This study aimed to investigate the linguistic knowledge aspect in academic reading, the challenges and the deployed strategies by English major undergraduates at a Jordanian institution of higher education. The importance of the study is attributed to the importance of the academic reading at university which is closely related to the academic achievement across the different academic disciplines. Data were collected by administering a questionnaire among English major students at the Hashemite University in the year 2016. The number of the respondents was 297. The data collected were analysed for its descriptive statistics, Post Hoc Tests, Scheffe Method, and frequency using the SPSS software. Cronbach’s alpha of the reliability coefficient was .93 to the difficulties of reading and .87 was to the strategies deployed by the students, which indicated high internal consistency reliability. Results showed that students faced difficulties related to their insufficient knowledge of text-structure, constructing meaning, and fluent reading. The study revealed that students most employed strategies were the metacognitive followed by the social ones. The cognitive strategies were the least to be used among the students. The study provided some pedagogical implications to be considered.