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Research Findings: Shared book reading is important for children's early literacy development. Although there is an increasing number of dual language learners, few studies have examined families' shared book reading practices in their two languages. The current study examined Hispanic parents' beliefs and practices during shared reading in English and Spanish, and explored how their reading practices differ as a function of language and parental education level. Overall, Hispanic parents reported they read more frequently and had more books in English than in Spanish. Parents' feelings about shared reading and their interactive strategies during shared reading differed by education level, parents' preferred language, and book language. English-dominant parents engaged in more interactive reading strategies and reported more positive feelings when they read in English, while Spanish-dominant parents engaged in more reading strategies and reported more positive feelings when they read in Spanish. Practice & Policy: These findings highlight the importance of examining the language of reading interactions and parents' preferred language to understand the complex nature of reading interactions in Hispanic families. These findings can be helpful for researchers, educators, and intervention providers to offer families the appropriate support they need to engage in shared book reading.

There is a great deal of variability in how families read and interact with picture books. To understand why reading practices may (or may not) relate to language outcomes, a necessary step to understand what occurs in the home. The goal of this work is to better understand the frequency and nature of picture book reading at home with children between the ages of 0 and 30 months in the United States. In an online survey, 282 caregivers answered questions about their picture book reading habits. Book reading was overall very common. Over 90% of families reported reading at least weekly to their child and nearly 70% reported reading daily, with caregivers of older children reporting reading slightly more frequently than caregivers of younger children. Caregivers also reported reading picture book text as well as a range of extra-textual activities. These textual and extra-textual behaviors varied across families and varied with child age and language skills. This study provides insight into how much, and what kind of linguistic input children encounter during picture book reading, and how this input may vary with age.

During the preschool period, children's interest in reading increases, and their attitudes toward books develop with the means and opportunities provided by their teachers. Teachers' attitudes develop during their undergraduate education as pre-service teachers. This study aims to reveal preschool pre-service teachers' attitudes toward children's literature and reading habits and the relationship between these attitudes. The relational screening model was used, and the study was conducted with 343 preschool pre-service teachers. The data were collected through the "Preservice Teacher's Attitude toward Children's Literature Scale (ACLS)" and "Pre-service Teacher's Attitudes toward Reading Habit Scale (ARHS)." The descriptive, difference and correlation analyses were used to analyze the collected data. As a result of the study, the attitudes of preschool pre-service teachers toward children's literature were found to be high, and their attitudes toward reading habits were moderate. Regarding the differences in the attitudes according to the variables, the following results were obtained: female pre-service teachers' attitudes toward children's literature and reading habits were significantly higher than males; attitudes of 4th-grade pre-service teachers' toward children's literature were significantly higher than others; regarding the attitudes toward reading habits, the only significant difference is in the "attitude toward the development of reading habit" sub-dimension, in favor 1st-grade pre-service teachers; attitudes toward children's literature showed a statistically significant difference in favor of pre-service teachers who took children's literature course, but taking this course did not affect their attitudes toward reading habits. A positive and weak relationship was found between preschool pre-service teachers' attitudes toward children's literature and reading habits.

Reading habit is one if emulated judiciously is bound to reap rich benefits in the future. From being the most effective way in utilizing leisure time to the development of better cognitive ability, reading has an inevitable role. In this study an attempt has been made to enumerate the prevalence of reading habits among the school (6-12) and the college students. Survey is conducted in a hybrid mode, employing direct data collection pertinent to the school students and online survey for college students. Random sampling technique is employed and the data collected is analysed and interpreted in various ways. The comparison of the results of the school and the college students along with the overall trend has been deciphered. The results paint a grim picture of the plummeting reading tendency among the students and the utmost priority with which it should be addressed. An attempt has also been made to address the suitable alternatives in the near future to foster and inculcate reading among the young minds of the nation.

