Research questions

To explore the interaction between the reader and the text, a concept of reading as a problem-solving activity was accepted (after Olshavsky 1976/1977). The aim of the analysis was to see what the subjects identified as difficult in their reading and how they coped in such situations, i.e., what solutions they applied. Reading problems were defined as places in students’ reports in which students paused in the text and commented on those moments. Very often students named such reading experiences “difficulties,” e.g., by saying that they did not understand something or found something unclear or disappointing. In many cases, the readers asked themselves questions concerning their reading problems, e.g., “what does it mean?,” “how does this word refer to that one?”.

The following research questions were asked at this stage of the study:

1. – What problems did the students encounter in their reading of the Polish text and in their reading of the English text?

2. – What solutions did they apply to cope with the problems in reading in Polish and in reading in English?

3. – What do the results of the analysis of the students’ problems and solutions indicate about the differences in reading in Polish and reading in English?

Procedures applied in the analysis

To identify students’ problems and solutions, it was necessary to observe how the readers approached the text and to what text signals they reacted; in other words, to look at how the students, in taking advantage of the text, constructed their mental representations of the texts.