and Anglophone students were not as great as those between both of these groups and the Indian students. Further, there were no significant differences in either total or subtest scores of the two groups of Chinese graduate students. Finally, there was no significant correlation between the scores attained by the foreign graduate students on the Watson-Glaser and the TOEFL.