Abstract
The present study examined whether ten motivations to read
expository texts moderated the effects of cognitive skills on eighth graders’
expository text comprehension, while accounting for the main effects of
cognitive skills. Furthermore, it was examined whether the effect of
motivational dimensions on expository text comprehension differed between
monolingual and bilingual Dutch students, and between poor and good readers.
Hundred fifty-two eighth graders took tests measuring their expository text
comprehension, sentence reading fluency, linguistic knowledge, metacognitive
knowledge and motivations to read expository texts. None of ten motivational
aspects did moderate the effect of cognitive skills on expository text
comprehension. Furthermore, there were no differences between monolingual and
bilingual Dutch students, or between poor and good readers, in terms of the
relationship between motivational dimensions and expository text comprehension.
Differences between our findings and results from other studies are interpreted
in the context of measurement specificity and the school system.
Eighth graders’ expository text comprehension
