It is well documented that reading plays a crucial role in success at school and beyond. Studies indicate that reading not only contributes to academic performance, but also enriches vocabulary. Positive reading attitudes and the will to read are factors that determine whether or not students read at school. However, not much reading research has been conducted in Swaziland. Using Form 5 learners from four public schools, this study explores the relationships between reading ability, vocabulary, reading attitudes, habits and access and academic performance among Form 5 Swazi learners. To complement the quantitative study, classroom observations were conducted to contextualise the quantitative results. The combined findings indicate that reading correlates robustly with vocabulary development and also with academic performance. The findings suggest that the ability to read and understand text plays a dynamic role in academic success. For students to be well informed and have a rich vocabulary, schools should make reading a priority. Key words: Reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

The aim of this essay is to investigate Swedish upper secondary pupils’ attitudes towards reading in English. 190 pupils from three different schools in southern Sweden have answered a questionnaire in order to find out about what they think about reading in English and where they think the importance lies. The results show that a majority of the pupils find reading instructive, and generally a positive attitude is shown. When it comes to the importance, many pupil regard reading as a tool for them to develop their language, since the reading gives them new vocabulary, and an understanding for grammar and sentence structure.  The results also show minor differences between girls and boys, and between the pupils who study a vocational programme and those studying an academic programme.

Denna studies syfte var att öka kunskapen om lärares uppfattningar kring pojkars och flickors attityder och eventuella resultatskillnader inom läsning och läsförståelse. Detta gjordes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem lärare. Tidigare forskning visar att det finns skillnader mellan pojkars och flickors attityder till läsning. Miljön omkring eleverna kan ha en stor påverkan på attityden till läsning. Gällande resultatskillnader visar forskning att flickor presterar bättre än pojkar. Pojkar anser att läsning är något som görs av flickor och kvinnliga lärare. Sociokulturellt perspektiv ramar in studien. Resultatet visade att lärare upplevde att viss skillnad fanns men då gällande attityder. Lärare ansåg inte att de märkte någon resultatskillnad gällande pojkar och flickor i sina klasser. Lärare beskrev att de inte medvetet funderat på ifall det fanns skillnader mellan pojkars och flickors resultat, vilket kan varit orsaken till att de inte har uppfattat några skillnader i sina klasser. Slutsatsen var att lärare såg en viss skillnad gällande attityder till läsning och läsförståelse, men inte gällande resultatskillnader. Trots det visar nationella och internationella tester att det finns en skillnad. Lärarnas omedvetenhet kan vara ett resultat av normer i samhället, vilket betyder att problemet behöver synliggöras och medvetandegöras för att kunna förändras. Detta för att garantera en likvärdig utbildning för både pojkar och flickor. / The purpose of this study was to increase our knowledge of how teachers view boys’ and girls’ attitudes about reading and possible reading comprehension. This study was based on interviews with a total of five teachers. Previous research shows that there are differences between boys’ and girls’ attitudes towards reading. The environment around the students can have a big impact on the attitude to reading. Previous research shows that girls generally are better at reading than boys. There is a general attitude amongst boys that reading is something only girls and female teachers do. A sociocultural perspective framed this study. The results of the study show that teachers to some extent agree on that boys and girls have different attitudes towards reading. They all stated that they had not noticed obvious differences in results between genders in their classes. The teachers that were interviewed had not consciously contemplated whether there were any differences in results between boys and girls. The conclusion is that teachers see a certain difference in attitude towards reading and reading comprehension, but not regarding difference in results. National and international tests show that there is a difference in results. Teachers´ unawareness can be a result of norms in society, which means that teachers need to be aware of the problem to be able to change it. This is to ensure an equal education for boys and girls.

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The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the introduction of a regular librarian-centered reading guidance program as an integral part of the entire school program would improve the reading attitudes and habits of elementary school students and increase the reading achievement scores on a standardized test of elementary school students. In addition, the reading attitudes of students were compared with reading achievement scores to assess any relationship between the two.

This study investigated the relationship between reading attitudes in L1 and in L2 of learners in Pakistan. It also investigated the differences between reading attitudes of learners from different home backgrounds, rural and urban. The participants of the study had Sindhi as their L1 and English as their L2. They came from rural (n=186) and urban (n=202) parts of Sindh. The study employed a mixed methods approach. It collected data through a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire collected information on four reading attitude variables: self perception as a reader, utilitarian value for reading, personal involvement for reading and lack of reading anxiety both in Sindhi and in English. The fifth variable was learner’s rural/urban home background. My study partially confirms findings from previous studies indicating that reading attitudes in L1 and in L2 are related. Rural learners displayed a stronger relationship between reading attitudes in L1 and in L2, whereas urban learners displayed a weaker relationship. This finding was further confirmed when, through a multiple regression analysis, the contribution of each reading attitude was checked in terms of the coefficient values. A learner’s ‘rural/urban home background’ emerged as the strongest indicator of a learner’s reading attitudes than his/her reading attitudes in Sindhi. Thus, urban home background seems to add positively to reading attitudes in English. The findings show the importance of one’s educational background, home and society on the whole in the process of developing a learner’s attitudes towards reading in English. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated marked differences in the reading attitudes of both the groups in terms of their reading attitudes in L1 and in L2. The rural learners had better reading attitudes in L1 than their counterparts, whereas the urban learners had better reading attitudes in English than the rural learners. Such a finding again supports the role of society and social background in shaping learners’ reading attitudes in L1 or in L2.

