Hong Kong senior secondary students’ reading motivation and classical Chinese reading comprehension

• Published in: Reading & writing Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 963 - 982
• Main Author: Lau, Kit-Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-04-2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chinese; Chinese languages; Education; Foreign Countries; Incentives; Language and Literature; Learning environment; Linguistics; Literacy; Motivation; Neurology; Predictor Variables; Psycholinguistics; Reading Achievement; Reading Comprehension; Reading Motivation; Reading Tests; Secondary School Students; Self Efficacy; Social Sciences; Hong Kong; Hong Kong China; China; Reading motivation; Classical Chinese reading; Reading comprehension
• ISSN: 0922-4777; 1573-0905
• DOI: 10.1007/s11145-018-9897-7

This study investigated Hong Kong secondary students’ Classical Chinese (CC) reading comprehension, reading motivation, and the effects of different types of motivation on CC reading. Four hundred forty-eight seniors from four secondary schools in Hong Kong voluntarily completed a CC reading comprehension test and a reading motivation questionnaire. Findings indicated that students’ CC reading performance was unsatisfactory. They had poor self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation in CC reading and read CC texts mainly for extrinsic reasons. While high-achievers had better CC reading comprehension performance and higher extrinsic motivation than low-achievers, they had lower intrinsic motivation. Unlike many previous studies in which intrinsic motivation has been found to be the most optimal type of reading motivation, structural equation modeling indicated that only self-efficacy and extrinsic motivation were significant predictors of students’ CC reading comprehension performance after controlling for achievement level. The relation between CC reading and different types of motivation is discussed in light of the special nature of CC and the learning context of Hong Kong.