The impact of English reading attitude on students' achievement at a health science university

Abstract

AbstractReading occupies a prominent place in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) as students learn best by engaging with written materials. Positive reading attitudes are believed to affect students' present and future academic success. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of English reading attitudes on students' achievement. A total of 267 first‐year Saudi health science university students were selected to participate in this study during the academic year 2021/2022. The study followed a simple random sampling technique where every students has an equal chance to participate. Two data sources were used: a reading attitude questionnaire administered to students and their cumulative GPA. The questionnaire was adopted from Yamashita (2007) and consisted of 22 items covering five categories: comfort, anxiety, intellectual value, practical value and linguistic value. The study revealed that students were clearly less comfortable and more anxious about reading in English. This had a negative impact on their achievements, especially on the three English courses they had to take that year. The study concluded with some pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.