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Motivation for Learning Reading Skill
MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING READING SKILLS
There have been several studied that covered various aspects of motivation with regards to reading skill. Baker, Scher & Mackler (1997) studied home and family influences on motivations for reading of children. They write that children whose have enjoyable encounters with literacy are likely to develop a “predisposition to read frequently and broadly in subsequent years.” Their “self –initiated interactions” with various writings at home are “important behavioral indexes of emerging motivations for reading.” The authors also write that “shared storybook reading” plays an important role in promoting reading motivations. According to them when the socio – emotional climate is positive, children become interested in reading and enjoy it. Parents’ beliefs about the purposes of reading and how children learn to read are very much related to children’s motivations for reading. Children of parents, who believe that reading is a source of entertainment, are positive about reading than of those parents who emphasize the skills aspect of reading development.
Powell, McIntyre, & Rightmyer (2006) in a study analyzed primary – grade classroom literacy instruction. They studied 73 activity settings where students were off task at least 25 percent of the time for instructional characteristics positively associated with student motivation i.e. choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences. Student off – task behavior was prevalent in classrooms where few of these six variables were present and instructional tasks were characterized as ‘closed’, i.e. where the products and processes were predetermined. Where there was indication of a high degree of off-task behavior, a disproportionately high number were from classrooms that used scripted literacy instructional programs.
Alves – Martins Peixoto, Gouveia – Pereira, Amaral & Pedro (2002) did research to analyze what strategies are pursued to protect self – esteem threatened by a “negative self-evaluation of school competence.” 838 students of secondary –school of seventh, eighth and ninth grades were observed. The collected data showed that there are significant differences between the self – esteem enjoyed by successful and unsuccessful students in the seventh grade. Such differences disappear in the eight and ninth grades. Success – related differences in domain –specific self – evaluation were also observed. It was stated that the students with low levels of academic achievement attribute less importance to school – related areas and reveal less favorable attitudes towards school.
Cox & Guthrie (2001) write that the amount that students read for enjoyment and for school is a major contributor to students’ reading achievement and knowledge of the world. 251 students in Grades 3 and 5 were administered questionnaires and a reading test. Results showed that amount of reading for enjoyment was greatest factor of motivation. In contrast, amount of reading for school was mostly for strategy use. However, these predictions were different for students in Grades 3 and 5. Findings of the study indicated that amount of reading is multiply determined by cognitive and motivational constructs, which is consistent with an engagement perspective on reading development.
Wang & Guthrie (2004) examined the extent that motivational processes facilitate the comprehension of texts and the extent of culture’s role in children’s motivational processes of text comprehension. “Relationships between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the amount of reading, past reading achievement and text comprehension were examined by utilizing structural equation modeling.” 384 Chinese and American students of fourth – grade were administered a reading test and two questionnaires regarding “reading motivation and reading amount.” The data showed that intrinsic motivation predicted text comprehension for both students groups and the extrinsic motivation negatively predicted text comprehension except when associated with intrinsic motivation. The influences of cultural on reading motivation, reading amount, and comprehension were discussed in this regard.
Valentine, DuBois & Cooper (2004) write that there has been extensive debate among scholars and practitioners about the influence of self – beliefs on academic achievement. They synthesized the findings of longitudinal studies investigating the relation between self-beliefs and achievement using meta –analysis. Estimated effects in this regard were “consistent with a small, favorable influence of positive self – beliefs on academic achievement, with an average standardized path or regression coefficient of .08 for self – beliefs as a predictor of later achievement, controlling for initial levels of achievement.” Stronger effects of self-beliefs were evident while assessing self-beliefs which were specific to the academic domain. Measures of self-beliefs and achievement were matched by things like ‘same subject area’. According to them, under these conditions, the relation of self-beliefs to later achievement meets or exceeds Cohen’s (1988) definition of a small effect size.
Wigfield, Guthrie, Tonks, & Perencevich (2004) wrote about “the nature and domain specificity of reading motivation.” They presented initial results according to which two reading instructional programs, Concept Oriented Reading Instruction and multiple Strategy Instruction influenced 350 participant learners of approximately third grade’s intrinsic motivation to read and their reading self-efficacy. Each reading program occurred during the fall of the school year and lasted for 12 weeks. Results of pre – and posttest analyses of learners’ responses to a reading motivation questionnaire showed that their intrinsic motivation to read and reading self – efficacy increased only in the CORI group.
