INFLUENTIAL SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES READING MOTIVATION

The study intended to examine the conditions under which Iranian students were more motivated to engage in English for academic purposes (EAP) reading activities and identify possible factors underlying learners’ indicated motivation for EAP reading. To this end, five student informants were asked to talk about their own EAP reading experiences and discuss their reading preferences in light of pedagogical issues. Based on interviews with the student informants; a questionnaire containing 18 statements describing various situations was constructed and distributed to 422 medical students. The findings indicate that learners were more willing to read when there were no translated versions of the textbooks available; Special terminologies were explained; and English vocabulary was taught. Also, Text facilitation and Reading requirements and teacher facilitation were identified as factors underlying students’ EAP reading motivation. Significant differences were found for male and female participants. The research may be an aid to those teachers and instructors who wish to enhance their students’ motivation to read.