A comparative study on the use of four reading strategies in English reading across humanities and science disciplines

This study aims to explore the use of four reading strategies among students of humanities and science disciplines during English reading. While existing literature confirms discipline-specific cognitive differences resulting from field training, the relationship between academic discipline and reading strategy use remains empirically inconsistent. Therefore, the present study aims to compare the use and preference of students across humanities and science disciplines regarding scanning, predicting, visualizing and summarizing. Questionnaires were distributed to 40 humanities students and 40 science students, and answers were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results show significant disciplinary differences in strategy use, with humanities students demonstrating greater competence in scanning and predicting, while science students showed adeptness in visualizing. While no significant differences emerged in strategy preference, the findings suggest that strategy facilitation is mediated by three key factors: Efficiency considerations, Language proficiency levels, and Discipline-specific norms. The results emphasize the role of linguistic competence in reading strategy use and the importance of discipline-specific strategy instruction to reduce field-specific cognitive disparities.