An Investigation of Reading Attitudes, Motivaiton and Reading Anxiety of EFL Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Reading appears to be a major issue for Thai students. Reading in the second language, in particular, has become a great concern for Thai EFL learners. This study investigated reading attitudes, reading motivation, and reading anxiety of 494 first-year science and non-science Thai undergraduate students who possessed different levels of English language proficiency. Adopting a quantitative approach, the study used Erten and colleagues’ (2010) Foreign Language Reading Attitudes and Motivation Scale (FLRAMS) and Saito and colleagues’ (1999) Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) as research instruments to survey the participants. The findings in this study revealed that there was a significant negative correlation between the participants’ reading attitudes and motivation, and reading anxiety. Moreover, the results showed a significant difference between science major and non-science major students in foreign language reading attitudes, motivation and reading anxiety. The results also showed a significant difference between language proficiency levels in foreign language reading attitudes, motivation and reading anxiety. The study provides implications in reading class management based on students’ disciplines and English language proficiency levels.