The Key Factors Affecting English Reading Comprehension Among Malaysian Students

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the key factors that affect English reading comprehension and to identify the relationship between the level of reading comprehension and the three factors, which are; the influence of first language, the lack of background knowledge and lack of interest. The current study employed stratified random sampling to collect the data from 115 respondents in Higher education Institution in Shah Alam, Malaysia. The participation of respondents was from the division of 15 students from each faculty. A set of MUET (November, 2012) reading paper was used to identify the level of reading comprehension and the booklet of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents. Descriptive statistics used to analyse the data were frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The study found that the key factors that affect reading comprehension are, lack of interest and motivation as well as first language influential. In contrast, the highest agreed factor by respondents is lack of interest and motivation, where the participants have less habit of reading daily, no motivation to read different materials like novels, newspapers, stories and essays.