The impact of cultural background on the reading behaviours of international students in higher education

It is the investigation of the cultural impacts on reading behaviour of international students enrolled in higher education and interaction of cultural matrices, educational systems and various learning modes. Reading is a basic step to academic success and the international students have difficulties on how to approach reading expectations of the host institutions. Another cultural variable analysed by the research is such like language proficiency, previous experience with critical reading activities and effects of culturally specific reading habits and practices on course grades. Exploring the trends in reading strategies, level of understanding, and attitude to academic texts, the research analyses the data obtained with the help of surveys and interviews of students of various international populations. Findings indicate that cultural aspects are a very loud factor in the interest of students in what they are reading and their learning experience. The study shows that to have inclusivity and learning outcome, recognition of culturally responsive teaching approaches, as well as the need to have specific reading programs and cross-cultural training of the teacher, is on demand. Lastly, the study is a contribution to the existing debates on the discourse of internationalization of higher education with practical consequences of enhancing the academic integration of international students to institutions. There is a necessity to reconsider the pedagogy to incorporate diversity in cultural views, in a bid to portray academic achievement equitability, in a globalized learning scheme.