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The aim of the study was to examine whether an intervention with the Rydaholms method leads to better decoding skills, improved reading comprehension and increased interest in reading. The participants were the third grade primary school children. A five-week training with the method was performed and children's results in reading speed, decoding and reading comprehension were compared to the pretest results. The interest in reading was measured with a questionnaire prior and after the invention was done. The results showed that the children had improved their decoding but not their reading comprehension. All the children reported a higher level of reading interest after the intervention. The results are discussed in relation to the research favoring training in spelling and decoding as a primary method to improve both decoding and reading comprehension and methods that combine training in spelling and comprehension. The study could show that improved decoding skills do not automatically lead to better reading comprehension due to a short-term memory advantage but training in comprehension strategies is needed. The finding that improved decoding lead to increased interest in reading gives support for the research that claims that decoding skills are fundamental for children's own view on reading.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how school librarians describe that they can help students with their reading and linguistic development within the school subject Swedish by motivating them to read. We also intend to study if they take on a more didactic teaching role when it comes to the students’ linguistic development by utilising and reading comprehension strategies in their work with the students. The theories applied encompass different reading comprehension strategies, motivation for reading and theories of preunderstanding together with Lev Vygotskijs theories about the socio-cultural perspectives. The empiric material have been collected through interviews with four school librarians and observations of three. The material have been analysed and interpreted through theories and earlier research. The major findings are that the school librarians can affect the students’ motivation for reading by presenting new books, by allowing the students to choose their own books and by providing a broad variety of book to choose from. Furthermore we found that the librarians use severar methods for reading comprehension in their work, for example Concept Oriented Reading Instruction and Reciprocal Teaching.

The purpose of this study is to compare methods and working materials that a number of Swedish and Turkish educators are using in order to teach reading skills in first grade. It also aims to examine how educators stimulate students’ interest in reading. The study is based on four interviews with teachers from both Sweden and Turkey, where they all teach in first grade. Differences and similarities in the answers from the interviews are compiled in a table. The results of the study shows that the educators uses several different methods in order to teach reading skills. We can also see in this study is that the methods that the educators choose to work with is not essential for the result. It is the competence of the educators that is the most important object to teach reading skills. The results also shows that the process of learning to read in Sweden and Turkey do not differ significantly from each other. It was found that almost all educators uses reading books, books letter, reading for home works and reading aloud in reading lesson. The study also shows that the biggest difference between Turkey and Sweden in way of teaching reading skills is the curricula for the reading skills.

The problem of this study is the identification of differences in reading interests and preferences of Indian, Black, and white adolescents of both sexes and from different high school grade levels as they are related to (a) educational background of the parents, (b) availability of reading materials, (c) community size, and (d) the extent to which these preferences are represented in the standard selection aids for secondary school reading materials. A reading interest inventory was administered in the fall term, 1972, through English classes in twenty integrated schools in Oklahoma, representing three levels of population concentration. Community resources in reading materials available through school libraries, public libraries, and bookstores were evaluated. The reading inventories of 3,581 students were chosen to be evaluated to determine if there were significant differences at the .05 level. Earlier studies have indicated that sex and age are major factors in determining what teenagers read about and that adolescents' reading interests tended to be unique, personal, and very unpredictable.- Few studies have been reported that involved ethnic origin or family levels of education.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka elevers läsintresse och vilket samband det kan ha med deras läsläxa. Resultatet grundar sig på kvalitativa intervjuer från 16 elever och två lärare från två olika skolor. På den ena skolan får eleverna själva välja litteratur till sin läsläxa och på den andra skolan har eleverna en gemensam läsläxbok i klassen. Studien undersöker huruvida elevernas läsintresse skiljer sig beroende på om de får välja litteratur själva eller inte. Tidigare forskning beskriver betydelsen av att eleverna får välja böcker som de är intresserade av men också att det finns många andra faktorer som påverkar elevers intresse för läsning såsom läsförebilder och hemmiljö. Under intervjuerna framkom det att alla elever som får välja sin litteratur själva gillar att läsa och att de elever som blir tilldelade bok har ett mer varierat intresse. Eleverna som får välja sin läsläxa själva läser också i större omfattning generellt sett än vad de elever som har en gemensam läsläxbok gör.