Background: This article describes how the National Reading Barometer project has redefined the concept of 'reading culture' in South Africa. Objectives: As expressed in the 2023 National Reading Survey (N = 4250) and the 2023 National Reading Barometer, a clearer description of reading cultures was developed to describe both individual reading practices (measured through the survey) and the national reading ecosystem (measured through the barometer). Method: We describe the survey and statistical tools developed to measure the new concept of reading cultures. This includes a survey questionnaire that introduced novel questions alongside established indicators. Reading is defined and measured through six distinct dimensions: reading purpose, habits, volume, depth, motivation, and identity. The expanded understanding of reading purpose includes reading for information, communication, and enjoyment. At an ecosystem level, the National Reading Barometer was applied to visualise data from the National Reading Survey and secondary data on reading ability, access to reading material, and enabling environmental indicators to provide a baseline for high-level longitudinal trends in the national reading environment. Results: The National Reading Barometer and National Reading Survey assisted to redefine the debate on reading cultures by providing evidence-based descriptions of varied reading cultures and situating these within the reading ecosystem. Conclusion: We conclude by proposing how this revised concept of reading cultures and the new tools for measuring impact may open research and policy advocacy opportunities in the literacy sector. Contribution: This article contributes a pluralistic, Afrocentric, and modernised understanding of reading cultures.

The appeals to intensify the habit of reading are so recurrent that it seems unnecessary to insist on its benefits for the development of the most important human faculties. Over time, however, this activity has been accomplished differently depending on its material conditions and, above all, on the functions that writing assumes. Nowadays the same value of writing is changing and reveals its last manifestation, the digital one, which creates texts that have not yet been transformed into actual works.

Reading is a skill that is initially taught in schools. Students are introduced to the alphabet and later learn to read texts. Reading Foreign languages is also introduced when students learn a foreign language. The student requires reading activities that include vocabulary learning. Extensive reading is one of the practical activities of reading. Nowadays, extensive reading activities include reading printed and digital text in e-books, journals, and internet and social media articles. In addition, digital extensive reading research on university students of agriculture is still rare. Thus, research on digital-mediated extensive reading in agricultural students' needs to be conducted to investigate whether it improves their reading comprehension. This study involved 84 agricultural students majoring Agroecotechnology study program. The participants take an English course. The data for this study was taken from the pre-test and post-test scores and questionnaire. The data will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the study shows that the digital-mediated extensive reading effectively enhances the student's reading comprehension in English as academic purposes (EAP) setting, and the students express that the digital-mediated extensive reading provides flexibility, technology utilization, and reading.

This review paper explores the role of individual differences in second language vocabulary learning, focusing on three key factors: out-of-class exposure (e.g., viewing TV, playing video games and listening to songs), strategic vocabulary learning, and motivation. Individual differences significantly impact vocabulary learning, making it crucial to understand how these factors contribute to learning outcomes. Yet, previous reviews have mainly overlooked out-of-class exposure in their discussion of individual differences. The current review shows that the three factors can have a positive effect on lexical development. There are some points to consider such as the need for a large amount of input for out-of-class exposure to be effective. Additionally, the review shows that both motivation and self-regulation are important for vocabulary learning and that they are positively related to vocabulary knowledge. It shows that more self-regulated and motivated students tend to have significantly larger and more developed vocabulary knowledge. By synthesizing findings from empirical studies on individual differences and vocabulary learning, this review provides insights into making vocabulary learning more effective.

Digital reading is ubiquitous, yet understanding digital reading processes and links to comprehension remains underdeveloped. Guided by new literacies and active reading theories, this study explored the reading behaviors and comprehension of thirteen fifth graders who read static digital texts. We coded for the quantity and quality of digital reading behaviors and employed action path diagrams to connect behaviors to comprehension. We used timescape analyses to visualize how behaviors were orchestrated differently across readers. Findings showed no single behavior was related directly to comprehension, indicating varying pathways to digital reading success. Occasional rereading seemed to support active reading and improved comprehension. Instances of students subverting expected digital tools were observed. Minor distractions like mind-wandering did not link to poor performance. This research deepens our understanding of self-monitoring and active reading in static digital contexts, offering insights for future study of more complex digital reading contexts like reading on the internet.

