The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the importance of reading comprehension and explores the background and aims of the study. Chapter 2 provides the theoretical foundation for the study through the elements of reading, reading comprehension, first language and foreign language reading as well as the status of English in Iceland today. Chapter 3 discusses the method of the study, as well as the subjects, the data , the tests, data collection and data analysis. Chapter 4 shows the results of the study. Chapter 5 Further discusses the results of the study. Chapter 6 provides conclusions of the study with some suggestions for further studies