Inferential reading comprehension in university students; Comprensión lectora inferencial en estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

Inferential reading comprehension is a deeper and broader level of conception of ideas that requires an attribution of meanings, relating them to personal experiences and prior knowledge that the reader has about the text. The objective of the present study is to identify and compare the level of inferential reading comprehension of Peruvian university freshmen. For data collection, the CLOZE Reading Comprehension test, which is a structured test (multiple choice) of reading comprehension of 06 texts and 60 inferential questions (lexical, causal, macrostructural, specific and author’s intention) was applied to 90 students, whose ages range from 16 to 18 years old, newly admitted (2021) of three private universities in the city of Arequipa, Peru. As a result, it was observed that women presented higher levels of reading comprehension. In turn, students from private schools and older students have a better understanding of different types of texts. However, significant reading comprehension difficulties were observed in scientific, literary and humanistic texts. It is concluded that, on average, the subjects who participated in this study show a low level of reading comprehension at the beginning of their university academic period © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.