This study aims to explore whether purposeful reading instruction influences Korean high school L2 learners’ reading comprehension, task motivation, and perceived difficulty in EFL settings employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Ninety-one high school students participated and were assigned to either the purpose group (N=48) or the non-purpose group (N=43). The purpose group was given purpose-specific reading explicitly by the instructor, but not the non-purpose group. The participants were engaged in reading tasks along with reading comprehension tests and questionnaires on task motivation and their perceived difficulty. This study was conducted once a week over a period of four months, thirteen times in total. All the participants completed thirteen reading tasks including pre-, immediate, and delayed reading comprehension tests and questionnaire surveys. After completing the tasks, the participants answered exit surveys asking their opinions and feelings on the tasks. The results show that purposeful reading instruction has a positive impact on L2 learners’ reading comprehension, task motivation, and perceived difficulty, revealing the benefits of purposeful reading instruction to L2 learners in EFL classroom settings.