Publications
Publication details [#11697]
Stranovská , Eva , Silvia Hvozdíková and Dáša Munková . 2014. Personal need for structure and reading comprehensionina a foreign language. STUDIA PSYCHOLOGICA 56 (3) : 199–214. 16 pp. URL
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
ISBN
393320
Abstract
This study aims to examine the existing relations between personal need for structure, desire for structure and response to lack of structure, and linguistic variables (reading comprehension in foreign language and language proficiency). Its major objective is to determine differences in the scores of variables which have been analyzed in two categories: foreign language (EN, DE) and faculty (pf, ff, fpv, combi). In order to accomplish such a goal, 221 university students at CPU in Nitra took part in the research. The research material included the PNS scale (Thomson et al., 2001) and foreign language competence tests. Considering the Faculty of Arts students, the results suggest that there is a negative correlation between the desire for structure and the reading comprehension skill. In terms of the Faculty of Education students, the results indicate that the existing connection between the need for structure and the years of foreign language study is negative. Statistics demonstrated relevant differences between the students majoring in Arts and those majoring in Natural Sciences concerning the personal need for structure and response to lack of structure.