Abstract
The linkage between reading for pleasure and language ability has been well established, but the relationship between content-based recreational reading and academic achievement in various subject areas has rarely been explored. To investigate whether reading literature, social studies, and science trade books for pleasure is related to students’ growth in achievement for the subjects of Chinese, social studies, and science, respectively, this study used data from 4,730 students at a Taiwanese girls’ high school. Based on students’ high school entrance exam test scores in three subject areas as control variables, and their college entrance exam scores as the outcomes, the findings indicated that pleasure reading in a specific content area might lead to growth in achievement for that particular content area, and in some cases, reading in other content areas might help as well. A reading program that invites students to engage in self-sponsored reading can promote disciplinary literacy and academic achievement.
Highlights
Reading for pleasure is a key learning experience, regardless of a person’s age
Previous studies have indicated that Taiwanese senior high school students spend less than one hour per week on reading for pleasure and instead focus mostly on academic-related activities (Chen & Lu, 2009), though time spent on reading for pleasure does contribute to students’ reading achievement as well as their general academic performance (Chen & Fang, 2015; Chen & Lu, 2009)
Based on the Western literature related to the importance of content area literacy and disciplinary literacy, this study explored whether reading certain kinds of books could help students develop a corresponding literacy
Summary
Reading for pleasure is a key learning experience, regardless of a person’s age. a high-stakes testing educational system may lead to “teaching to the test” at the secondary school level, with the result that adolescents may suffer from spending most of their time on academic-related activities rather than on recreational reading, a far-reaching educational practice (Chen & Lu, 2009; Merga, 2016). Mole and Bus (2011) meta-analyzed 99 studies that investigated the association between print exposure and components of reading across preschoolers, students in grades 1-12, and college students, and confirmed that reading for pleasure is connected to language ability for all levels of students. Their main findings are consistent with a developmental model of reading comprehension and technical reading and spelling, in which print exposure is considered to play an important role in shaping literacy. We conducted a study at a Taiwanese girls’ high school to determine whether reading literature, social studies, and science trade books for pleasure is related to students’ growth in achievement for the subjects of Chinese, social studies, and science
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