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Reading Attitudes, Interests, and Practices
Abstract
The academic literature on reading is largely of a technical nature, most of it having to do with learning.
The degree and type of reading that are done, however, and the motivations and purposes that underpin actual usage, remain less studied.
Yet it could be argued that, once some basic fluency has been established, these factors – which we could put under the general rubric of the social psychology of reading – assume central importance. This chapter summarizes some of the relevant work in the field. Some is narrowly empirical but most involves medium- to large-scale survey approaches.
The chapter concludes by suggesting some fruitful lines for future research.
... Many organisations and countries invest a great amount of effort in eliminating illiteracy. Many countries, however, are now concerned with an increasingly dire phenomenon called aliteracy rather than illiteracy (Edwards, 2008), that is choosing not to read. Thus, the issue of aliteracy has received considerable low critical attention when compared to illiteracy. ...
Purpose
– This study aims to investigate English recreational reading habits of Arab Jordanian EFL university students when classes are in session and during vacation, and the types of recreational reading they engage in. In addition, the study explores other relationships such as the relationship between reading habits and students' cumulative grade point average (CGPA); and the effect of parents' educational level and their time spent on reading.
Design/methodology/approach
– The respondents, comprising 225 third- and fourth-year English majors, completed an English recreational reading habits questionnaire. The study utilised a non-probability sampling method, namely, purposive sampling. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS software v. 20.
Findings
– The findings indicated that students read more when they were on vacation compared to their readings while classes are in session. The students' average time spent on reading when classes are in session and during vacation is 2.15 hours and 2.82 hours per week, respectively. Slightly more than half (57 percent) the students always read emails/chat rooms/Facebook, which are their most preferred type of recreational reading. Non-fiction books were the least favourite among students with 47 percent of students indicating that they never or rarely read this type of genre. Among all the reading interests, only novels had a significant correlation with the students' CGPA. The findings showed that the respondents with higher levels of fathers' education were significantly reading more.
Originality/value
– The reading habits of EFL students have received little attention and there is limited research that surveyed Arab EFL students' recreational reading habits at the tertiary level. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature and set out to be a point of reference and comparison for future investigations about English recreational reading habits of Arab EFL tertiary students.
THIS STUDY investigated the reading attitudes of a stratified national sample of 18,185 U.S. children in Grades 1 through 6. Students responded to a group pictorial rating scale, comprising two subscales devoted to attitude toward reading for recreational and for academic purposes. Scores were analyzed on the basis of gender, grade level, ethnicity, reading ability, and the use of basal readers. Results supported a model of reading attitude in which social factors and expectations gradually shape attitudes over time. Findings included the following. First, recreational and academic reading attitudes, on average, were observed to become more negative gradually, but steadily, throughout the elementary school years, beginning al a relatively positive point and ending in relative indifference. Second, the trend toward more negative recreational attitudes was clearly related to ability and was steepest for least able readers. The attitudinal gap among ability levels widened with age, though for academic reading attitude the negative trend was similar regardless of ability. Third, girls as a group possessed more favorable attitudes than boys at all grade levels, toward both recreational and academic reading. In the case of recreational attitude, this gap widened with age, while in the case of academic attitude, it remained relatively constant. These gender differences appeared to be unrelated to ability. Fourth, ethnicity was observed to play little role in the negative trends in either recreational or academic reading attitude. Fifth, the extent of a reacher's reliance on basal readers did nor appear to be meaningfully related to recreational or academic reading attitude. In general, these findings are supportive of the McKenna model of reading attitude acquisition.
THIS STUDY examines the impact of an intervention targeting economically disadvantaged children in child care centers. The program was designed to flood over 330 child care centers with high-quality children's books, at a ratio of 5 books per child. and provide 10 hours of training to child-care staff. Conceptalized as a formative experiment, this study examined the project's impact, systematically sampling 400 3- and 4-year-old children randomly selected from 50 centers across 10 regions and 100 control children from comparable child care centers not involved in the project. Children's early literacy skills (receptive language, concepts of print, environmental print, letter name knowledge, concepts of a;writing, and narrative competence) were assessed prior to and following the study. In addition, a posttest-only sample and a kindergarten sample were included, focusing on the project's longerterm impact. Changes in child care practices were assessed throughout the project, using photographic accounts of the physical environments of classrooms, literacy-related interactions between teachers and children in sample classrooms, and storybook reading activity in both treatment and control classrooms. Process measures indicated enhanced physical access to books, greater verbal interaction around literacy, and more time spent reading and relating to books as a result of the intervention With greater access, children in the intervention group scored statistically significantly higher than the control group on four of six assessment measures, with gains still very much evident 6 months later in kindergarten. Findings provide powerful support for the physical proximity of books and the psychological support to child care staff on children's early literacy development.
A population that doesn't read is divorced from its cultural heritage and cut off from civic affairs. Reading is the prerequisite for access to the world at large, to the historical past and the political present. That so many young people are opting out of an activity so essential to personal growth is a troubling trend that must be the result of deep and complex changes in contemporary society.
