Abstract:

Currently, the demand for increasing reading comprehension development is grading rapidly. Unavoidably learners need to enhance their reading competence and be able to work with more complex and new text information. Apparently, learners face huge problems in reading comprehension whether it is in their mother tongue or a foreign language they are learning. The purpose of the study is to investigate foreign language reading comprehension in relation to the variable need for structure. Need for structure represents a categorisation activity of an individual, specifically, how they process the information, if they have a need to simplify or generalise or how tolerant they are to ambiguity of the information. The aim of the current investigation is to find relationships among the foreign language reading comprehension development (English, German) and the selected variables desire for structure (simple foreign language information processing), response to lack of structure (response to cognitive burden, response to unpredictable situations). The sample was designed from 112 university students, and the methods of Personal Need for Structure Scale (Thomson et al., 2001), achievement tests were used. The tests (English and German languages) were designed to test the competencies in both languages based on the standards of the international design ISED 3, levels B1/B2. The results showed a negative correlation between the desire for the need for structure and foreign language reading comprehension.

Keywords:

Reading Comprehension, Foreign Language Learning, Need for Structure, Psychological Factors, Tolerance of Ambiguity.