Nous avons cherché comment, dans une situation de lecture conjointe, la mère et l’enfant appréhendent l’album de jeunesse et comment, de ce fait, s’instaurent chez l’enfant de 18 mois-36 mois les premières postures de lecteur. Se demander comment la mère et l’enfant découvrent l’album de jeunesse, dans ce triangle Mère/Album/Enfant conduit alors à analyser leurs modes d’appréhension : interactifs, cognitifs, d’objet, narratifs, émotionnels, de subjectivation. Nous étudions également les liens de ces modes d’appréhension avec les postures de lecture de l’enfant et ses conséquences dans l’éveil de son être au livre. Au plan empirique, auprès d’un échantillon constitué de 21 dyades mère-enfant, nous avons procédé en trois temps. Tout d’abord, nous avons réalisé un premier entretien qui nous a permis de recueillir le discours des mères quant aux pratiques familiales de chaque enfant. Dans un second temps, nous avons filmé les dyades, lisant toutes le même album à leur enfant dans une bibliothèque de quartier. Enfin, trois mois après chaque observation filmée, nous avons mené un second entretien qui constituait alors une analyse méta vidéo. A partir des résultats obtenus, nous avons ainsi pu définir la lecture conjointe comme une aire intermédiaire, pouvant s’apparenter à l’Aire Intermédiaire de Winnicott (1971) et à la Zone Proximale de Développement de Vygotski (1933). Nous avons ainsi conceptualisé l’Aire Intermédiaire de Lecture Conjointe (AILC). Nous avons également approfondi, dans une perspective du développement du jeune enfant lecteur, le concept de Lecteur potentiel de Frier (2006). / Our study focuses on the mother /child shared reading experience and how the first reading postures are thereby awakened in the 18 to 26 month old infant. How exactly do the mother and child discover the children’s book? The mother/book/child triangle leads us to an analysis of their mode of apprehension: interactive, cognitive, of the book object, of the narrative, emotional, subjectivity. The link between these different modes of apprehension is also studied along with the child’s reading postures and their consequences on the infant’s discovery of the book. On the empirical level, a sample, consisting of 21 mother/child dyads was studied in three stages. First of all an interview was carried out which allowed us to collect information concerning family practices from the mother of each child. Second, the mother/child dyads were filmed, the mothers all reading the same story to their child in a local library. And lastly, three months after each filmed observation, a second interview consisted in a meta video analysis. The results obtained from this study enabled us to define the joint reading as an intermediary zone, close to Winnicott’s Intermediary Zone (1971) and Vygotski’s Next Proximal Zone of Development (1933). We thus conceptualized the Intermediate Zone of Shared Reading (IZSR). We also went further into Frier’s concept of Potential Reader, keeping in mind the perspective of the development of the infant reader.

Elever i svensk grundskola verkar läsa allt mindre, både i skolan och på fritiden. Forskning och PISA- resultat visar att läsintresse och läsförmåga går hand i hand och kan skapa den s.k. Matteuseffekten eller läsklyfta som kan uppstå när läsförmågan styr elevers läsmotivation, hur mycket de läser och utvecklas som läsare. Tidigare forskning visar att olika faktorer inverkar på en elevs läsmotivation, läsintresse och attityder till läsning. Många inom forskningsfältet menar att skolans insatser behöver riktas mot att stärka både läsförmågan och läsmotivationen, särskilt för elever i lässvårigheter. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur några speciallärare i grundskolans tidigare år beskriver att de arbetar för att motivera elever i lässvårigheter att lästräna samt öka läsintresset och skapa positiva attityder till läsning. Studiens resultat visar att speciallärarna beskriver att de motiverar eleverna att lästräna under lekfulla former, olika anpassningar beskrivs, t.ex. texter på rätt nivå, val kring läsning, realistiska utmaningar och tydliga mål som gynnsamma faktorer för ökad läsmotivation. Att eleverna ges möjlighet att lyckas och tro på sin egen förmåga och bli medbestämmande beskrivs kunna öka motivationen, samt att eleverna ser på sig själva som läsare, oavsett om de har lässvårigheter eller inte. Detta genom att skilja på lästräning och lustläsning för att stärka elevernas läsintresse och attityder till läsning. Ett brett utbud av texter beskrivs stärka elevernas läsintresse och en del i speciallärarens arbete för att skapa läsmotivation beskrivs handla om samarbete med bl.a. lärarkollegiet som också kan behöva motiveras och ges stöd, uppmuntran och vägledning. Diskussion förs bl.a. kring att synen på vem som ska jobba med läsmotivation och läsfrämjande arbete tydligare kan behöva uttalas samt att samordnade insatser kan bidra till ökad läsning och stärkt läsengagemang och gynna läsmotivationen. Studien förväntas bidra med några speciallärares beskrivningar av sin förståelse av läsmotivation, läsintresse och attityder till läsning när det kommer till elever i lässvårigheter.

No description available.

Given the importance of the ability to read, learners must have access to books in schools. The lack of functional school libraries in South Africa, especially in primary schools, is to the detriment of learners’ reading achievement. In the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) study, Grades 4 and 5 children achieved the lowest scores in the reading comprehension tests of the 40 participating countries. The researcher proposes that one intervention that would help solve the low levels of reading literacy among learners would be for schools to have an official school library policy, and to have functional well-stocked school libraries. This study seeks to identify the self-reported reading attitudes of learners who took part in the PIRLS 2011 study using a secondary data analysis, and to investigate by means of a systematic literature review, materials published between 1994 and 2017 on the non-implementation of school library policies. This study recommends speeding up progress in meeting minimum norms for school infrastructure in order to create a space for functional school libraries in all schools. Secondly, it suggests that access to books for primary school learners should be improved, and lastly, that the national guidelines for school libraries on planning and reforming school libraries should be finalised and implemented. Key / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)