Effects of Text Modification on Bahir Dar Secondary School Students' Reading Comprehension and Motivation to Read

Abstract

The study explored how modifying texts affects reading comprehension and motivation among Ethiopian secondary school students. 120 students participated, initially taking a reading comprehension pretest and completing a reading motivation questionnaire. Despite differences in (variables related to the study), all groups displayed comparable reading motivation and comprehension. Then the participants were assigned to three groups controlled, simplified, and elaborated) in their intact classes. After intervention, all groups participated in the reading comprehension posttest and reading motivation questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. The study used a one-way ANOVA to examine the effectiveness of modified texts in promoting reading comprehension. Interestingly, the experimental groups demonstrated superior performance on the posttest compared to the control group. This finding indicates that incorporating modified texts into EFL reading instruction can positively influence students' comprehension skills. In addition, the impact of text changes on student reading motivation was assessed using a one-way ANOVA and the results indicated that both elaborated and simplified groups' results were higher than the control group in students reading motivation dimensions (reading efficacy, curiosity, challenge, involvement, and reading work avoidance). However, the control and simplified groups showed nearly similar mean scores in students' reading competitions. This clearly indicated that teaching students with text modification can improve EFL learners' reading motivation.