Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university

This study investigated the relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance according to background variables (i.e., age, gender,discipline, and duration of the programme). The data was collected from 100 international students who enrolled in the Tertiary English Program...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Dialami, Shiva
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2013
Subjects:	Reading comprehension - Malaysia Reading (Higher education) - Malaysia English language - Textbooks for foreign speakers
Online Access:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/41389/1/FBMK%202013%2033R.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	my-upm-ir.41389
record_format	uketd_dc
spelling	my-upm-ir.413892016-02-12T04:27:37Z Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university 2013-10 Dialami, Shiva This study investigated the relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance according to background variables (i.e., age, gender,discipline, and duration of the programme). The data was collected from 100 international students who enrolled in the Tertiary English Programme (TEP) at University Putra Malaysia (UPM). The participants took the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and reading comprehension tests as pre-test and post-test. This study adopted a correlational design which employs quantitative approaches. The theoretical framework behind this research is Bernhardt‟s compensatory model of L2 reading (2000- 2005), which acknowledges the role of affective factors such as anxiety could help to clarify the existing variance in reading performance. Descriptive statistics, Pearson‟s correlation, one-way ANOVA, paired sample t-test,and independent sample t-test were employed to analyse the data. The findings revealed that there was a medium level of foreign language (FL) reading anxiety (RA) among international students. In addition, a significant negative relationship was found between the FL reading anxiety and FL reading comprehension performance scores. Thus, the high anxiety group gained lower scores on the tests than the moderate or low anxiety group and this could be attributed to the role played by debilitating anxiety. The results showed that FL reading anxiety is related to, but distinguished from, general FL anxiety. Also, there was no significant difference in their FL reading anxiety scores and reading comprehension scores among the different age groups. This means that the students‟ age have no bearing on RA. An insignificant difference was found between the two gender groups in their FLRAS scores. However, gender groups significantly differed in their reading comprehension performance with males performing only slightly better in reading comprehension. In other words, gender does play a significant role in reading comprehension but not in RA. Furthermore, none of the discipline groups (Engineering and non-Engineering) significantly differed from each other in RA and reading comprehension test;therefore, discipline did not play a key role in the participants‟ level of RA and reading comprehension performance. In addition, significant differences were found in participants‟ scores in the pre- and post-test administration of reading comprehension test and FLRAS questionnaire. Therefore, duration has an effect on both the levels of RA and reading comprehension performance of the students. Further studies to investigate the influence of reading anxiety should include other EFL learners from other universities to enable the results to be generalized to the general population and thus examine the reading comprehension performance of students in a more controlled context. Reading comprehension - Malaysia Reading (Higher education) - Malaysia English language - Textbooks for foreign speakers 2013-10 Thesis http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/41389/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/41389/1/FBMK%202013%2033R.pdf application/pdf en public masters Universiti Putra Malaysia Reading comprehension - Malaysia Reading (Higher education) - Malaysia English language - Textbooks for foreign speakers
institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
collection	PSAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	Reading comprehension - Malaysia Reading (Higher education) - Malaysia English language - Textbooks for foreign speakers
spellingShingle	Reading comprehension - Malaysia Reading (Higher education) - Malaysia English language - Textbooks for foreign speakers Dialami, Shiva Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university
description	This study investigated the relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance according to background variables (i.e., age, gender,discipline, and duration of the programme). The data was collected from 100 international students who enrolled in the Tertiary English Programme (TEP) at University Putra Malaysia (UPM). The participants took the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS), the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and reading comprehension tests as pre-test and post-test. This study adopted a correlational design which employs quantitative approaches. The theoretical framework behind this research is Bernhardt‟s compensatory model of L2 reading (2000- 2005), which acknowledges the role of affective factors such as anxiety could help to clarify the existing variance in reading performance. Descriptive statistics, Pearson‟s correlation, one-way ANOVA, paired sample t-test,and independent sample t-test were employed to analyse the data. The findings revealed that there was a medium level of foreign language (FL) reading anxiety (RA) among international students. In addition, a significant negative relationship was found between the FL reading anxiety and FL reading comprehension performance scores. Thus, the high anxiety group gained lower scores on the tests than the moderate or low anxiety group and this could be attributed to the role played by debilitating anxiety. The results showed that FL reading anxiety is related to, but distinguished from, general FL anxiety. Also, there was no significant difference in their FL reading anxiety scores and reading comprehension scores among the different age groups. This means that the students‟ age have no bearing on RA. An insignificant difference was found between the two gender groups in their FLRAS scores. However, gender groups significantly differed in their reading comprehension performance with males performing only slightly better in reading comprehension. In other words, gender does play a significant role in reading comprehension but not in RA. Furthermore, none of the discipline groups (Engineering and non-Engineering) significantly differed from each other in RA and reading comprehension test;therefore, discipline did not play a key role in the participants‟ level of RA and reading comprehension performance. In addition, significant differences were found in participants‟ scores in the pre- and post-test administration of reading comprehension test and FLRAS questionnaire. Therefore, duration has an effect on both the levels of RA and reading comprehension performance of the students. Further studies to investigate the influence of reading anxiety should include other EFL learners from other universities to enable the results to be generalized to the general population and thus examine the reading comprehension performance of students in a more controlled context.
format	Thesis
qualification_level	Master's degree
author	Dialami, Shiva
author_facet	Dialami, Shiva
author_sort	Dialami, Shiva
title	Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university
title_short	Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university
title_full	Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university
title_fullStr	Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university
title_full_unstemmed	Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university
title_sort	reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in english among efl learners in a malaysian university
granting_institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
publishDate	2013
url	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/41389/1/FBMK%202013%2033R.pdf
_version_	1747811866518749184

Reading anxiety and reading comprehension performance in English among EFL learners in a Malaysian university

Similar Items