Reading For Pleasure Research Articles

The Benefits of Reading: A Reflection on Nyerere’s Contributions to Education and Reading Culture

This paper addresses the reading culture during the tenure of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first President of the United Republic of Tanzania (URT) from 1961 to 1985. The importance of fostering a reading culture and its consequences for personal and social development is well documented. Various stakeholders have consistently emphasized the need for society to embrace a reading culture for both individual and national betterment. This study was designed to determine the potential academic and lifelong benefits of cultivating a reading culture in society. It was constructed using synthesized information extracted from past and present sources, integrating and analysing that data to generate findings. The study employed a desk research approach, screening secondary data and documents collected from various published sources. Primary data played a secondary role in this research. The objectives of the study were: (1) to determine how reading culture functions as an interlocking system of habits and logistics, (2) to assess the social construction of reading communities, (3) to explore the ideological constructions of reading, and (4) to evaluate the role of reading in healing, serving as an important reference for improving readership culture in academic settings. Findings from the study confirmed the importance and pleasure of reading, as Mwalimu Nyerere once stated: “It is a fact that we must recognize; that in dealing with the modern world, children in Europe have two big advantages over our own children. One is familiarity with mechanical things; the other, and perhaps even more important, is familiarity with books.” - Mwalimu Nyerere, Arusha, 29th November 1965. Documented research, along with individual observations, highlights that many people in Tanzania lack the habit of reading books. The noticeable decline in reading culture is alarming and threatens the development of a well-educated and learning-oriented society, including the quality of the nation's workforce. This research concluded that while the problem of poor reading culture is more pronounced in higher learning institutions and has effects on the job sector, it is attributed to several factors presented in this study. The study recommended that steps to promote reading culture are crucial to preventing the collapse of the nation's workforce. It also suggested that promoting reading in schools and universities is essential, and enhancing the reading culture should be integrated into the curriculum.

New Ways for Doing Extensive Reading: Hyperlearning and Cultural Context

Extensive reading is an effective approach to learning reading. However, this approach is sometimes criticized since it is difficult to measure the improvements in learners’ reading skills. This is due to the primary objective of extensive reading being "reading for pleasure." A refreshment is needed regarding the learning process by adding some supplements to the learning activities. This paper proposes a fresh perspective on implementing an extensive reading project by incorporating the concepts of hyperlearning and cultural context-based reading. Hyperlearning is leveraging technology to improve the reading experience while also solidifying a profound value whilst the cultural context involves selecting texts that are relevant to the interests or background of the learner. By incorporating this approach into their learning experience, learners can improve their language skills while enjoying a more dynamic and personalized learning experience. In this way, learners will cultivate learning habits that are called "hyperlearners".

The Correlation between Students’ Reading Comprehension Skill and Reading Interest in High School

This study investigates the correlation between reading comprehension skill and reading interest in high school students specifically in English texts. The main objective of this study is to examine the correlation between reading comprehension skill and reading interest in high school students especially in reading English texts. The population of this study consists of second-grade students of a public school in Kutai Kartanegara regency, with cluster sampling will be employed to determine the sample. An English comprehension test and questionnaire of reading interest will serve as the research instrument, and both correlation test and ANOVA will be utilized for data analysis to examine the correlation between reading comprehension skill and reading interest on students. After the data was analyzed with the correlation test, it showed no correlation between students’ reading comprehension and reading interest in high school. According to ANOVA, the result indicated significant differences between the group that has high level of reading interest and those that has low interest. Future research could explore additional variables that may impact reading interests, such as preferences for different genres, motivational factors, and instructional methods aimed at promoting reading for pleasure.

Funds of courage: advancing social justice in children’s reading for pleasure

ABSTRACT Children’s reading for pleasure is associated with significant academic and personal benefits and is widely recognised as an effective way to leverage social change, yet in schools this is not fully capitalised upon. The authors connect extant research in this area to the seminal concepts of Funds of Knowledge and Funds of Identity to advance the notion of Funds of Courage and unify literature on dark Funds of Identity and subjective sense, in order to put forward a volitional reading agenda that resonates with the urgent need to innovate reading curricula. The authors argue that the twin psychological pillars of Funds of Courage – resilience and vulnerability – can enable teachers to progress children’s volitional reading practices more reciprocally and thus play a role in advancing social justice. In drawing on examples from recent work with both emergent and established readers, primarily focused on early years and early primary education in England, they seek to widen conceptual and practical understanding in this area.

