The ability to read and interpret textbooks and other assigned material is a critical component of success at university level. Therefore, the aims of this study are twofold: to evaluate the reading levels of first-year students when they first enter the university to determine how adequately prepared they are for university reading. It is also to find out if there will be any significant improvement after going through the academic literacy course offered to first-year students. The participants were 51 first-year undergraduate humanities students enrolled in the Communication and Academic Literacy course at the University of Botswana. The data were collected through a reading test adopted from Zulu which was administered at the beginning of the first semester. The same test was administered at the end of the semester after the students had gone through the academic literacy course to see if there was any difference in performance. The findings of this study indicate that there is a mixed and wide variation of students reading competency levels when students first enter the university and that a significant number of first-year entrants are inadequately prepared for university reading.

中文翻译：

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博茨瓦纳大学一年级学生的阅读能力：一个案例研究

阅读和解释教科书及其他指定材料的能力是大学水平上取得成功的关键因素。因此，本研究的目的是双重的：评估一年级学生首次进入大学时的阅读水平，以确定他们为大学阅读做好充分准备的情况。它还旨在找出在为一年级学生提供的学术素养课程之后是否会有显着改善。参与者是博茨瓦纳大学的交流与学术素养课程的51名一年级本科人文学科学生。数据是通过第一学期开始时从Zulu接受的阅读测试收集的。学生们完成了学术素养课程后，在学期末进行了相同的测试，以查看其表现是否存在差异。这项研究的结果表明，当学生首次进入大学时，学生的阅读能力水平存在多种多样的变化，并且大量的一年级新生对大学阅读的准备不足。