För att elever ska öka sin läsförmåga är det centralt att de får läsa mycket samt att de får undervisning och stöd när de ska bearbeta en text. På grund av att alla elever inte får tid till att läsa förlorar de som inte läser delar av sin läsförmåga. Syftet med studien är att utifrån den sociokulturella teorin undersöka hur elever uppfattar den enskilda läsningen i klassrummet. Studien utgår från en fenomenografisk ansats och semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts för att samla in det empiriska materialet. Totalt har tolv elever i årskurs 3 deltagit. När intervjuerna hade genomförts transkriberades de och sedan analyserades de utifrån en tematisk analys i sex olika steg. Resultatet visar att eleverna främst har en positiv inställning till enskild läsning, dock hade de önskat att få välja bok mer fritt. Det har framkommit i föreliggande studie att det finns både för- och nackdelar med det. Eleverna i studien berättar om viktiga aspekter som de behöver när det kommer till enskild läsning, dessa är: val av bok, lärarens stöd, tid till enskild läsning och efterarbete. Detta framkom i analysen av resultatet. / In order for students to increase their reading ability, it is central that they read a lot and that they receive instruction and support when they have to process a text. Since that not all students get time to read, those who do not read lose parts of their reading ability. The aim of the study is to examine, from the sociocultural lense, how students perceive individual reading in the classroom. The study is based on a phenomenographic approach and semi-structured interviews have been used to collect the empirical material. A total of twelve students in year 3 have participated. When the interviews were completed, they were transcribed and then analyzed based on a thematic analysis in six different steps. The results show that the students mainly have a positive attitude towards individual reading, however they would have liked to be able to choose a book more freely. It has emerged that there are both pros and cons to it. The students in the study talk about important aspects that they need when it comes to individual reading, these are: choice of book, teacher's support, time for individual reading and post-work. This emerged in the analysis of the results.

Over the last decade, the idea of providing students with choices in their learning experience has attracted academic interest (Flowerday & Shraw, 2000; Katz & Assor, 2007; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008). Although some previous research has suggested that choice is beneficial to language learning, other research has indicated that choice has negligible (Iyengar & DeVoe, 2003) or even damaging effects (D’Ailly, 2004; Stefanou, Perencevich, DiCintio, & Turner, 2004) on language acquisition. Considerable differences in the focuses of previous research can explain the conflicting results of these choice studies (Iyengar & DeVoe, 2003; Schwartz, 2004); however, researchers agree that choice is closely associated with motivation (Stefanou et al., 2004). For instance, various motivational models, such as self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), include the concepts of choice, autonomy, and control as key elements of intrinsic motivation and performance. This study had three main purposes, the first of which was to quantitatively examine the relationships among Reading Anxiety, Autonomy, Interest, Reading Self- Efficacy, and Reading Proficiency in Japanese EFL students in a first-year pre-intermediate reading course. The second purpose was to quantitatively examine the effect of having No Choice, Option Choice, and Active Choice (Reeve, Nix, & Hamm, 2003) on Reading Anxiety, Reading Autonomy, Reading Interest, Reading Self-Efficacy, and reading performance over one academic year in a foreign language reading curriculum. The final purpose was to qualitatively corroborate and support the quantitative findings through a series of structured interviews based on students’ beliefs and attitudes toward the provision of choice in the reading curriculum. A quantitative quasi-experimental design supported by a qualitative phenomenological component was used during the year-long longitudinal study with 201 first-year Japanese EFL students at a private university in Japan. Nine intact classes were randomly assigned into three groups: No Choice (n = 66), Option Choice (n = 67), and Active Choice (n = 68), as defined by Reeve et al. (2003). Affective Variable Questionnaires were administered to measure the levels of Reading Anxiety, Reading Autonomy, Reading Interest, and Reading Self-Efficacy before, during, and after a 32-week treatment. The results of reading performance measures, including Vocabulary Definition and Vocabulary in Context quizzes, Intensive Reading tests, Extensive Reading quizzes, Timed Reading assignments, Composite TOEFL, and TOEFL Reading component scores were tracked over the academic year. The results showed low to medium Pearson correlations ranging between r = - .39 to r = .29 among Reading Anxiety, Reading Autonomy, Reading Interest, and Reading Self-Efficacy. In addition, a stable, significant relationship was found between Reading Self-Efficacy and Reading Proficiency, as measured by students’ TOEFL scores and TOEFL Reading Component scores at the start and end of the academic semester. Initially, no such relationship was found between Reading Anxiety, Reading Autonomy, Reading Interest, and Reading Proficiency. However, by the end of the academic year, significant correlations were found among the Reading Autonomy, Reading Interest, Composite TOEFL, and TOEFL Reading component scores. The results indicated significant changes in the affective variables within each group over the academic year. Over the year, significant decreases in Reading Anxiety, and significant increases in Reading Self-Efficacy in each of the three groups were particularly salient. In addition, there were significant changes in many of the Reading Performance measures for each of the groups; however, only the Active Choice group had significant changes in all seven Reading Performance measures over the year. In terms of the effect of choice on the affective variables, students in both the Active Choice and the Option Choice groups had significantly higher Autonomy gains than students in the No Choice group over the academic year. Thus, giving students any type of choice in their reading curriculum exerted a positive effect on Reading Autonomy. With regards to the effect of choice on reading performance, mixed results were found in the reading components among the three groups. First, in the Intensive Reading and Timed Reading components, students in the Active Choice group performed significantly better than students in the Option Choice and No Choice groups. This finding indicated that when choice is given to students, it is necessary that the locus of control be with the student. With respect to Vocabulary Definitions and Vocabulary in Context components, both the Active Choice and Option Choice groups had significantly higher scores than the No Choice group. In other words, any choice was considered better than no choice. The type of choice had no effect on the Vocabulary components. In Extensive Reading, the Active Choice group significantly outperformed the No Choice group in the Extensive Reading quizzes; however, the Option Choice group was not significantly different from the other two groups. The results indicated that only autonomous choice led to greater self-determination, and increases in performance. Finally, no differences were found among the three groups in the Composite TOEFL scores and the TOEFL Reading component scores. The quantitative findings were corroborated by interviews with 18 students with a wide range of motivation and reading performance, as measured by the Affective Variables Questionnaire and the reading performance measures. The students were interviewed about the treatment process and their feelings about having choice in the reading curriculum. Common themes derived from the interview data indicated that choice affected students’ sense of Reading Autonomy. A common pattern emerged from the data indicating that students in the Active Choice group with lower levels of affect and reading performance were less comfortable making choices than students with higher levels of affect and reading performance abilities. Additionally, students in the No Choice group with higher levels of affect and reading performance were frustrated by the lack of choice in the reading course. The study contributed four unique points to the field of choice in language learning. First, choice was found to increase students’ sense of Reading Autonomy, a key component in intrinsic motivation and successful learning (Littlewood, 1999). Next, having any type of choice was found to be beneficial in Vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, only autonomous choice was found to be advantageous in the more complex tasks of Intensive Reading, Extensive Reading, and Timed Reading. Finally, the benefits of choice did not extend to performance on the Composite TOEFL and TOEFL Reading components. The testing environment and the lack of choice available in standardized testing were demotivating and contributed to a decrease in reading performance. The mixed results of this study indicate that choice is a complex phenomenon. The field of choice in education and language learning offers a wealth of teaching and research possibilities for future study. / Teaching & Learning