As opportunities for face-to-face teaching, in-person conference attendance, travel, professional exchanges, digital collaboration, and formal institutional and organizational partnerships have gained traction, English language teaching (ELT) professionals have the chance, once again, to engage in numerous types of collaboration. In this article, the authors begin by presenting a case study of their own cross-cultural partnership. Their collaborative efforts, which took place in both face-to-face and virtual modalities, centered on a joint ELT research project and related activities. In their case-study presentation, they describe the circumstances that led to their collaboration; the authors also provide a snapshot of the emphases of their joint research, the research-related activities that they engaged in, and the results of their efforts. The authors then turned to the lessons that they learned from their collaboration, lessons that they have framed as tips for successful collaborative efforts.

The present research aims to bridge the gap between prospective multi/plurilingual education and overarching personality psychology by examining how language constructs and basic personality traits are interrelated in pre-service teachers who are fundamental to language education. The first part of the study identifies items within the International Personality Item Pool that are indicative of language constructs, revealing intricate language-related expressions of personality involving listening, learning, speaking, reading and writing. The second part investigates the links between these language constructs and the Big Five personality traits based on a sample of 124 female pre-service primary school teachers aged 19 to 27. The results show significant multivariate relationships, indicating that individuals high in conscientiousness, openness and extraversion, and low in neuroticism, tend to exhibit preferences for listening, learning, speaking and reading. The findings suggest that there are personality-embedded nuanced language-related expressions of trait structures reflecting psychological needs for language competence, relatedness and autonomy in (co-)creation. The research underscores the importance of considering both language constructs and internationally validated personality traits in teachers and their students. It suggests that some teachers and students may naturally align with language-trait structures conducive to quality language teaching and, prospectively, to multi/plurilingual proficiency. Additionally, educational interventions can potentially influence the development of these identified conducive structures over time, offering insights into the stable psychological foundations for language development and consequent pluricultural competence.

This study explores the key challenges encountered in the implementation of extensive reading in the Thai context. The samples were 400 Thai students and teachers who were already familiar with the concept of ER. The participants' opinions, thoughts, and beliefs about the implementation of ER were also gathered through surveys and semi-structured interviews. The results reveal that these challenges include teachers' beliefs about ER; insufficient support from schools and educational authorities; teachers' workload and lack of training; and students' motivation and reading habits. Overcoming these challenges requires collaborative efforts between educational institutions, administrators, teachers, and students to provide adequate resources, training, and a supportive environment to promote a reading culture in the EFL classroom in Thailand. Extensive reading programs (ERP) can be effectively implemented in Thailand by recognizing and resolving these issues, which will improve language learning outcomes and a lifelong motivation for reading among students.

The lifelong learning strategy is one of the most significant strategies suggested for bringing up modern persons in the appropriate circumstances. This study attempts to identify, in terms of several characteristics, the lifelong learning tendencies of the Turkish language, literature, and Turkish teacher candidates. 297 students studying Turkish Language and Literature as well as Turkish Teacher Certification at a university in the east of Turkey make up the study's sample in the survey model. The Lifelong Learning Tendency Scale (Gür Erdoan & Arsan, 2016) was used to gather the research's data. The information gathered throughout the study was analyzed using four distinct methods, including frequency, percentage, t-test for independent groups, and Kruskal Wallis H test. The statistical software package SPSS for Windows 22.00 was used to analyze the data. The study's findings revealed that, when it comes to gender-related factors, female teacher candidates had stronger lifelong learning tendencies than male teacher candidates. It was discovered that teacher candidates who read books frequently--every day, every other day, and once a week--had better propensities for lifetime learning than those who read books just once a month. It was found that teacher candidates with stronger dispositions toward lifelong learning studied scientific/academic, personal development, adventure, novel/story, and literary genres. Additionally, it was discovered through the research that there was no significant difference in the lifelong learning tendencies of teacher candidates about factors like age, the department or major of science they studied in college, the grade level they studied in, family income level, the education levels of their mothers and fathers, and preferred reading model. In general, it was found that teacher applicants scored extremely well on the lifelong learning tendencies scale when it came to their responses regarding their degrees of willingness to learn and grow over time.