The study was designed to investigate the relationship between amount of time devoted to leisure reading and a series of personal, home, and school variables. Among the variables examined are gender, level of reading attainment, leisure activities, socio-economic status, family size, choice of television programs, and location and type of primary school attended. Pupils devoted an average of 5.4 per cent of available leisure time to reading for leisure. Three categories of pupil leisure time reading were identified--book reading, comic reading, and newspaper reading. Substantially more time was devoted to book than to comic reading while little time was spent reading newspapers. Multiple regression analyses revealed that most of the explained variation (22.9 per cent) in time devoted to books was accounted for by a combination of the variables gender, reading attainment, school location, library membership, and birth order. Less than 8 per cent of the variation in time devoted to comic reading was explained by the variables used in the study. Among leisure readers, it was possible to discriminate between those whose reading consisted mainly of books and those whose reading consisted mainly of comics. Gender proved to be the strongest discriminator, with girls tending to devote more time to books and boys tending to devote more time to comics./// [French] L'etude se proposait de rechercher le rapport entre le temps réservé à la lecture de loisir et une série de variables personnelles, domestiques et scolaires. Parmi les variables examinées on trouve le sexe, le niveau de connaissances en lecture, les activités de loisirs, les conditions socio-économiques, le nombre familial, le choix des programmes télévisés et enfin la situation et le type d'école primaire fréquentée. Les élèves consacraient une moyenne de 5,4 pour cent de leur temps de délassement à la lecture purement de loisir. On a identifié trois catégories de lecture reservée au temps de loisirs pour ces élèves: lecture de livres, lecture de bandes dessinées et lecture de journaux. En substance on a observé que plus de temps était consacré à la lecture de livres qu'à celle de bandes dessinées, tandis que peu de temps était consacré à la lecture de journaux. Des analyses de régressions multiples ont révélé que la majeure partie de la variation de temps expliquée (22,9 pour cent) consacré aux livres était justifiée par une combinaison de variables liées au sexe, aux connaissances en lecture, à la situation de l'école, à l'inscription en bibliothéque, à l'ordre de naissance dans la famille. Moins de 8 pour cent de la variation de temps consacré à la lecture de bandes dessinées a été expliqué par les variables utilisées dans l'étude. Parmi les lecteurs de loisir il a été possible de discriminer entre ceux qui lisaient essentiellement des livres et ceux qui lisaient essentiellement des bandes dessinées. Le sexe s'est avéré être la distinction la plus forte, les filles ayant tendance à consacrer plus de temps aux livres et les garçons aux bandes dessinées./// [Spanish] Se diseño este estudio para investigar la relación entre la cantidad de tiempo dedicado a la lectura de ocio y a una serie de variables de tipo personal, casero y escolar. Entre las variables se examinaron el sexo, el nivel de lectura obtenido, las actividades de ocio, la posición socio-económica, el número de personas en la familia, el tipo de programas de la TV seleccionados, y el lugar y el tipo de escuela primaria asistidas. Los alumnos dedicaron un promedio de 5,4% del tiempo de descanso a la lectura de ocio. Se identificaron 3 categorías de lectura de ocio--lectura de libros, revistas cómicas, y periódicos. Dedicaron considerablemente más tiempo a la lectura de libros que a la de revistas cómicas, y dedicaron poco tiempo a los periódicos. Los análisis de regresión múltiple revelaron que la mayor parte de la variación descrita (22,9%) acerca del tiempo dedicado a la lectura de libros, se debió a una combinación de variables de sexo, habilidad de lectura, ubicación escolar, uso de la biblioteca, y orden de nacimiento en la familia. Menos del 8% de la variación del tiempo dedicado a la lectura de revistas comicas fue descrito por las variables utilizadas en el estudio. Entre los lectores de ocio fue posible diferenciar entre los que leían mayormente libros y los que leían principalmente revistas cómicas. El diferenciador más importante fue el sexo, las muchachas dedicando más tiempo a los libros, y los muchachos a las revistas cómicas.
