Modeling the Relationships of Reading Motivation and Reading Amount with Reading Comprehension of the EFL Students

Abstract This study aims at modeling the relationships of reading motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation on reading amount and reading comprehension of the EFL students at the university level. Keywords: reading motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, reading comprehension, EFL students, SEM. To this end, 285 students at university level spread at three different universities in Indonesia who had taken and passed Reading courses were involved as the sample of the study. The students were provided with the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) to obtain their reading motivation, Reading Amount Scale (RAS) to know their frequency and length of time in reading, and Reading Comprehension Test (CRT) to identify their reading comprehension. The data obtained from the instruments were primarily analyzed by utilizing AMOS version 23 to answer the general hypothesis stating that the EFL students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations directly or indirectly have a significant relationship with their reading amount and reading comprehension. The results of the analysis reveal that EFL students possess both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation in reading English materials. The EFL students have a multifaceted construct of reading motivations to achieve their needs and goals in reading activities. Moreover, the EFL students’ intrinsic motivation indirectly contributes to reading comprehension through reading amount. Meanwhile, their extrinsic motivation directly contributes to their reading comprehension. Relating to the role of the reading amount as a mediating variable in the model, the study discovers that reading amount plays different roles in mediating the relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations with reading comprehension. On the one hand, the reading amount plays a full or complete mediation role in mediating the relationship between intrinsic motivation and reading comprehension. On the other hand, the reading amount does not carry a mediation role in the relationship between extrinsic motivation and reading comprehension. This indicates that intrinsic motivation contributes to reading comprehension merely through reading amount, however, extrinsic motivation contributes to reading comprehension without mediation or it directly contributes to reading comprehension. Thus, the study concludes that if the students have a high intrinsic motivation to read in English, they tend to read more and more and in turn, develop their reading comprehension. Meanwhile, if the students have a high extrinsic motivation to read in English, their reading comprehension tends to go higher.  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:Table Normal;mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0cm;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times New Roman,serif;}