motivation and its relationship with reading comprehension ability among iranian undergraduate students

Studies in reading strategies bring together the assumption that individual characteristics may influence reading performance; different readers may process the same text in different ways, depending on their purposes, motivation, attitudes, interests and background knowledge. the research aims to study the possible relationship between iranian undergraduate learners' motivation and attitude towards reading comprehension. therefore, a total number of 285 participants from six different fields of study, social sciences, math, primary education, chemistry, biology and persian literature took part in this study. the researchers gave the instruments over a 2-day period; the language proficiency test was given on day one, the motivation for reading questionnaire (mrq), reading attitudes questionnaire (raq) and the reading comprehension test on day two with one-week interval. participants’ responses to the reading motivation and attitude statements, reading comprehension questions, and english language proficiency questions were analyzed through a multiple regression, one-way anova, t-test and correlation. the findings indicated reading motivations and attitudes contribute to better reading comprehension among the subjects. it was also demonstrated that the participants' discipline was a significant contributing factor to the relationship between reading motivation, attitude and reading comprehension ability.

Motivation and its Relationship with Reading Comprehension Ability among Iranian Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this study was to promote Iranian EFL learners’ reading literacy which is a worldwide concern. The decline in reading motivation that is typically observed in most Iranian universities is thus a cause for serious concern for Iranian EFL learners. Therefore, a total number of 285 participants from six different fields of study: social sciences, math, primary education, chemistry, biology and Persian literature took part in this study. Participants’ responses to the reading motivation statements, reading comprehension questions, and English language proficiency questions were analyzed through a KruskalWallis test, Ttest, ANOVA, and correlation. The findings indicated that learners with higher motivation in reading comprehension performed much better in reading comprehension than other learners with lower motivation. It was also demonstrated that the participants’ discipline was a significant contributing factor to the relationship between reading motivation and reading comprehension ability. The findings further proved that the higher the students’ proficiency level, the higher their reading motivation level. In sum, the present study indicated conclusively that there are different dimensions of reading motivation which relate differentially to the participants’ reading comprehension ability.