Reading comprehension, stress and motivation in first year university students studying in French

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between reading comprehension, stress and motivation among three different language groups of university students studying in French at Faculté Saint-Jean, University of Alberta. The three groups were (1) Anglophones, (2) Francophones (outside Quebec) and (3) Quebecois. The most significant finding in the quantitative analysis of this study was that students took longer to read equivalent texts and scored lower on reading comprehension in their non-dominant language be it English or French. There were significant differences found in English reading comprehension scores and on French Reading time among the groups. There are high correlations between the students' dominant and non-dominant reading scores and time taken to read two equivalent psychology texts. In the qualitative analysis it was found that time and effort taken to read in a non-dominant language are stated as major stressors for all three groups. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)