The MA dissertation discusses different reader profiles of English as a foreign language amongst the 6th grade students of primary school in Slovenia. In the literature review I defined reading, reading ability, reading models, reading comprehension in the first and foreign language, linguistic and processing differences, individual and experiential differences, socio-cultural and institutional differences and the impact of the first language on foreign language learning. Furthermore, the literature review defines authentic literary texts, ESLC research and describes reading profiles and factors that affect reading comprehension. The empirical part introduces the results of the research about the relationship between the scores that 6th grade students achieved on the tasks of reading comprehension of authentic literary texts and the various factors influencing their reading comprehension. 204 students from Slovenia participated in the study. Students completed a questionnaire, which was designed for the purpose of the investigation. Additionally, students did one of the three reading comprehension tasks. The students were divided into three groups, according to their final grade in English of the previous school year. The researcher also conducted a semi-structured interview with 15 selected students. The results showed that all of the examined factors are indeed influencing individual differences and the level of reading ability development. The results of our reading comprehension tasks had shown that there are significant differences between good, average and poor EFL readers − good readers achieve better results, despite longer texts, average readers achieve average results and the majority of poor readers do not reach even the result below 50 % on least difficult texts. Similarly, the interviews also indicated the individual differences amongst different reader profiles. It can be concluded that the individual differences in reading in English as a foreign language are affected by several factors. These factors are amidst individual groups of readers expressed in a similar way. The results of this survey show that this sample of 204 students mostly performed well in reading; there are a lot of good readers, some average and just a few poor readers. Perhaps these results were also influenced by other factors, such as the small nation’s need for the knowledge of a foreign language, relatively high exposure to English through various media, Slovenia's integration into the European community and the openness of borders and the increasing mobility of people. In Europe, the emphasis on multiculturalism and multilingualism is growing exponentially, which may be reflected in increased interest in learning foreign languages, especially by young parents and their children.
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