Intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation among good and poor readers

McGeown, S. P., Norgate, R., & Warhurst, A. (2012) Exploring intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation among very good and very poor readers. Educational Research, 54(3), 309-322.

Background

Research has consistently provided evidence of an association between children’s intrinsic reading motivation and their reading skills. However, there seem to be inconsistencies in the relationship between extrinsic reading motivation and their reading skills. Likewise, little has been done to investigate whether good readers, as compared to their less successful peers, show different relationships between their reading skills, reading motivation and reading efficacy.

Aims

The purpose of this study was to determine where there were differences between good and poor readers in the relationships between their reading skills, intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation, and reading efficacy.

Sample

The full sample comprised a total of 1,811 students, aged seven to 13 years, from 15 primary and two secondary schools in the south of England. The sample was tested using the NFER-Nelson Group Reading Test II, from which the top and bottom 10% were identified as good (n= 194) and poor (n= 188) readers, respectively.

Method

Students’ reading skills were assessed using the reading test mentioned above while their reading motivation and efficacy were measured using the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire respectively. Statistical analyses were carried out on the collected data.

Findings

When the whole 1,811 sample was examined, the participants’ intrinsic motivation was found to be significantly associated with their reading skills while their extrinsic motivation was not. However, the good reader and poor reader groups were found to differ significantly in their levels of intrinsic reading motivation and reading efficacy although not of extrinsic reading motivation. In the case of the good readers, only extrinsic reading motivation correlated significantly with reading skill. Neither extrinsic nor intrinsic reading motivation correlated significantly with reading skill among the poor readers. It was also revealed that the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of motivations were more closely correlated among poor readers than good readers.

Implications

Based on the findings, the authors postulated that the relationship between reading motivation and reading skill might not be as straightforward as was commonly thought. Since little variation in intrinsic motivation was found among the good readers, the authors speculated that extrinsic motivators might have been giving some high ability students an edge in outperforming their other high ability peers. Further research with children identified as excellent readers may be useful in understanding the relationship between extrinsic reading motivation and reading skill.

Original article retrieved from Taylor and Francis online.