An Investigation of the Contextual and Psychological Factors that Affect Reading

Abstract

Reading is a process that does not only depend on reading strategies and abilities but is affected by contextual and psychological factors. A number of learners are unable to grasp the meaning conveyed by reading texts because they are hindered by those factors, this study aimed to provide further proofs about the problem of reading comprehension in English as a Foreign Language for pupils at the secondary school. Therefore, it intended to investigate some contextual and psychological factors that were suspected of having an influence on the pupils’ inability to comprehend written texts in English. We hypothesised that pupils’ performance is actually weak because of contextual and psychological factors; the descriptive method was used to approach this issue through a case study. Data were collected from a sample of secondary school teachers (n= 6) and another one from learners (n=30) in Abderrahmane Ibn Aouf Secondary School in M’sila through two questionnaires. Data analysis showed that learners do really suffer from great problems in reading comprehension and the teachers’ responses confirmed that psychological and contextual factors are among the ones influencing learners reading abilities. Thus, these sides need to be taken into consideration to enable learners to develop their reading competencies