Discusses research on the dynamic process by which individuals of different abilities and background comprehend and interpret what they read as a prerequisite to effective teaching. Various methods have been employed to study the reading process, such as analysis of errors, introspective-retrospective verbalization, case studies, and observation of individuals' responses to reading situations. Each of four doctoral dissertations described explores some aspect of the reading process: the first studies underlying mental abilities that may facilitate or block reading achievement; the second uses a combination of methods to ascertain the reading process that severely retarded readers employ in trying to comprehend two types of selections; the third explores the relation between self-concept and achievement; and the fourth uses a modified critical incident technique to obtain information on the influence of reading on high school students' concepts, attitudes, and behavior./// [French] Cet article discute la recherche sur le processus dynamique par lequel des sujets de capacités et d'éducation différentes comprennent et interprètent ce qu'ils lisent, comme un travail préliminaire qui est essentiel pour un enseignement effectif. Diverses méthodes ont été employées pour étudier ce processus: analyse d'erreurs, méthode d'introspection et rétrospection orales, études de cas individuels, et observation du comportements d'individus placés dans certaines situations de lecture. Chacune des quatre thèses de doctorat décrites ici explore quelque aspect du processus de la lecture: la première étudie les capacités mentales fondamentales qui peuvent activer ou bloquer les progrès en lecture; l'auteur de la deuxième utilise une combinaison de diverses méthodes pour déterminer les procédés employés par des sujets très en retard en lecture dans leurs essais de compréhension de deux types de sélections (article populaire et article scientifique); la troisième thèse recherche un rapport éventuel entre l'idée que l'on se fait de soi-même et les résultats atteints en lecture; la quatrième thèse étudie l'influence que peut avoir la lecture sur les concepts, les idées, les attitudes et le comportement dans le cas d'élèves d'écoles secondaires./// [Spanish] Discute la investigación sobre el proceso dinámico por medio del cual individuos de diferentes habilidades y antecedentes comprenden e interpretan lo que leen, como un requisito previo para la enseñanza eficaz. Se han empleado varios métodos para estudiar el proceso de lectura, tales como análisis de errores, verbalización introspectiva y retrospectiva, estudio de casos, y observaciones sobre las reacciones de individuos a situaciones de lectura. Cada una de las cuatro disertaciones doctorales descritas explora algún aspecto del procedimiento de lectura: el primero estudia la habilidad mental fundamental que puede facilitar o impedir el rendimiento en lectura; el segundo usa una combinación de métodos para determinar el procedimiento de lectura que lectores severamente retardados emplean al tratar de comprender dos tipos de selecciones; el tercero explora la relación entre el concepto de si mismo y el rendimiento; y el cuarto usa una técnica de incidente crítico modificada para obtener información sobre la influencia de la lectura en los conceptos, actividades y comportamientos de estudiantes de escuela superior.
To determine if purposes in reading differ with sex, grade level, and nationality, a 16-item "Functions of Reading Scale" (developed from content analysis of student essays on why they like to read) was administered to 459 Irish (Dublin, Ireland) and American (Windham, Connecticut) students in grades three, five, and eight. Data analysis, revealing three main reasons for reading--enjoyment, utility, and escape--also showed several interesting trends: (1) girls read more for enjoyment while boys read for utilitarian purposes, (2) students in fifth grade had the highest enjoyment scores and those in third had the highest overall scores in utility and escapism, and (3) Irish students read more often for enjoyment and utility and less often for escapist reasons than did Americans. While limited by a small and possibly not representative sample, the research nevertheless indicated the usefulness of the "uses and gratification" approach of mass communication research, which assumes that subjects actively pursue communication materials on the basis of predetermined needs. (MM)
This is a book about readers and for them. It describes the delights of reading and the psychological mechanisms that take skilled readers out of the world and lead them, absorbed or entranced, into the world of the book. Students of reading—librarians, critics, cognitive psychologists, and reading specialists—may also find it helpful.
Part I explores the social forces that have shaped reading: the growth and consolidation of the reading habit, the social value system, and the pervasive appeal of narrative. Reading for pleasure is often light reading, but not always: one of pleasure reading's paradoxes is that for many sophisticated readers, a wide range of materials, from the trashiest to the most literate and demanding works, may induce reading trance, and such readers are intrigued by the pleasure they derive from material they know to be culturally worthless.
Reading for pleasure ("ludic reading") is an enormously complex cognitive act that draws on an array of skills and processes in many different domains—attention, comprehension, absorption, and entrancement; reading skill and reading-rate variability; readability and reader preferences; and reading physiology. These component processes of ludic reading are the subject matter of Part II.
Ludic reading is a consciousness-changing activity, and Part III relates reading to fantasy processes such as dreaming and hypnotic trance, on the one hand, and to the sovereignty of the reading experience and the uses readers make of it, on the other, in order to show how the components of reading relate to one another in achieving the capture of consciousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Pupils from middle-class homes devoted an average of 7.2 per cent of leisure time to reading. The relationship between home environment, attitude to reading and motivations for reading on the one hand and leisure-time reading on the other, was examined. The addition of these sets of variables to previously established correlates of leisure-time reading, achievement, sex, and library membership increased the proportion of variance accounted for in leisure-time reading by a significant amount (10.1 per cent). Correlations tended to be low, since leisure reading is a relatively sporadic type activity. From the perspective of developing the reading habit, the results suggest that what parents do is more important than what they are; the emphasis placed on reading in the home, on academic development and on intellectuality was related to leisure-time reading. Attitude to reading correlated more highly with leisure-time reading than any of the other variables included in the study; the correlation between attitude and time was significant even after controlling for sex, reading achievement and library membership. Among the motivational variables, reading for enjoyment was related to leisure-time reading whereas reading for utilitarian or escapist reasons was not.
Running title: Growth in reading Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-38) Performed pursuant to contract no. 400-81-0030 of the National Institute of Education
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