Relationships among Reading Anxiety, Reading Processing, and Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Despite the evidence of an association between foreign language (FL) reading anxiety and reading comprehension, only a few studies have investigated how FL reading anxiety interacts with the reading process. This study examined how people with different anxiety levels approach reading tasks differently; that is, the relationships among foreign language reading anxiety, cognitive interference, reading strategy use, and the effects of these constructs on actual reading comprehension. Participants (N=265) were Korean adolescent EFL learners. From analyses of their responses to FL reading anxiety scale, Cognitive Interference Questionnaire (CIQ), a strategy inventory for reading comprehension, and reading comprehension tasks, results suggested that anxiety played a critical role in the interplay of attention and reading strategy use, which were associated with comprehension. Highly anxious students who were occupied with off-task thoughts tended to use more local reading strategies while less anxious students were more focused on completing the reading tasks and employed more global reading strategies. Results also suggested that the significant predictors of reading comprehension were FL reading anxiety as well as the CIQ and Global strategies, which indicated that the less anxious students who were more focused during reading, and those who employed more Global strategy scored higher in reading comprehension.