Women Reading/Women Writing: Anxiety and Āzādī in Twentieth Century Urdu Pulp Fiction

Anglophone pulp fiction has been identified by Paula Rabinowitz as an important site for the production of modernity. I argue that Urduphone novels written by and for women likewise grappled with contemporary social issues and provided an important forum for the discussion of changing gender dynamics. Women novelists wrote fiction that engaged with intergenerational anxieties about changing power relations within the household. Debates on women’s freedom were inscribed in what were called ‘social’ novels, even while the women-centric reading experience was propelled by the engines of print capitalism. In this study, I trace the trajectory of mid twentieth century gender debates by conducting a close reading of Urdu novels by A.R. Khatun and Razia Butt. I also argue that, ultimately, reading for pleasure was an important way for women to participate actively in larger social debates about gender, religion and nationhood itself.

Reading for pleasure and early academic literacy with basic education teachers

Se reporta un trabajo de intervención con docentes de educación primaria del estado de Veracruz, realizado a través de un curso-taller virtual con el apoyo de herramientas digitales. Tuvo la finalidad de favorecer los hábitos lectores de docentes, así como brindarles elementos teóricos-metodológicos para instaurar los fundamentos de la alfabetización académica temprana con sus respectivos grupos. El trabajo se sustentó con la teoría constructivista y la teoría dialógica del aprendizaje, a partir de la metodología de investigación-acción y desde un paradigma de evaluación mixto. Se realizaron entrevistas individuales previo a la intervención, además de una prueba pretest-postest, para conocer el impacto de la misma. Los cuestionarios proporcionaron información de cada participante a través de preguntas abiertas y cerradas. Al contrastar los resultados se identificaron cambios, de tal forma que se aprecia que la intervención tuvo un impacto positivo en los participantes. Asimismo, se hicieron análisis estadísticos de las preguntas cuyos resultados denotan diferencias significativas en los hábitos de los docentes, así como en sus prácticas de enseñanza. Se concluye que fomentar el placer por la lectura en docentes incide positivamente en sus estudiantes.

The power of books: regular reading for pleasure and its impact on youth deviancy

The power of books: regular reading for pleasure and its impact on youth deviancy

