Investigating EFL Readers’ Lexical Problems and Word-Solving Strategies in Foreign Language Reading: An Exploratory Study

Despite the fact that past research on word-solving strategies in various language learning contexts has been extensive over the years, there is still need for more recent empirical research inspecting the types of lexical problems students perceive and report in foreign language reading, and word-attack strategies often deployed to overcome emerging word-level problems in reading tasks. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate the word-solving strategies Saudi EFL students reported using to overcome lexical problems in English reading texts. To meet this objective, a random sample of 90 Saudi EFL female students in a secondary school participated in this exploratory study. A self-devised word-solving strategy questionnaire and retrospective interviews were administered to collect the study data. The 23-questionnaire items were constructed to measure five main categories of word strategies students perceived using to overcome lexical problems in reading tasks. The study findings revealed that Saudi secondary students used different types of word-solving strategies but at varying levels. Specifically, the study found that social strategies were most frequently used, followed by skipping strategies, support reading strategies, dictionary-use strategies, and word-guessing strategies respectively. Pedagogical implications of the study findings and its recommendations were presented and discussed.