Reading Strategy Use, Including Annotating, and Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Ninth-Grade EFL Students' Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Many Indonesian junior high school students struggle to understand English texts, yet few studies have examined what predicts reading comprehension at this level. This study examined whether reading strategy use, including annotating, and self-efficacy predicted the reading comprehension of ninth-grade EFL students, both separately and jointly. A quantitative correlational design was used with 70 students selected through cluster random sampling from a population of 174 ninth-grade students at a public junior high school in Pematangsiantar, North Sumatra. Data were collected using a 24-item reading strategy questionnaire adapted from the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS), a 28-item self-efficacy questionnaire, and a 25-item multiple-choice reading comprehension test on analytical exposition texts. The data were analyzed with simple and multiple linear regression at α = .05. Reading strategy use alone significantly predicted reading comprehension, R² = .278, F(1, 68) = 26.18, p < .001. When both predictors were entered together, reading strategy use (β = .226, p = .032) and self-efficacy (β = .558, p < .001) each made a significant unique contribution, and together they explained 50.0% of the variance in reading comprehension, F(2, 67) = 33.55, p < .001. Self-efficacy was the stronger predictor. The findings suggest that students' confidence in their reading ability matters at least as much as the strategies they know. EFL teachers are therefore encouraged to combine explicit instruction in annotating and other reading strategies with deliberate efforts to build students' reading self-efficacy.