From the Editor

[First part only] Dear Readers, Welcome to the first issue of our 28th Volume! This issue contains a “Special Issue” within it on “Between Indisposition and Perseverance: Disrupted Language Teacher Identities in Times of Uncertainty” ably edited by Hyunjin Jinna Kim and Huseyin Uysal. We hope that you will find it both informative and relevant to your own teaching context. In addition, this issue contains 8 feature articles. We offer our usual smörgåsbord for your reading pleasure, topics include learner autonomy, ChatGPT, sustainable development goals in global education, digital literacy, vocabulary knowledge for writing, speech pragmatics of hotel negotiations, migrant learners, and language learner beliefs. In order to make our articles useful to our global readership, we are strictly enforcing our policy that articles must be applicable to other contexts despite the research having been carried out in a single country. SCOPUS ranking improves. TESL-EJ’s ranking on the newly released 2024 version of scimagojr.com‘s SCOPUS listing has moved up to #253 from #267 out of the 312 journals in their Q1 “Linguistics and Language” category. We congratulate our editorial team, our contributors and you, the readers, for the steady improvement in our listing over the five years that we have been listed. Kudos. We are proud to say that past Review Editor, Ilka Kostka and our new Review Editor, Rachel Toncelli (see below) received the TESOL “Ron Chang Lee Award for Excellence in Classroom Technology,” while Huseyin Uysal, co-editor of the current Special Issue, received the “TESOL Leadership Mentoring Program Award” for 2024. Congratulations to all! Passages. Rachel Toncelli (Northeastern University) joins Dylan Burton on our Book Review Team. Dr. Toncelli was introduced by our former review editor and colleague, Ilka Kotska who co-authored the “On the Internet” article on ChatGPT in our November 2023 issue. We thank Behzad Mansouri for his long service to TESL-EJ as a co-editor, media review editor, special issue editor and special mentor to struggling authors. Behzad has now moved away from ELT, and is currently involved in a study of “community-engagement and leadership.” New book! We are pleased to announce another book publication, Tips for Writing Well: Research-Based Principles, by Scott Alkire. This volume contains 25 easy-to-read and easy-to-follow tips on effective academic writing. The topics range from how to find sources to improving your style to grammar and proofreading. It is free for download in PDF from this site. It will soon be available on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats. Our policy is that 100% of profits from this and all of our books go to supporting TESL-EJ’s mission to remain free from advertising, and free from subscription fees. Thank you for considering a purchase. Thanks to recent reviewers. We thank the reviewers of all submissions that had reached a decision since our last issue – regardless of whether the paper was accepted or declined. Thanks go to: Abdul Syahid, Adrian Leis, Ahmed Bashir, Andrias Susanto, Anh Ton-Nu, Aránzazu García-Pinar, Aurelio Vilbar, Azran Azmee Kafia, Baburam Upadhaya, Bao Trang Thi Nguyen, Betsy Gilliland, Boudjemaa Dendenne , Burak Senel, C-S Anna Chang, Chin Ee Loh, Cihat Atar, Claire Louise Rodway, Colin William Campbell, Dale Brown, Danial Babajani Azizi, Daron Benjamin Loo, David Berry, Eli Hinkel, Elisabet Murtisari, Emrah Cinkara, Eric Hagley, Fatemeh Ranjbaran, Flora Debora Floris, Frank Hermann, Gözde Balıkçı, Gina Paschalidou, Grant Eckstein, Ha Hoang, Hamid Bahador, Hjalmar Hernandez, I Putu Indra Kusuma, Ilka Kostka, Ismail Xodabande, Jofen Wu Han, Juland Salayo, Kathleen Eilers-crandall, Kuang Li, Kyle R. Van Horn, Larry Xethakis, Leonardo Veliz, Made Hery Santosa, Md. Didar Hossain, Meliha R Simsek, Michael Joseph Ennis, Minh Le, Mirjam Anugerahwati, Napak-on Sritrakarn, Nurkamilah, Omer Gokhan ULUM, Paul Mathieson, Penkhae Wongosuriya, Peter Ilic, Piyapong Laosrirattanachai, Rita Elaine Silver, Sachiko Nakamura, Shaun Manning, Shizuka Sakurai, Sophia Skoufaki, Theresa A Antes, Ufuk Atas, Valentin Werner, Vijayakumar Chintalapalli, Xiaoli YU, Xirui Cai, Yosefina Rosdiana Su and Zainurrahman. Another Special Issue production by Thomas Farrell is in the offing! Moving Forward With Reflective Practice in TESOL is now calling for contributions, to be published in the August 2025 issue. Best wishes, Thomas Robb, for the Editorial Team

‘The book’s a conversation starter’: a realist exploration of the salutogenic potential of reading for pleasure

Reading for Wellbeing (RfW) is a pilot initiative, aimed at improving mental health and well-being through supporting access and increasing opportunities to read for pleasure. RfW was implemented across six...

Correlation of Sedentary Lifestyle and Interest in Physical Education Learning among Adolescents

This study determined the correlation between sedentary activities and interest in Physical Education learning in adolescents. Correlational analysis was utilized in this study, with a sample of 33 students obtained using an accidental sampling technique. The research instrument used an ASAQ questionnaire to acquire sedentary activity data and a learning interest questionnaire that had been tested for validity and reliability values of 0.801> 0.60. The results revealed that the sedentary activity of watching videos/DVDs was the highest, with an average duration of 95.09 minutes/day, and the sedentary activity of reading for pleasure was the lowest, with an average duration of 19.91 minutes/day. Meanwhile, the average interest in Physical Education learning is medium. The product-moment correlation test showed that the Pearson correlation value is -0.350, so it can be concluded that sedentary activities and interest in Physical Education learning have a significant negative correlation. The result stated that the highest sedentary activities had the lowest learning interest.

