| Academic reading as an important means of academic research exterts a significant influence on the improvement of academic reading ability and international academic communication competence.Recently,domestic researchers have been growingly investigating learners’ difficulties encountered and searching for potent and strategical ways of teaching.However,a lack of multi-dimensional study on reading strategies has been recognized.Given such a situation,the study is designed as a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to further analyze the deep relationships between self-efficacy and reading strategies as well as sub-dimensions of reading strategies in academic contexts.The study selected two hundred and eleven English academic postgraduates from one university of Northeast China as participants for questionnaires and six postgraduates for semi-structured interview to collect data,with the purpose of empirically examining the correlation between self-efficacy and reading strategies as well as dimensions of reading strategies(metacognitive strategies,cognitive strategies,social-affective strategies)in academic contexts.Additionally,the degree to which self-efficacy influences the use of reading strategies as well as dimensions of reading strategies were also elaborately analyzed.The results of the study were as follows: in the first place,English postgraduates’ self-efficacy was generally at a high level.Particularly,they felt relatively more efficacious on academic courses than on academic activities.The use of overall reading strategies in academic contexts maintained a high level.They more frequently used cognitive strategies,followed by social-affective strategies,and they least used metacognitive strategies.Remarkably,postgraduates seldom applied the cognitive strategy like “adopting technical software like ENDNOTE to help manage the literatures read” for managing literature,which were further confirmed by interview findings.In the second place,there was a statistically significant correlation between self-efficacy and overall reading strategies in academic contexts,suggesting that the more self-efficacious students felt,the more they tended to use strategies in academicreading.Particularly,self-efficacy strongest correlated with metacognitive strategies,followed by cognitive strategies,and social-affective strategies.Interviewees also reflected that they became more self-assured of their abilities and coming tasks as they frequently employed more meta-cognitive strategies.In the third place,certain strong linear relationships were found between English postgraduates’ self-efficacy and overall reading strategies as well as sub-dimensions of reading strategies in academic contexts.Self-efficacy would in a way influence the use of reading strategies.Remarkably,postgraduates’ self-efficacy could greatly predicate their use of metacognitive strategies,with a strongest linear regression.The study not only provides broader perspectives for academic reading and enriches the contents of reading strategies research,but exerts a pedagogical significance on the improvement of postgraduates’ academic reading awareness and teachers’ strategical teaching in academic reading as well. |
