Abstract:
This thesis has two main goals. First, the relative contribution to foreign language reading comprehension of the following individual-difference variables is explored: the reader̕s prior knowledge on the text content, topic interest, linguistic proficiency in English, gender, motivation to read in English, and metacognitive awareness in English. Second, the relationship between the contribution to foreign language reading comprehension of these individual-difference variables and text difficulty is investigated. 66 students studying English for academic purposes at the Boğaziçi University School of Foreign Languages took part inthe study. Data for the study were collected through topic interest and prior knowledge tests prepared for each text (one intermediate, one advanced-level text), a reading motivation questionnaire, and a metacognitive awareness questionnaire. The participants̕ level of reading comprehension was assessed through recall protocol. Data were analyzed through hierarchical multiple regression procedures. Results indicated that the following individual-difference variables, in order of significance, accounted for 54% of thevariability in the English reading comprehension of the participants: linguistic proficiency in English, motivation to read in English, prior knowledge of the text content. Besides, it was found that the relative contribution to foreign language reading comprehension of individual-difference variables (i.e.: prior knowledge, topic interest, gender, motivation to read, and metacognitive awareness) was influenced by the difficulty level of the text.
