A central objective of schooling processes at the international level is reading skills development. Unfortunately, many students in the European Union underperform at this, and these low performances can be more pronounced in countries with lower Human Development Index (HDI) values. This study analysed the contextual effect of school…

This study explores literature reading and reception of narrative texts among Swedish middle school students. Through a written assignment and a think-aloud protocol, students' comprehension and interpretation of narrative texts are investigated. The study shows that Swedish middle school students tend to focus mainly on the plot. The main…

The undeniable importance of reading in higher education prompted this investigation into the reading skills of a group often overlooked in previous research: master's level students studying in English-medium instruction (EMI) environments. Participants (148 master's-level students of engineering) completed the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (Form G),…

Students with intellectual disabilities need more time and explicit instruction to develop word decoding. Most previous research on interventions among these students is performed in English. Therefore, the current study examined the impact of a word-decoding intervention in Swedish on individual students with intellectual disabilities. A…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a multimodal program, designed for practicing reading, on reading development in struggling readers in two different countries. The research question was whether one specific training method will have a positive effect on pupils' reading development in two different countries with…

This study aims to identify the literacy skills of individuals whose highest level of education was in the field 'teacher training and educational sciences'. The study sample comprised 10,618 individuals in the field of teacher training and educational sciences, selected from 31 countries (participating in the International Adult Skills Assessment…

Few of previous reading studies "comprehensively" examined the contributing factors of students' digital reading literacy. To fill this gap, based upon the ecological perspective, this study aims to investigate which factors from the student, home, and school context are more important in discriminating high-performing digital readers…

We investigated the stability and developmental interplay of word reading and spelling in samples of Swedish (N = 191) and U.S. children (N = 489) followed across four time points: end of kindergarten, grades 1, 2, and 4. Cross-lagged path models revealed that reading and spelling showed moderate to strong autoregressive effects, with reading…

This article concerns the relationship between general literacy skills and engagement with subject-specific content in classroom practice. The aim is to contribute knowledge about how enactment of reading strategies impacts classroom discussions about science texts. For 10 weeks, the researcher conducted observations and audio recordings of…

Early reading and writing skills are important in order to develop and succeed, both in school and later on in life. The aim of this study was to shed light on influential factors on children's reading and writing development from the perspective of parents. Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model for human development was adopted as a theoretical…

Drawing on interviews we explore the centrality of belonging to rural places, embedded within time, in shaping life as a male reader, regardless of country of origin, or generation. Place theory explored the assemblages of spaces important for 6 boys (10-11 year-olds) from Australia and 6 men (25 year-olds and 60 year-olds) from Sweden in their…

Previous research has found that reading increases overall vocabulary size, and that reading fiction, specifically, is associated with higher levels of empathy and better perspective-taking skills. The current study investigated a potential link between reading habits and emotional vocabulary in particular, to assess whether the link between…

This study examined the effects of early phonological training on emergent phonological and reading skills. Children (N = 364) were randomly assigned in small groups to a phonological training group (n = 117), or a control group (n = 247) including both a non-phonological training group and a non-trained control group. The phonological training…

This article focuses on low-performing adult readers in the Scandinavian countries, seeking to identify and describe some of the literacy-related problems that they face. Following a presentation of the Reading Components Assessment (RCA) used in PIAAC (Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies), we provide profiles for those…

Reading difficulties are linked to several disadvantages in the general population. Less is known about correlates of reading difficulties in individuals with intellectual and severe developmental disabilities (IDD). Vocabulary and word reading were assessed in 112 adolescents with IDD, recruited from Special needs comprehensive schools in Sweden…