Den här studien handlar om vilka samband som kan urskiljas mellan barns läsintresse och skrivutveckling. Har de barn som gillar att läsa mycket böcker någon fördel i sin skrivutveckling jämfört med de barn som läser betydligt mindre? Tidigare forskning visar att läsa och skriva är nära sammankopplade och det återspeglas även av resultatet som framkommit i denna studie. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts tillsammans med två olika skrivtest, för att kunna mäta respondenternas skrivutveckling. De teorier som ligger till grund för arbetet är kognitiva teorin och sociokulturella teorin, då det är två teorier som är nära sammankopplade med läs- och skrivutveckling. Resultatet visar att samtliga respondenter utvecklas i sin skrivutveckling. Det finns två respondenter som sticker ut från mängden, en av dem besitter en skrivkompetens men ett lästest visar att eleven behöver mer träning i ordförståelse, den andra respondenten kunde inte alla bokstäver i alfabetet vid första skrivtestet men skrev berättelser hemma. / This study is about the connections that can be discerned between children's interest in reading and their writing development. Do the children who enjoy reading books have an advantage in their writing development compared to the children who read considerably less? Previous research shows that reading and writing are closely associated and this is also reflected in the results of this study. The study is based on a qualitative method where semi-structured interviews have been conducted together with two different writing tests, in order to measure the respondents' writing development. The theories underlying the work are cognitive theory and sociocultural theory, since these theories are closely linked to the development of reading and writing. The result shows that all respondents become more proficient in their writing development. There are two respondents who stand out from the crowd, one of them possesses writing skills but a reading test shows that the student needs more training in word comprehension, the other respondent could not write all letters of the alphabet at the first writing test but wrote stories at home.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur lärare i årskurs 1–3 säger sig arbeta med skönlitteratur i undervisningen för att stimulera elevernas inre och yttre motivation till läsning. Den metod som användes för att samla in material är semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuer gjordes med fem lärare som arbetar i årskurs 1–3. Utgångspunkten för studien är tidigare forskning om läsmotivation samt teorier om begreppen inre och yttre motivation. Resultatet visar att lärarna arbetar på många olika sätt för att öka elevernas läsmotivation. De använder olika läsutmaningar för att eleverna ska läsa mer och de samtalar med dem om varför det är viktigt att läsa. Däremot visar resultatet att lärarna inte fokuserar på begreppen inre och yttre motivation i någon större utsträckning. Resultatet visar också de svårigheter lärarna möter i arbetet när de ska motivera eleverna till läsning. Lärarna berättade att en del elever inte har någon läskultur hemifrån och att vårdnadshavarna inte är stöttande när det kommer till läsning. Detta anser lärarna vara ett problem då det kan vara svårt att få dessa elever motiverade till läsning.