A PROPOSED INSTRUMENT TO INVESTIGATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ CRITICAL READING STRATEGY USE IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

This study introduces the Survey of Critical Reading Strategies (SOCRS), a newly developed instrument designed to assess university students’ application of critical reading strategies in English reading comprehension. Conducted among EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students at a university in Vietnam, the study aimed to examine the reliability, validity, and practical relevance of the SOCRS, positioning it as a robust measure of critical reading strategy use. A total of 799 undergraduate students from diverse academic disciplines participated in the study. The reliability of SOCRS was confirmed through Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients, yielding high internal consistency for all three subscales (α=0.85, 0.89, and 0.83) and an overall reliability of α=0.91. The construct validity of SOCRS was established using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), which revealed a clear two-factor structure corresponding to the three stages of critical reading. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test (0.92) and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (p < 0.001) confirmed the adequacy of the sample and the suitability of the factor structure. Additionally, normality assessments using Skewness, Kurtosis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, and Shapiro-Wilk tests supported the appropriateness of the data for statistical analysis. The findings establish SOCRS as a psychometrically robust, reliable, and valid instrument for assessing EFL university students’ critical reading strategies, offering a structured and multidimensional framework that captures students’ strategic engagement with texts throughout all phases of reading. These results highlight its potential not only for diagnostic purposes but also for guiding targeted pedagogical interventions. The study recommends incorporating SOCRS into curricula and further research to strengthen critical reading instruction and foster higher-order thinking skills among EFL learners.