Volume 7-6 December 2011.

PDF E-book version

Title
A Survey of Iranian EFL University Students’ Motivation
and Interest in Intensive Reading

Authors

Mahboobeh Mahboobi (Ph.D. Candidate)
School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

Sarjit Kaur (Ph.D.)
School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

Biodata

Mahboobeh Mahboobi was a postgraduate student at the school of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia from 2007 to 2009 and she has a M.A. in Linguistics and English Language Studies. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation in Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Sarjit Kaur is Associate Professor and Programme Chairperson of the English Language Studies Section at the School of Humanities in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Widely published, her research areas include Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), workplace literacies, postgraduate education and policy research in higher education. She is also an Associate Research Fellow of Malaysia’s National Higher Education Research Institute (NaHERI) based at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of motivation and interest in intensive reading and the relationship between Iranian university students’ motivation and interest in intensive reading. In doing so, a modified 54-item reliable survey which was adapted from previous studies was administered to Tehran University students. In this study, 300 sets of questionnaires were distributed among respondents who were university students at the University of Tehran. Based on 213 completed questionnaires, the results showed that both motivation and interest play a very important role in intensive reading among Iranian EFL university students. The results of descriptive analysis showed that motivation plays an important role in the intensive reading of Iranian EFL university students. Among the dimensions of motivation, the importance of reading, reading efficacy and communicative orientation have a significant relationship with perceived interest. The results of descriptive analysis also revealed that sources of interest are the most significant components of interest in intensive reading as situational variables of interest help students in their intensive reading. The constructs of ‘importance of reading’ and ‘communicative orientation’ have a positive relationship with perceived interest but the relationship between reading efficacy and perceived interest is negative. The constructs ‘importance of reading’ and ‘communicative orientation’ also have a significant relationship with sources of interest. The main implication of this study is that EFL teachers in Iran need to motivate their English majors at university to read more materials in English to further improve their reading skills and techniques in intensive reading.

         Keywords:Motivation, Interest, Intensive reading, Iranian EFL students.