Nationally and in California, reading scores are below proficient. National and state statistics show that the majority of students are performing below proficiency in reading.The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) results for reading in 2015 showed that thirty-six percent of fourth-grade and 34 percent of eighth-grade students perform at or above the Proficient level in NAEP reading tests (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading). NAEP also reports that California 4th grade students performed lower than the national averages in all years from 1992-2015. Some researchers and educators claim that one influencing factor for these low scores is an overall decrease in students’ personal reading time. These educators and researchers claim that an increase in independent, self-chosen, voluntary reading, or pleasure reading, would result in a rise of reading proficiency. One of the men doing extensive research on reading Stephen Krashen. He claims that “numerous research studies prove that wide reading improves children’s comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, fluency, and writing” (Krashen, 2004). Krashen’s studies date back to the 1980’s and 1990’s, when research on the correlation between pleasure reading and reading competency seems to have hit its apex. Another major contributor to information on America’s reading habits is The National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA conducts a national survey and report on literacy about every four years.Their 2004 report, Reading at Risk, alarmed our nation with its statistics on a widespread drop in reading rates. The latest report from 2015, Reading on the Rise, shows a mild increase in adult and child reading rates, especially when digital readers are involved. Linda Gambrell, professor of education at Clemson University, another frequently quoted researcher, summed up the NEA’s overall message, “Among the many findings reported by NEA is that reading for pleasure correlates strongly with academic achievement. Individuals who engage in reading for pleasure are better readers and writers than nonreaders. Children and teenagers who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading tests than infrequent readers” (Gambrell, L.B. 2008). Anecdotally, of course, most teachers and parents will affirm this assertion. We know that the kids who tote around books and read every chance they get are the ones with the highest scores on standardized reading tests and they’re often better writers, too. Research also supports this conclusion.Researchers Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988), studied the relation between the amount of student reading outside school and reading achievement for 155 fifth-grade students, and found that the reading of books was the best predictor of reading achievement. Researchers at the University of Connecticut designed a study to examine their hypothesis that increasing the amount of time spent independently reading student-chosen, appropriately leveled books in grades 3–5 would positively affect student achievement . Although they did not find a significant rise in reading comprehension over fourteen weeks, they did conclude that there was “evidence that enriched independent reading may be a promising way to increase reading fluency” (Reis, Eckert, et al, 2008). They also noted that they did not find recent research on the connection between extensive, independent reading and reading fluency and comprehension scores. Generally speaking, in conducting a search for literature and research on this topic, I found that the majority of widespread studies available on the correlation between students’ reading choices and their overall reading proficiency were done in the 1980’s, 1990’s. There seems to be a temporary increase around 2006 to 2008, perhaps due to the NEto a rising level of research about the effects of extensive reading on second language acquisition. Even Stephen Krashen’s most recent publications are in the field of second language learners. “In recent years, there has been phenomenal growth in the interest in ER (extensive reading) amongst L2 researchers and educators” (Yamashita, 2015). The lack of a current research-based connection between independent, or free, or pleasure reading in a first language has been noted by the National Reading Panel. They concluded that “based on the existing evidence, the NRP can only indicate that while encouraging students to read might be beneficial, research has not yet demonstrated this in a clear and convincing manner.” The panel called for research on the effectiveness of encouraging students to engage in independent reading and emphasized the need for rigorous experimental studies that measure a range of reading outcomes, including reading fluency and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). Some more recent statistics do support the supposition that reading for pleasure is connected to higher reading scores. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 4th graders and 8th graders who report reading for fun almost every day scored higher than 4th and 8th grade students who report never or hardly ever reading for fun. (https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/report.aspx) Many of the publications surrounding reading for pleasure and overall reading proficiency focus on a student’s affect toward reading - their overall attitude toward reading on their own that drives their decisions to read or not to read. Originally, I had not intended to include this in my study, but reading the literature, I changed my mind and decided to include a brief questionnaire with open-ended questions aimed at ferreting out my students’ thoughts on their enjoyment (or lack of it) in reading. In this way I can not only find information on the “what” and “how” of the correlation between pleasure reading and reading proficiency, but a little bit of the “why”.
2 Comments
Nai Saelee
3/16/2017 06:35:32 pm
Hi Nancy,
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Dan
4/2/2017 09:44:21 am
Hi Nancy,
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