Interest and Prior Knowledge in Second Language Reading Comprehension

The influence of interest on learning is well-established in educational psychology, but little interest research has been conducted in the field of second language (L2) learning. This study examined interest and an associated factor, prior knowledge, in relation to reading comprehension. Intermediate-level sophomore students in an English program at a private university in Japan (N = 23) rated their interest in and knowledge of 11 topics. Correlations between interest and prior knowledge were significant only for topics related to famous individuals. Participants read expository texts about selections from the topic list with high interest-high prior knowledge (HH), high interest-low prior knowledge (HL), and low interest-low prior knowledge (LL), then took multiple-choice comprehension tests. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedures revealed significant differences between scores for the HH text and those of the HL and LL texts. Implications of correlations and test score differences are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.