Omani Students’ Attitudes towards EFL Reading between School and University Foundation Programs: A bridge or a gap?

Using questionnaires administered to 1114 school students and 317 university foundationprogram students, the study aims to investigate students’ attitudes towards English as aforeign language (EFL) reading in the two educational contexts: post-basic schools and universityfoundation programs. The study also explores the extent to which students feel school hasprepared them to the reading requirements of their university foundation programs. The studyrevealed that there were significant differences between school students and university foundationprogram students in the cognitive and affective dimensions of reading attitude but therewere no significant differences in behavioural attitudes. Students also believed that they couldnot transfer the reading skills they acquired at post-basic education to the English classes at thefoundation program because reading is different in the two educational contexts. The studymakes a number of pedagogic and administrative recommendations to help bridge the gap betweenEFL reading in schools and universities.