College reading programs are traditionally remedial or developmental in nature and often take a decontextualized skills based approach to reading and to supporting college readers (Holschuh & Paulson, 2013). Skills oriented deficit-based approaches to reading provide deficit-based frameworks for readers to construct self-perceptions. TLS 239 Literacy Tutoring is an undergraduate service-learning course where students learn about reading process and theory and develop strategies to tutor in community schools for twenty-four required hours. Coursework frames literacy as a socially constructed process and students engage in a miscue workshop, strategy presentations and in exploring the reading process. In this study, I examine the coursework of 38 students enrolled in TLS 239 and students' reports of shifting their perceptions and self-perceptions of literacy through coursework that challenged their literacy conceptualizations. In this study, I conceptualize Ken Goodman's (2003) theory of revaluing as restorying through a construct of story (Bruner, 2004; Short, 2012) and a semiotic theory of inquiry (Peirce, 1877), a process of fixating new belief. This struggle, or inquiry into reading provides a framework for students to renegotiate and restory their perceptions of literacy and their self-perceptions as literate. Findings indicate that conceptualizing reading as a socially constructed process including the construct of a reading transaction (Rosenblatt, 1994) and the construct of miscue (Goodman, 1969) was anomalous to college students' perceptions of literacy and caused students to doubt previously held misconceptions about reading. Students reported shifts towards conceptualizing reading as the construction of meaning, shifts towards positive self-perceptions as readers, and shifts in their literacy engagements. Students reported an increase in confidence, reading differently, reading more effectively, becoming metacognitive, reading more assigned readings in college, reading more for leisure and feeling more actively engaged in their other courses. Implications include conceptualizing literacy learning as social and emotional learning and the pedagogical implications of literacy instruction framed within a construct of inquiry.

This multiple-case study examined the role and educator perceptions of the reading specialist (RS) in the five secondary schools of one school district in the western United States. The purposes of the study were to determine: (1) the actual roles and responsibilities of the secondary RS, (2) whether differences existed in the way RSs, teachers, and principals perceived the role of the RS, and (3) whether the perceptions of the role of the RS were congruent with what the RS actually did. Five RSs, five focus groups comprised of twenty-three teachers, and five principals were interviewed. A survey was also administered to the aforementioned groups as well as to all teachers in the five schools. Results indicated that the role and responsibilities of the RS never included instructing students directly but that RSs focused almost exclusively on teacher leadership. In addition, RSs carried out school-wide assessments, assumed two to three additional major as well as various minor responsibilities within the school, and taught four periods during the day. Perceptions of the RS among RSs, teachers, and principals differed. Teachers, as a whole, indicated RSs worked with students, mainly taught literacy skills, and did not perform administrative tasks unrelated to literacy. Principals also thought RSs did not perform administrative tasks unrelated to literacy. RSs disagreed with all these perceptions. Principals approved and were generally satisfied with the work of the RSs and felt they were making a difference. However, they were more positive about the RSs' influence than were the RSs. Focus group teachers made positive comments about the RSs but also consistently brought up the need to have literacy inservice fashioned specifically to meet their content-area needs. Discrepancies existed between the perceived roles and responsibilities of the RSs and the duties they actually assumed and carried out.

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The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between preschool children&rsquo / s reading attitudes and their home literacy environment. In addition, children&rsquo / s perceptions of reading in terms of their reading attitudes were examined as a part of this study. The sample of this study consisted of 261 parents and their 5 year-old children who were enrolled preschool in Ankara, Turkey. The data of this study were collected through child interviews, demographic information forms, and the following questionnaires: the Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire (Umek et al., 2005) and the Preschool Children Reading Attitudes (Saracho, 1986) questionnaire. These questionnaires were both translated into Turkish, and statistical analyses were conducted to control for validity and reliability issues through a pilot study. The results of the study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between preschool children&rsquo / s reading attitudes and their home literacy environment. In addition, the study revealed there were some differences in children&rsquo / s reading attitudes and their home literacy environment in regards to demographic variables. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that children who have more positive reading attitudes tended to give clearer and more detailed responses to questions and were more aware that writing contains messages. In addition, those children mentioned letters and the role of letters in the learning to read process.

In this study, reading motivations of university students enrolled in the preparatory school of a private university in Ankara were investigated. Firstly, the factors that constitute the reading motivation in Turkish and English were explored using a questionnaire which was adapted from the related literature. Then, the relationship between L1 reading motivation and L2 reading motivation was investigated. Next, the relationship between L1 and L2 reading motivation and L2 reading achievement was analyzed separately. In addition to the nature of reading motivation, students&rsquo / text selections and reading habits (how often, how long and how many pages they read) were included in the analysis. Finally, preparatory school instructors&rsquo / and students&rsquo / perceptions of reading motivation and the factors influencing it were scrutinized. In order to address the issues stated above, both qualitative and quantitative data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. A total of 273 questionnaires were collected from the students in two instruction levels. In addition, fifteen teachers and eight students were interviewed. The findings indicated that there is a slight relationship between L1 reading motivation and l2 reading motivation. Secondly, L1 reading motivation and behaviors made no significant contribution to L2 reading achievement. However, L2 reading motivation and behaviors were found to be significant contributors of L2 reading achievement. Among these, while the factor anxiety was found to be a significant factor in pre-intermediate level and the factor comfort was the significant factor in the upper-intermediate level. Among the text selections, students prefer to read, transactional texts had a positive correlation with L2 reading achievement. Finally, time students spend reading in English was found to be a significant contributor. Apart from the questionnaire data, the teacher interviews revealed that several other factors affect students&rsquo / reading motivation and their reading comprehension such as the classroom-specific motivational variables and the family and educational backgrounds of the students.