Causal Relationship amongst Epistemic Beliefs, Motivations, and Strategies Use in Reading for EFL Students

Abstract:

Motivated by the need for more empirical evidence on factors affecting English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading enhancement, this paper aims at elucidating causal relationship between reading epistemic beliefs, reading motivations, and strategies use in reading. The present study provides an evaluative perspective with regard to the directions of influences among them.  A model that reflects the hypothesis that epistemic beliefs affect strategies use in reading to read which are strengthened by reading motivation is constructed and tested. The structural equation modeling (SEM) confirms this hypothesis, which implies interdependences across the factors as promising resources that can be utilized in EFL reading context for comprehension development. A few important implications for EFL reading instruction and research can be drawn from the results.