This study aimed to determine the cause of the difficulty of reading skill acquisition that affects the study habit of 221 EFL freshmen at 7 universities in Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. This study was expected to contribute to lessen if not eradicate the reading weaknesses of the EFL freshmen with a reading enhancement program. The study combined utilized descriptive method and correlational technique. The finding revealed that students’ level of competence in reading comprehension is merely the state of being literal in dimension. From this finding, it is recognized that EFL freshmen are only easy to understand what they read at the low-level type of understanding. Reading comprehension with cognitive evaluation will be an obstacle for them to go over. Reading comprehension involves critical thinking and scientific reasoning. Therefore, it is advisable that the programs should be designed to encourage these two factors with a variety of genres of reading comprehension. Besides, it is better to expose students with selected materials that meet the demand of students in the area of English language communication. More diversified activities and strategies should be taken into account to draw the interest of EFL freshmen.

Keywords: : English reading exposure; Integration; Literal Comprehension; Evaluation; Interpretation