Junior high school students’ beliefs and attitudes towards reading comprehension

Abstract

"Over the last decades, research and interest have increased regarding beliefs affecting students’ language learning processes. This is due to the fact that beliefs determine the behaviour on an individual and, as a consequence, the development of negative or positive attitudes towards reading comprehension. Since reading is a necessary activity in the foreign language classroom which involves motivation and positive attitudes, the purpose of the present paper was to investigate students’ beliefs and attitudes towards reading comprehension. This study was carried out in a public junior high school in the City of Puebla, Mexico. The research data was collected through a questionnaire administered to 24 students on an average age of 13 years old. Findings revealed that 57.1 per cent of the students do not like reading. Some of the main reasons why students dislike reading were unknown vocabulary, pronunciation and nervousness. In contrast, 62.5 per cent related the word “enjoyable” to reading; likewise, 21.9 per cent expressed that they would be more encouraged in reading, if readings were interesting."