Young people's frequency of engagement in reading books for pleasure markedly decreases as they move through the schooling years, reducing their exposure to this beneficial literacy practice. Young people's perceptions of the value of reading can be socially mediated, and positive perception of the value of reading is associated with frequency of…

Background: This article reports on a responsive extensive reading programme (ERP), involving Grade 3 learners at two primary schools in the Eastern Cape over a duration of 20 weeks. Objectives: The sociocultural perspective of learning guided the implementation of the ERP which aimed at providing learners with opportunities to read books for…

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…

This mixed-methods study reports the findings of the integration of Web 2.0 tools in a one-semester extensive reading project. 27 Turkish-L1 learners of English read graded readers based on their proficiency, identified using a level test. Then they were asked to use various Web 2.0 tools to prepare a post-reading activity for each book they read…

This report highlights the enduring importance of our Young Readers Programme by providing children with impactful positive reading experiences as well as opportunities to choose and, crucially, keep books. This is particularly important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, with over 1 in 4 children who receive free school meals telling us…

The most recent OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey enables educators, policy makers and the wider community to compare Australian students with each other, as well as with their counterparts across the world. PISA measures the extent to which 15-year-old students near the end of compulsory education have acquired the…

Whereas cognitive and linguistic factors for learning to read have been extensively studied, less is known about affective factors including children's attitudes toward reading. Studies primarily from English-speaking and Western countries show gradual declines in reading attitudes in elementary school (McKenna et al., Reading Research Quarterly…

The percentage of students with lower academic achievement than their peers due to their socio-economical disadvantages is globally accepted as an indicator of inequality. Some students, despite their disadvantages, are as successful as their advantaged peers. The family and individual characteristics and academic experiences of these students,…

A number of studies have suggested that extensive reading can lead to gains in different language skills. Few studies on extensive reading have been conducted outside the East Asia classroom setting. This study investigated the impact of an extensive reading programme conducted over 12 weeks with 90- minutes group sessions 3 times a week involving…

Research into the effects of extensive reading (ER) in second language acquisition has surged over the past few decades. Many studies report several benefits that come from engaging in ER, including reading rate gains. However, these studies almost exclusively focus on English language learners and tend to be limited by their lack of control over…

Research on the gendered reading habits and preferences of boys and girls presents them as very different. This study focuses on the gendered reading habits and preferences of Singapore adolescent students (aged 12 to 17) to examine if such polarity exists in their reading habits. Drawing on survey data from 4830 adolescents in five secondary…

This study aimed to explore the magazines and topics that female college students like to read, and the topics that senior and junior high school reading textbooks contain. Findings of questionnaire-surveys with female college students at King Saud University revealed that 77% of the students read women's magazines; 77% like to read about fashion…

England's Birmingham Education Partnership (BEP) commissioned the National Literacy Trust to conduct a survey at the start of a Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) project to improve reading in primary schools in the city. The survey was based on a questionnaire used nationally to gather responses from nearly 50,000 children and young people…

The posing of Intensive Reading (IR) as a fundamental rudimentary reading act and the endorsement of Extensive Reading (ER) as supplemental reading practice seems to be essential for literacy educators. This study tried to unearth the nature of the interplay between intensive and extensive reading as experienced by graduate Arabic native speakers…

This article shares a classroom application to support literacy development through a teacher-guided library selection program. Twenty students participated in the program which demonstrated the importance of the relationship between the school librarian and classroom teacher. These professionals worked together to guide students to choose library…