Eighth graders’ expository text comprehension: do motivational aspects add to cognitive skills?

The present study examined whether ten motivations to read expository texts moderated the effects of cognitive skills on eighth graders’ expository text comprehension, while accounting for the main effects of cognitive skills. Furthermore, it was examined whether the effect of motivational dimensions on expository text comprehension differed between monolingual and bilingual Dutch students, and between poor and good readers. Hundred fifty-two eighth graders took tests measuring their expository text comprehension, sentence reading fluency, linguistic knowledge, metacognitive knowledge and motivations to read expository texts. None of ten motivational aspects did moderate the effect of cognitive skills on expository text comprehension. Furthermore, there were no differences between monolingual and bilingual Dutch students, or between poor and good readers, in terms of the relationship between motivational dimensions and expository text comprehension. Differences between our findings and results from other studies are interpreted in the context of measurement specificity and the school system.