The effects of making reading inferences on mastery goals, self-esteem and TOEIC reading comprehension

The purpose of the study is to investigate if making reading inferences increases mastery goal orientation, self-esteem and reading comprehension. We employed a randomized controlled pretest-posttest group design to examine if learning to make inferences can help students with reading comprehension and intrinsic motivation. 2nd year undergraduate students (n=58) at Kookje College in South Korea participated in the study. The experimental group underwent making inference training while the control group did not. All students were required to fill out questionnaires based on mastery goal and self-esteem. The results indicated that there was a significant time by group interaction for self-esteem. Control group scores decreased pre to post, whereas experimental group scores increased from pre to post. For the mastery goals there was no significant effect of group on the pre-post scores. Because Kookje College is a lower tier performing school, the majority of students may have had lower levels of meta-cognition compared to their higher ranking tier counterparts. Students with low metacognition levels may struggle with comprehension and understanding and may require more time to full grasp new learning strategies.