This paper examines the perspectives of Year 5 pupils from a school in East London on reading for pleasure. Sixty children initially completed a questionnaire and their responses were used to identify two groups: children whose responses suggested a positive attitude towards reading for pleasure and those who did not. Two focus group interviews…

Using the adapted version of the Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey by McKenna and Kear, 177 Grades 5-6 pupils in Bamban, Tarlac were surveyed to determine their attitudes toward reading. The survey confirmed the hypothesis that gender is indeed a determinant of the pupils' attitudes toward reading. While girls were found to have more positive…

Purpose: We investigated the roles of leisure reading and word reading ability in vocabulary and reading comprehension development in 598 adolescents at ages 10, 11, and 12 (285 girls, 313 boys). Method: Structural equation modeling was used to test whether word reading was associated with vocabulary and reading comprehension: a) directly; b)…

The aim of this study is, by means of a multi-faceted evaluation of the expectations of fourth-grade primary school students from their literacy environment, to put forward suggestions aimed at improving this environment. The study was carried out according to the homogeneous sampling method, which is one of the methods of purposive sampling. For…

Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is a large-scale comparison of the reading performance of Year 4 students in 50 countries, and Year 4 was chosen because it is the point in schooling where most students transition from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. As the essential nature of their relationship with reading…

Children's attitudes towards, and frequency of recreational reading influence their reading skill level. The aim of this study was to determine the relative influence of research-supported intrinsic and extrinsic variables that can shape this attitude and practice, and to investigate the use of artificial neural network as an adjunct approach in…

Read for Good commissioned the National Literacy Trust to evaluate the outcomes of their new pilot intervention, Stories in Schools. Stories in Schools uses professional storytellers to deliver enjoyable literacy workshops targeted at reluctant or struggling readers over a six-week period, in particular pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM)…

This study examined the recreational reading habits of 10- to 12-year-old students enrolled in one of the nine Gifted Education Program (GEP) schools in Singapore. A total of 125 students were surveyed regarding the time they spent on recreational reading, and the top and bottom 10% were labeled Highly Avid Readers (HAR) and Less Avid Readers…

Background: Numerous studies have investigated the relationships between various student, home and contextual factors and reading achievement. However, the relationship between such factors and reading attitudes has been investigated far less, despite the fact that theoretical frameworks of large-scale assessments and school effectiveness research…

This paper evaluates an extracurricular reading activity in Qatari schools. The paper presents a two-month extracurricular reading program designed for fourth grade students. The methodology used triangulation of the data to analyze, in detail, the students' primary perceptions towards reading, teacher self-efficacy, teacher instructional behavior…

The Summer Active Reading Programme aimed to improve reading skills and particularly comprehension by raising children's engagement in, and enjoyment of, reading at the transition from primary school to secondary school. The programme was delivered by Booktrust, an independent charity that aims to change lives through engaging people with reading.…

Beginning with the premise that pleasure is a driving force in life, this article examines the relationships between pleasure, schooling and society across the past century. Through the examination of school texts, narratives, and histories of literacy instruction, a case is made that part of the move away from keeping pleasure at the heart of…

In this study an attempt was made to construct a multi-factor model predicting the development of reading literacy in the upper grades of primary school in the Netherlands for subgroups of 729 first language (L1) learners and 93 second language (L2) learners. Following a longitudinal design, it was explored to what extent the variation in reading…

The activities and self-direction allowed after school provide children in different countries with distinct developmental opportunities that promote culturally valued orientations and outcomes. Fourth-grade children in Bulgaria, Taiwan, and the United States (countries with contrasting social values and expectations) reported their usual…

Finds that home literacy environment influenced leisure-time reading, and that leisure-time reading contributed to orthographic processing skill beyond the prediction provided by phonological processing skill. Finds that home literacy environment influenced orthographic processing skill indirectly by its influence on leisure-time reading. Shows…