A Study of Factors Affecting EFL Tertiary Students’ Reading Comprehension Ability

Abstract

The objectives of the current study were 1) to identify the most and the least affecting internal factors on the Thai EFL tertiary learners’ reading comprehension ability, 2) to identify the most and the least affecting external factors on the Thai EFL tertiary learners’ reading comprehension ability, and 3) to compare the affecting internal and external factors on the Thai EFL tertiary learners’ reading comprehension ability. The participants of the study were 19 EFL tertiary students majoring in English for International Communication (EIC) in the Faculty of Business Administration and Liberal Arts at Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna Phitsanulok. The research instrument was a questionnaire with a three-point Likert scale. The gathered data were statistically analyzed to find the mean score and standard deviation. The results of the study revealed that considering the internal factors, the participants’ linguistic knowledge (=2.74) had more impact on their reading comprehension ability than their perceptions (=2.54). The most affecting sub-internal factor was the participants’ background knowledge of the reading content (=2.89), while the least affecting sub-internal factor was the participants’ perception of reading difficulty (=2.26). Regarding the external factors, the three external factors, namely teacher influence (=2.54), family influence (=2.49), and environment (=2.32), did not show a significantly different impact on the participants’ reading comprehension ability. The most affecting sub-external factor was family members’ encouragement (=2.89), while the least affecting sub-external factor was family members’ awareness of the importance of English reading and provision of English-writing books (=2.11). The comparison of the internal and external factors showed that the internal factors (=2.64) affected the participants’ reading comprehension ability more than the external factors (=2.45).