With increased access to technologies for reading, more understanding is needed about how adolescents engage with print and digital reading across school and out-of-school contexts. In this study, mobile ethnography was used to document the everyday print and digital reading practices of adolescent girls from one all-girls' school. They responded…

It has long been thought that encouraging children to read is likely to be beneficial for the development of their literacy skills. However, a lot less attention has been paid to the issue of whether what students read matters for their academic progress. This paper therefore considers the association between the frequency young people read five…

The authors share findings from a recent study of teens who freely select to read texts typically marginalized by schools (dystopia, vampire, romance, horror, fantasy), revealing the distinct functional and psychological benefits of pleasure reading. The students who participated in the study that the authors report on were eighth graders who…

A study of formula fiction books was conducted to determine how these books fit into women's lives, what images they bring to mind, and what uses they serve. Seventy-two women from the ages of 18 to 70 read a Harlequin Romance novel by Sue Byfield. Then the group participated in several focus group discussions, a qualitative indepth technique that…

The Chinese people have great regard for those who read widely, yet little is known of the extracurricular reading behaviors of Chinese students. This study drew on data from two national surveys to investigate the amount of time Taiwanese college students spend on extracurricular reading. Findings are interpreted in relation to prior research on…

The types of vocabulary in three short novels were analyzed to determine the text coverage of the most frequent 2,000 words of English, and the vocabulary needed to gain 97-98% coverage of the running words in each text. It was found that a 5,000-word vocabulary was necessary for adequate coverage in pleasure reading. (Contains nine references.)…

A survey was conducted to determine how much and under what conditions students read voluntarily. Subjects, 844 secondary students, completed a questionnaire that was then analyzed using the Crosstabulation Subprogram of "Statistical Package for the Social Sciences" to correlate results with students' sex, grade level, scholastic…

Discusses reading with pre-teens Francine Pascal's "Sweet Valley Twins: Best Friends," one of a series of pre-romance novels featuring identical twin sisters. Interviews six girls using the Symbolic Representation Interview (SRI) about the good girl/bad girl dichotomy in novels and other media. Provides comments by Tom Romano and Diana Mitchell.…

Investigates the effects of reading mystery novels on Hong Kong adult learners studying English for the purposes of pleasure or career development. Results show that novel readers made substantial proficiency gains, and that there were important motivational benefits as well. (Author/VWL)

This study utilizes content analysis to compare and contrast the female protagonists in award-winning contemporary adolescent fiction. R. J. Havighurst's developmental tasks are discussed in reference to diverse female protagonists from approved school reading lists in Montgomery County, Maryland. Sara, from "Summer of the Swans" (Byars,…

This study used journals and image notebooks to examine English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students' cognitive skill development as they completed pleasure-reading activities that preceded creative writing tasks. Participants were freshmen at Taiwan's National Yang-Ming University who were enrolled in an English reading and writing…