Poskiparta, Niemi, Lepola, Ahtola & Laine (2003) to compare the development of motivational-emotional profiles from preschool to grade II between groups classified as poor readers, good decoders and good readers in grade II. To study the possibility that diverging motivational – emotional paths occur concomitantly with school experience. For this study a total of 127 children were followed longitudinally as sample from preschool up to grade II. Two different methods tapping motivational-emotional vulnerability were used. The researchers at preschool age and classroom teachers in grades I and II rated “children’s task, ego-defensive and social dependence orientations.” An experimental situation was arranged each year where children’s play behaviour with bricks was observed in free play vs. in induced pressure situations, and their motivational orientations were scored.
The results of this study showed that in preschool, the motivational-emotional profiles were almost the same among the three prospective reading-level groups, but in grades I and II, classroom teachers rated poor readers as “less task-oriented” and “more ego-defensive and socially dependent” in comparison with good decoders and good readers. It was therefore concluded that early problems in learning to read and spell are related to motivational – emotional vulnerability in learning situations in the school context (ibid.).
Seifert (2004) in a theoretical study of motivation described several theories of motivation. An underlying theme of the influence of emotions was used to unify the theories. “In these theories, emotions and beliefs are thought to elicit different patterns of behaviour such as pursuit of mastery, failure avoidance, learned helplessness and passive aggression. Implications emerged which focused upon creating classroom contexts that foster feelings of autonomy, competence and meaning as the catalysts for developing adaptive, constructive learning” (ibid.).
Whitehead (2003) studied the relationship between social class, notions of masculinity, intelligence and achievement in 16 – year – old boys in co –educational comprehensive schools in England and Wales. The study was based on the assumption that for males extrinsic motivation is the key to academic success. The results showed that intrinsic motivation is a “much stronger predictor of achievement than extrinsic motivation, which failed to discriminate between successful and unsuccessful boys.” The research also showed that the least successful boys were those who gave strongest support to the maintenance of the traditional sex roles in society and who themselves intended to follow that role.
Baker & Scher (2002) studied 65 six year old 1st graders from different sociocultural backgrounds. They and their mothers participated in this study for examining children’s motivation for reading in relation to parental beliefs and home literacy experiences. The results of this study revealed that the beginning readers had mostly positive views about reading and no differences in motivation were associated with income level, ethnicity, or gender. Children’s motivation was not associated with frequency of storybook reading or library visits. Frequent use of basic skills books was negatively associated with motivation. The study showed importance of measures other than “quantitative indices of home literacy experiences” for the development of motivation for reading. Parents, who believe that reading is pleasurable, convey a perspective that is appropriated by their children. Parents may directly convey this to children through their words or only indirectly through literacy experiences.
Sonnenschein & Munsterman (2002) studied the influence of home – based reading interactions on 5 – year – olds’ reading motivations and early literacy development. In order to understand the impact of home – based reading practices on young children’s literacy development they considered comments made while reading as well as the affective quality of the reading interaction. Five – year – olds were observed reading one familiar and another unfamiliar book with any member of their family including parents and older siblings. Children under observation were from various African – American and European –American families. Almost 83% of the children were from low income families. Comments made about books and the quality of the interactions was coded. Parents were interviewed about the frequency with which their children engaged in reading activities at home.
Assessments were made about their phonological awareness, orientation toward print, and story comprehension during the spring of kindergarten. Their motivations for reading were also assessed at the start of first grade. The study showed that comments about the content of the storybook were the most common type of utterance during reading interactions. Apart from that, the reported reading frequency was also correlated with their early literacy – related skills. The affective quality of the reading interaction was the most powerful predictor of their motivations for reading. The results emphasized the importance of the affective quality of reading interactions for raising children’s interest in literacy (ibid.).
Aarnoutse & van Leeuwe (1998) carried out a study to determine the degree to which reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading pleasure, and reading frequency can be predicted by earlier measures of the same variables and the degree to which path models and common – factor models explain the correlational structure of the development of these four aspects of reading. It appeared that scores for reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading pleasure, and reading frequency measured at a particular point in time could be predicted quite well. The precision of the prediction for reading comprehension and vocabulary was found to be better than for reading pleasure and reading frequency. A shared common factor did not appear to underlie the development of reading comprehension, vocabulary, reading pleasure and reading frequency. Just as the development of reading comprehension and vocabulary appears to have a common source, the development of reading pleasure and reading frequency also appears to have a common source. Reading pleasure and reading frequency run rather autonomously with respect to reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Nolen (2001) carried out an ethnographic study to explore kindergarten children’s emergent motivation to read and write, its relation to their developing concepts of reading and writing and to their teachers’ instructional goals and classroom norms. The teachers and students constructed literate activity in the classrooms. This construction framed the motivation of students who were at risk for developing learning disabilities in reading and writing. The kinds of reading and writing activity that were sanctioned in each class and the role of collaboration among students colored their views of the purposes of literacy and their own ability to learn. Findings of the study reveal that young children have literacy motivation influences, and they are influenced by, their classroom literacy culture.
