Factors that affect reading comprehension in expository texts

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships of factors that affect reading comprehension of seventh-grade students as prior knowledge level, vocabulary knowledge level, intrinsic reading motivation and reading strategies both among each other and with success in comprehension of expository texts. The study also aimed to investigate the differences seen in success in comprehension of expository texts based on some demographic variables. The sample of the study was selected from among seventh-grade students who were receiving education in the districts of Battalgazi and Yeşilyurt in the province of Malatya in Turkey during the academic year of 2016-2017. The sample consisted of 538 students at 8 different middle schools which were determined by simple random sampling. In the scope of the study, the data collection tools were the "Reading Comprehension Success Test for Expository Texts," "Prior Knowledge Success Test for Informative Tests," "Vocabulary Success Test" and "Intrinsic Reading Motivation Questionnaire" which were developed by the researcher, a "Personal Information Form" and the "Metacognitive Awareness Inventory of Reading Strategies" which was developed by Karatay (2010). The analysis of the data involved t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation analysis and path analysis. The analyses were carried out by using the SPSS 21 and AMOS 23 statistics software. According to the results of the path analysis in this study, vocabulary knowledge (β=.54; p<.01), prior knowledge (β=.245; p<.01) and intrinsic reading motivation (β=.06; p<.05) variables affected success in reading comprehension in expository texts directly and positively. On the other hand, reading strategies contributed to the success levels of reading comprehension in expository texts indirectly through vocabulary knowledge. Intrinsic reading motivation, prior knowledge, vocabulary knowledge and reading strategies variables explained approximately 55% of the variance in success levels of reading comprehension in expository texts. The variables of gender (η²=,035), status of having received preschool education (η²=,035), frequency of reading books (η²= ,027) and number of books read in the last year (η²=,053) had a small effect on success levels of reading comprehension in expository texts. On the other hand, mother's educational level (η²=,072), father educational level (η²=,083), father's occupation (η²=,074) and number of books at home (η²=,106) had a medium-level effect, while grade point average (η²=,421) had a large effect.