Beyond Words

Beyond Words

New Trends in Students’ Reading Habits

The technology era has caused many changes in the reading habits of students, starting in 2011. However, the universities were not prepared for the enormous challenges they faced with the Pandemic, in late 2019 and early 2020. The pandemic has accelerated the habits of students toward digital resources and the use of more and more electronic materials. Facing this phenomenon, accelerated by the effects of Covid-19, the universities have to face the necessity of the adaptation of teaching methods which meant the use of digital materials. The article analyses the change in reading habits and the teaching methods in the Albanian and Kosovan context, showing how the universities in the Republic of Albania and Kosovo have been affected by these changes, embracing approaches to information technology. For this purpose, we have analyzed the changes in reading habits in different public and private universities in Albania and Kosovo. A tested questionnaire has been spread to 672 students in both countries, in different programs and different years of studies. The article shows that under the influence of globalization processes and the development of information technology, reading habits are changing at a frenetic speed, weakening hard copy reading and increasing electronic and that under the Pandemic Covid-19 universities changed the ways of offering teaching methods, accelerating the change of the reading habits of students and weakening the use of printed books as a tool for learning, as well as decreasing the time of reading for pleasure. A more dynamic world caused more focused universities and more rapid changes in the reading habits of the students.

The Study on English Reading Anxiety of Chinese College Undergraduates Based on the Broaden-and-Build Theory

Among many factors that affect students' English reading performance, reading anxiety, which is an important emotional factor in English learning, has gradually attracted attention in recent years. There is enough evidence that anxiety, as a kind of negative emotion, can significantly affect students' reading performance. However, the current researches mainly focus on the differences in students' reading performance caused by anxiety. Relatively few studies have been carried out on the correlation between reading anxiety, anxiety causes and coping strategies. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the causes and coping strategies of English reading anxiety based on quantitative and qualitative research. The research refers to Saito's Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale to design a questionnaire and measure the degree of Chinese college students' English reading anxiety. Based on the broaden-and-build theory and combined with the interview results, it is concluded that Chinese college undergraduates have English reading anxiety in general. Nevertheless, by establishing pleasant reading resources and adopting effective coping strategies, learners can reduce English reading anxiety, thus improving reading ability and enhancing reading interest.

Reading for Pleasure: A Review of Current Research

The narrative review examines the current state of research on reading for pleasure and its relevance in education and personal development. By analysing 22 studies published over the past several years (2014–2022), the authors have sought to identify the key trends and areas of focus within this field. The selected articles have been coded and analysed, and the results have been used to, among others, examine the type of research on reading for pleasure, the subject areas covered, the research methods used, the variables analysed, and the target groups involved. A particular attention has been paid to possible conceptualisations of reading for pleasure and reading for pleasure pedagogy, to the type of reading and the texts reading for pleasure may predominantly be associated with, as well as to its social dimension and relationship to the digital literary environment. The literature review shows that the studies on reading for pleasure highlight the importance of personalisation in reading for pleasure pedagogy and acknowledge the role of the material and social dimension of reading. Further, there are signs of a broader definition of reading materials, like comics, also in the educational context. The findings of the present review indicate the gaps in the research of reading for pleasure and highlight the need for a more profound understanding of the title concept and its benefits, thus contributing to the development of its future research and promotion.

Nurturing Reading Logs to Foster Students’ Reading Habits

Reading habit influences language proficiency. Teachers have used Extensive Reading (ER) as a strategy to enhance students’ reading habits. The present study investigated how reading logs influenced the reading habits of 28 EFL learners in Reading courses using a qualitative research approach. Data were collected using observations, classroom discussions, and students’ reading logs. Study participants were students enrolled in an Extensive Reading class who had undertaken an Intensive Reading class in the preceding semester as a prerequisite subject. Reading logs improved rates of reading. Nurturing reading logs helped students enhance their reading habits based on word count, number of books/articles read, and their reflections on their reading attitudes. Lecturers should promote a reading atmosphere in which students are encouraged to read for pleasure. All EFL learners should have access to more reader books and an ongoing schedule of extensive reading to foster good reading habits.

Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America by Tara Bynum (review)

Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America by Tara Bynum (review)

Undergraduates’ Perspectives on Promoting Pleasure Reading Facilities in University Libraries: A Case Study

Pleasure reading refers to free, voluntary, and non-goal-oriented reading that provides enjoyment or pleasure to the reader. The promotion of pleasure reading is not typically considered a priority in most university libraries. However, recent studies strongly suggest that pleasure reading can have significant, positive impacts on the overall performance of university library users. This study presents undergraduates' perceptions of pleasure reading facilities at the main library of the University of Colombo, as well as their expectations regarding the promotion of these facilities. The results of this study demonstrate a significant population of pleasure readers with diverse reading habits. Most pleasure readers are frequent readers (74.6%, n=209). Novels are the most popular type of reading material (77.5%), followed by non-fiction and short stories. Realistic fiction (33.3%) is the most popular genre among them, followed by fantasy and mystery. A majority of pleasure reading undergraduates have a very positive perception of the benefits of pleasure reading. The three most accepted benefits of pleasure reading were; pleasure reading helps to relax, gives enjoyment and helps to escape from routine work. Most of the participants believe that the promotion of pleasure reading should be a priority for a university library. Among all the facilities related to pleasure reading at the Main Library of the University of Colombo, most of the readers have rated the suitable library environment and the availability of a supportive staff. Pleasure readers prioritize suggested initiatives such as displaying new arrivals and implementing a Readers' Advisory Service to promote pleasure reading in the library.

Reading for pleasure: scrutinising the evidence base – benefits, tensions and recommendations

Compelling international evidence illustrates the potential of reading for pleasure for enhancing student reading achievement along with other learning and wellbeing outcomes. Yet profound challenges exist for nations seeking to encompass attention to students’ volitional reading. In this paper we critically review the growing research evidence in this area by drawing systematically on cognitive psychological studies of reading attainment and motivation, educational studies of classroom practice, and the work of literary scholars and medical professionals. We consider and critique the methodologies deployed and read between the lines, exposing contradictions and complexities across this interdisciplinary field before considering the demands of operationalising this agenda in education. Through a dual focus on England and Australia, where, exemplifying international trends, young people’s voluntary reading continues to decline, we examine difficulties and dilemmas which play out in policy and practice contexts. Our points of commonality and comparison surface key issues for consideration in countries working to reconcile the push and pull of performativity and reading for pleasure agendas in order to nurture children’s volitional reading. To conclude, we examine ways forward for research, policy and practice which deserve increased global attention, and offer future-focused recommendations to advance this significant social justice agenda.

Learning how to read children's books in the digital society: Book trailers as an educational tool in higher education

The new multimodal reading ecosystem currently contributes to the proposal of forms of mediation that take into account the hybridization of digital and analog paradigms. In this context, illustrated books intended for children can constitute an area of interest, since their discursive and aesthetic codes contribute to the development of multimodal reading strategies and to the positioning of the child reader before the information, at the same time that they generate pleasant reading and knowledge-building experiences. Accordingly, today’s publishing market requires a learning process from the mediator in order to develop the corresponding strategies with which to approach children’s books. Previous research has focused on the book trailer as a virtual epitext for the promotion of publications, and it has analyzed the identity of this tool to demonstrate its effectiveness in the promotion of reading. Along these lines, and with the purpose of verifying how this tool behaves in the introduction of future teachers to children’s books, an intervention is proposed that is based on the creation of book trailers. A total of 860 students from the Early Childhood and Primary Education teaching degree programs participated in the intervention. It included qualitative research that analyzed the documents/epitexts created by the students, written reflections within the framework of this project and the discourse collected a posteriori in interviews and discussion groups on the experience. The results reveal the potential that creating book trailers has for introducing teacher trainees to illustrated children’s books within the framework of the digital society.

Widening Teachers' Reading Repertoires: Moving beyond a Popular Childhood Canon

AbstractTo develop a love of reading in the young, teachers need rich repertoires of children's literature and other texts. However, the significance of this subject knowledge is rarely given the attention it deserves in policy, practice, or training contexts. This article, drawing on survey data from England and Finland, underlines these concerns. It reveals that in line with the surveys of practicing teachers, preservice teachers in the study also rely upon a narrow range of high‐profile authors, mainly from childhood, and that these very distinctly lack diversity. The authors reflect on the reasons for professional over‐reliance on this popular childhood canon and the potentially constraining consequences for child readers. They present key approaches to enable educators to develop diverse, in‐depth literary repertoires and argue for the development of Reading Teachers—informed reading role models who effectively deploy responsibility, rigor, and relevance: the three Rs of reading for pleasure.