Yair (2000) studied motivation on the basis of the fact that several US school and instructional reforms had sought ways to counter trends of mediocrity in education. These reforms were grounded in structural motivation theories postulating students’ learning experiences optimized when instruction is authentic, challenging, demands skills, and allows for student autonomy. This study investigated effects of these structural characteristics of instruction on students’ learning experiences. The results showed that high quality learning experiences are indeed authentic, allow choice, and demand student skills. Boring experiences are produced when these instructional characteristics are absent. Yair concluded that structures of instruction that disaffect students, are very much represented in students’ daily school life while those that motivate them toward reading are not frequent enough.
Davies & Brember (1999) carried out an eight – year cross – sectional study to measure self – esteem, reading and mathematical attainments of 8 2 – 6 year old children. Overall, there were found significant positive correlations between the children’s self – esteem and their attainment scores. There were no significant correlations the discussion centers on the possible link between national testing and self – esteem.
Mazzoni, Gambrell & Korkeamaki (1999) examined changes in first – and second – graders’ reading motivation across the course of a school year in two countries. They compared students in the United States and Finland. They were set to explore possible developmental patterns in early reading motivation that operate universally across cultural contexts. The most significant finding revealed that in both countries, first – graders’ reading motivation significantly increased across the course of the school year. The second – graders’ reading motivation did not increase on the other hand. Keeping in view that the children begin school at age 6 in the United States and age 7 in Finland, the result reveals that reading motivation occurred during the first year of schooling for both countries, regardless of age and cultural differences. Findings show a relationship between the initial acquisition of reading skills and reading motivation in that learning to read during the first year of school, in itself, may be a powerful motivator.
Ivey & Broaddus (2001) write that the middle school students are often characterized as disinterested readers. They studied students as primary informants about what motivates them to read in their middle school classrooms. They surveyed 1,765 sixth – grade students in reading and language arts classrooms in 23 diverse schools in the mid – Atlantic and northeastern United States. Students described through open ended responses, short answers and checklist items how classroom environments motivated their reading. Follow – up interviews were also conducted with 31 students in 3 classrooms. The researchers identified several findings about positive features of instruction. Students valued independent reading and the teacher’s reading aloud as part of instructional time. When asked what they liked most about time spent in class, students focused on the act of reading itself or personal reasons for reading rather than on social aspects or activities related to reading. Students emphasized quality and diversity of reading materials rather than classroom setting or other people that motivated them towards reading. While the study several issues also emerged about access to reading materials at school.
McQuillan & Au (2001) write that studies on reading motivation have found that access to reading materials has an important influence on the amount students choose to read. There are few studies, however, that have examined print access in a comprehensive way to include home, school, and community resources. In this study, surveys and reading tests were administered to a class of eleventh – grade students. Consistent with previous research, convenient access to reading material, regardless of a student’s reading ability, was associated with more frequent reading. In addition, more voluntary or “free” reading was associated with higher levels of reading proficiency. Implications for providing students with easier access to reading materials are discussed.
Baker & Wigfield (1999) carried out a study to assess dimensions of activity and achievement. They inquired about many possible dimensions of reading motivation, including self – efficacy, various types of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motives, social aspects of reading, and the desire to avoid reading. The students also completed several different measures of reading activity and reading achievement. The strength of the relations between reading motivation and reading achievement was greater for girls and for white students. “Cluster analyses revealed seven distinct groupings of children based on their motivational profiles that were related to reading activity and, to a lesser extent, to reading achievement.” The study shows that reading motivation is “multidimensional and should be regarded as such in research and in practice.”
School libraries can do a lot to motivate students towards reading. School libraries serve as the “factories of intellect.” The library atmosphere sets “behavioral pattern in students” and enables them “to acquire the competencies they need.” Through library, the student is introduced to the “concept of responsibility and accountability while treating the book as library property.” As a matter of fact, there is “no better place other than a school library to teach the child the art of study through self effort (Rahim, 2009, p. 21).
About the Author
Shamaila Ali Hasan
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