Achievement Differences and Gender Gaps in Reading Motivation: an Examination of Taiwanese Adolescent Readers of English as A Foreign Language

Abstract

This study has two aims: one is to examine whether or not there are individual differences in motivation to read English as a Foreign Language (EFL) among Taiwanese adolescents, and the other is to scrutinize whether or not a gender gap exists among those readers. A total of 252 adolescents, half of them female and the other half male, participated in the overall study, while eight of them took part in the study`s qualitative portion. The data consisted of background information, scores from an EFL test, questionnaires, and interviews. The results show a significant main effect on EFL reading achievement in all of the eight aspects of reading motivation investigated, as well as a main effect on gender difference in favor of female readers, particularly in their social motivation. These findings imply that struggling EFL readers are likely to suffer from multiple deficiencies in terms of their motives for reading and that teaching motivation in EFL classrooms appears to be crucial, in particular, for those struggling readers.

本研究採用量化及質化方法。目的有二：一則探討動機與閱讀成就的關係；二則性別與閱讀動機的關係。參與者為來自台灣北部252高中生，男女各半。研究資料包括學生背景資料、英語閱讀成績，英語閱讀動機問卷，以及訪談資料。主要研究結果顯示八個層面的閱讀動機與閱讀成就成中度正相關，男女在社會閱讀動機上有顯著的差異。值得注意的是低成就英語閱讀者在閱讀動機八個層面上均顯著低於高成就讀者，提升學習動機成為英語課程設計及教學不可忽視的議題。