The Effect of Specific Reader Purpose on Reading Performance
The study began with 2 hypotheses: 1).Students with an assigned purpose in reading will score more highly when questioned about the whole passage than those without.2) Students will score more highly on the questions related to their specific purpose.We tested the 2 hypotheses with a reading comprehension test,a brief questionnaire and some informal interviews.Based on the data obtained from this experiment,we conclude that students who read with an assigned purpose will process the whole passage better than students without.We also found that the effect of a purpose on processing relevant segments is positive,but it can be reduced by factors such as a student's cultural background,lack of relevant experience and attitude about the assigned purpose.