EFL Learners` Beliefs about Reading and Language Proficiency

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a study that examines Taiwanese EFL college students` beliefs about reading in English as well as the relationships between their beliefs and language proficiency. A total of 297 college freshmen responded to a 9-item questionnaire (the English Reader Belief Questionnaire). The results indicated that three models of beliefs about reading (i.e., transmission, personal engagement, and personal interpretation beliefs) were utilized among Taiwanese college students when reading in English. Participants of this study also varied in their implicit models of reading. Specifically, students from the low-proficiency group tended to view reading more commonly as a process of the transmission of meaning from text, whereas students from the high-proficiency group tended to see reading more commonly as involving personal and affective engagement with text. However, no significant difference was found between the two groups in the category of personal interpretation.

本篇研究報告主旨為檢視臺灣大學生的英語閱讀信念模式，以及探討他們的閱讀信念和英語能力之間的關係。研究參與者為297位來自兩所不同學校的大一新生，研究方法採問卷調查，研究工具為英語閱讀信念量表及背景資料問卷。研究結果顯示臺灣大學生在閱讀英語時，會採用三個閱讀信念模式，分別為知識傳遞模式、自我投入模式、自我解讀模式。此外，學生的英語閱讀信念模式會隨語言能力高低有所不同，低成就的學生比較常採用知識傳遞的閱讀模式，而高成就的學生比較容易採用自我情感投入的閱讀模式。然而在針對第三類閱讀信念－自我解讀模式，這兩組學生的表現則並無顯著不同。