The Effect of Motivation to Read in English on Reading Strategy Use and Reading Ability in EGP and ESP

This study attempts to find out if level of motivation to Read in English would affect reading strategy use and reading ability in EGP and ESP, differently. For this purpose, forty university students majoring in basic sciences took a motivation to read questionnaire and were divided into two groups of high and low according to their score obtained above and below the mean. Then, the two groups were given two reading comprehension tests, one in EGP and another in ESP as well as a strategy questionnaire to be answered following the EGP and ESP reading tests. Analysis of data showed level of motivation to read did not affect strategy use in EGP and ESP reading tasks, differently. However, it was shown that motivation to read affected only the EGP reading ability differently, and no significant difference was observed between the two groups in ESP reading ability. It seems though motivation to read as an affective factors is important to be boosted in EGP reading tasks, specific knowledge in a given discipline at an academic setting makes up for low motivation to read effect