Abstract
BackgroundThis study aimed to identify motivation and home influence factors that predict reading literacy achievement of grade 4 students in Abu Dhabi It drew on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 data, which placed Abu Dhabi students' results substantially below the international benchmark of 500.MethodsSelected items from the PIRLS 2011 student and home questionnaires were analyzed in a regression model fitted using the IEA International Database (IDB) Analyzer software (version 4.0.20) to determine the effects of student intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation, reading self-efficacy, and home literacy environment on reading achievement.ResultsResults from multiple regression analyses showed that student's reading self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of student reading achievement, while a number of home context variables made significant and independent contributions. However, two variables that are widely claimed as key to the success of reading development and achievement, intrinsic reading motivation and parent involvement in learning, were shown to have either no or negative association with student reading achievement.ConclusionsThe findings affirm the important contributions of student self-efficacy, extrinsic motivation, and home literacy environment to the reading achievement of Abu Dhabi's 4th graders, which supports the design of a comprehensive and enabling literacy promotion strategy and program that integrates individualreaders, the school, and home literacy environments. Possible explanations of the observed relationships between intrinsic reading motivation, parent involvement in learning, and reading comprehension in the context of Abu Dhabi was also discussed.
Highlights
This study aimed to identify motivation and home influence factors that predict reading literacy achievement of grade 4 students in Abu Dhabi It drew on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 data, which placed Abu Dhabi students’ results substantially below the international benchmark of 500
Recognizing the critical importance of reading literacy in children’s early schooling, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi extended their commitment to evidence driven educational reforms through participating in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011, which is one of the most important largescale studies of literacy among young students around the world
While this may provide support to a popular argument among some Arab researchers that the low reading achievement of Arab students could be attributed to the Arabic orthography and diglossia (Abu-Rabia 2000; Saiegh-Haddad 2005, 2007), there has been increasing research unravelling the relationships between student motivation, family literacy environment, and reading comprehension (Becker et al 2010; Guthrie and Wigfield 2000; Taboada et al 2009; Wiescholek et al 2018)
Summary
This study aimed to identify motivation and home influence factors that predict reading literacy achievement of grade 4 students in Abu Dhabi It drew on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2011 data, which placed Abu Dhabi students’ results substantially below the international benchmark of 500. The PIRLS results of recent years consistently show that children in Arab countries in general score below the global average (Mullis et al 2012) While this may provide support to a popular argument among some Arab researchers that the low reading achievement of Arab students could be attributed to the Arabic orthography and diglossia (Abu-Rabia 2000; Saiegh-Haddad 2005, 2007), there has been increasing research unravelling the relationships between student motivation, family literacy environment, and reading comprehension (Becker et al 2010; Guthrie and Wigfield 2000; Taboada et al 2009; Wiescholek et al 2018). A few studies have drawn on PIRLS data to explore the effects of motivation on reading achievement, it is not always clear how the sampling and assessment errors inherent in large-scale student assessments such as PIRLS are accounted for, the failure of which is likely to lead to inaccurate results
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