Lack of motivation to read is the culprit of many students' struggles in literacy achievement, resulting in wider gaps in reading achievement and resulting inequities in schools across America. When students are provided with the ability to choose the text they read for English class, they have an increase in interest and commitment to read, which…

Many language learners lack the motivation to read complex texts. Because high-immersion Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly reported to be highly motivating, the goal of our study was to compare English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' (N=79) motivation while reading a story with subtitles in VR (experimental group) versus reading the same…

In real-life contexts, when we read anything, be it a newspaper article or a supermarket brochure, we usually have some reasons and expectations about what we are going to read or we want to know something because we are just curious. Rarely do we read without any purpose and expectations, and we often know something about the topic that we are…

Lack of validated research tools in Spanish-speaking countries has limited the extent to which educational research can expand. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the exploration of affective factors in reading. The need for research on reading and reading motivation in Latin American countries calls for valid, reliable tools to…

This Macau study investigates the unwillingness of primary 5 Chinese native students to read in English on a Lexile® Framework based digital reading platform provided by their school, with visible negative consequences on their English reading literacy, and whether or not it is possible for teachers to help improve students' reading literacy by…

Hong Kong attained champion of the PIRLS 2011 that aroused keen interest in understanding the underlying reasons of a non-alphabetic language. The study aimed at unravelling various aspects of the student and home factors which contributed to remarkable Chinese reading performance. Totally 3,875 students from 132 primary schools completed the…

This quantitative and qualitative study is aimed to diagnose and promote the use of new technologies in teaching literature reading in Public (State) Schools, assessing materials accessibility and computer skills. The research consisted of three distinct steps: (1) A survey to detect teachers' and students' computer skills, their use of computers…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between academic self-efficacy, dispositional optimism/pessimism, and preferences regarding the use of text materials and in-class activities of college students at a university that serves one of the highest-poverty regions in the United States. A sample of 105 students was surveyed.…

In this paper the author relates how the thing he enjoys most about his job as a school librarian is nurturing lifelong readers, in particular readers of children's literature. In talking about nurturing lifelong readers and, referring to students, staff and school librarians, the author discusses: (1) The Southwell Library Programme; (2) The Lit…

This volume is a milestone year for the Yearbook, the conference, and the College Reading Association (CRA). At this conference, CRA celebrated its 50th year. The title of this thirty-first yearbook mirrors the theme of the 2008 conference--"Mentoring Literacy Professionals for 50 Years." The title "Mentoring Literacy Professionals:…