Toward a multicomponent model of interest and L2 reading: Sources of interest, perceived situational interest, and comprehension

Abstract

With 104 advanced second language (L2) readers, this investigation seeks to construct a multicomponent model of interest and L2 reading. Sources of interest (SI) refer to variables that induce feelings of interest in a text. Perceived interest (PI) refers to the feeling of interest itself (Schraw, Bruning, & Svoboda, 1995). A factor analysis revealed the following 5 SI in order of variance: (1) cohesion (31%), (2) prior knowledge (13%), (3) engagement (12%), (4) ease of recollection (10%), and (5) emotiveness (6%). PI accounted for 68% of the total sample variation. Of the 5 factors on the SI questionnaire, three were uniquely related to PI: cohesion, engagement, and ease of recollection. PI was related to sentence completion items and multiple choice items, but not recall. Five factors from the SI questionnaire were regressed on comprehension scores after first removing the variance explained by perceived interest. Ease of recollection positively related to all 3 comprehension tasks. Findings provide a construct of interest for L2 reading and serve as an attempt to develop an instrument to assess different sources of interest in L2 reading. A preliminary understanding of these dimensions of interest as predictors of L2 reading comprehension is presented.