Motivation and L2 Reading Behaviors of University Students in Japan and Sri Lanka <Article>

Although numerous studies (Wigfield, 1997; Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997; Guthrie et al., 1999; Wang & Guthrie, 2000, 2004 ) have been done on motivation and L1 reading behaviors, there exists relatively little research on reading motivation in the field of L2 reading. Motivation theorists conceive of motivation as a multifaceted construct with different constituents. According to Grabe & Stroller (2002), students in both L1 and L2 reading contexts may possess different individual motivations for reading as well as differing sense of self-esteem, interest, involvement with reading and emotional responses to reading. Therefore, this article describes an investigation of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in L2 reading among 247 Japanese and Sri Lankan university students using a Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ), a background questionnaire, and a reading comprehension test. The relationship between motivational constructs and other variables was investigated using Pearson Correlation Analysis and Principal Component Analysis (CPA) in SPSS Version 13.0 in order to examine interrelationships among items in the MRQ. While the results show interesting findings, they provide evidence that L2 readers possess both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational goals simultaneously, as L1 research indicates. Moreover, results of the analysis suggest that motivation in L2 reading can be validly assessed using the intrinsic-extrinsic reading motivational model proposed by Wang & Guthrie (2004).