Abstract

Basic English reading comprehension serves as an essential foundation enabling first-year engineering students at Hanoi Open University to effectively access modern scientific and technological materials. Employing a mixed-methods design, this study examines students' reading proficiency, processing habits, primary language barriers, and technological tendencies. Findings indicate that most students exhibit limited reading competence, primarily hindered by deficient foundational vocabulary, difficulty handling complex sentences, and a persistent habit of word-by-word translation reliant on automated tools. Concurrently, the study highlights students' proactive adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for vocabulary lookup and syntactic clarification. Consequently, pedagogical solutions emphasizing active reading strategies combined with guided AI utilization are proposed to foster learners' sustainable autonomous learning capabilities.

Keywords: Reading comprehension skills, general English, language barriers, engineering students, Hanoi Open University, Artificial Intelligence (AI).