Reading, which improves language and mental skills, is the most effective way to reach information from the past to the present. The study tried to determine the relationship between the metacognitive reading awareness, reading intrinsic motivations, and reading motivations of eighth-grade students. The study group consists of 132 eighth-grade students in a secondary school in the Battalgazi district of Malatya province--the research design is a relational screening model. The metacognitive reading awareness scale," "Intrinsic Reading Motivation Scale," and "Book Reading Habit Scale" were used as data collection tools. As a result of the analyses, the students got moderate scores from the metacognitive reading awareness, intrinsic motivation, and book reading habit scales. Moreover, no notable difference was found in students' metacognitive reading strategies, reading motivations, and reading habits according to gender. The study suggests no significant link exists between "metacognitive reading awareness" and "intrinsic motivation to read," based on the correlation analysis conducted on the three scales. Nonetheless, there were exceptionally high positive correlations among the sub-dimensions of the scales.

The present article highlights the views of Slovenian language teachers on the introduction of comics in literature lessons in primary school. We were interested in Slovenian language teachers' views on the introduction of comics as an art-literary type of text as part of the literature curriculum as well as the use of comics as a literary-didactic method in literature classes. This was investigated via a questionnaire, which was fully completed by 121 Slovenian language teachers of the first to the ninth grade. The results show that factors such as gender, educational period taught, professional experience, field of study, highest level of completed education, source of skills related to the introduction of comics in the classroom, teachers' reading habits and attitudes towards reading comics, and agreement with stereotypical claims about comics per se have no influence on teachers' attitudes towards the use of comics in the forms studied. However, their attitudes towards the use of comics in the classroom are influenced by certain stereotypical attitudes of teachers towards comics. The most important limitation of our research was also the most important finding: teachers are neither empowered to introduce and use comics as an art-literary type of text in the literary curriculum, nor are they able to use comics as a literary didactic method in literature classes. There is a great need for teacher training and teachers should be empowered to use and introduce comics in all forms.

Potentially serving as the primary national literacy initiative, the Reading Seed Programme (RSP) by PUSTAKA Negeri Sarawak aims to enculturate a reading culture from an early age. For instance, RSP was invented to promote reading culture by having the pregnant mother read to their infant until the child was three years old. The process is vital to helping children learn to read from a young age and eventually empower them to be independent readers for life. Particularly, the objectives of RSP are to promote reading habits by getting parents to read to their children, strengthen a child's vocabulary, and develop their confidence, especially in reading. Thus, this paper is primarily designed to investigate the demographic differences between RSP participation and the programme's objectives, i.e., reading habits, parent's engagement, vocabulary ability, and confidence development. To assess how well the RSP achieved its goal of assisting toddlers in developing their confidence as readers. An online survey yielded 385 completed responses, representing a 92.33% response rate among RSP participants. The key findings indicated that the age of the child, mode of joining the programme, and year received the RSP's kits are the most important indicators of the usefulness of the programme (RSP and RSP's kits) and the programme's objectives attainment, especially in straightening the child's vocabulary and comprehension and developing their confidence, especially in reading and knowledge. Nonetheless, the results of this study highlighted the novelty of the early literacy programme of the RSP in cultivating the reading culture, parent-child engagement in reading, and preparing children to acquire knowledge.

This study examined the factors adapted from the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire. We considered eight dimensions (Self-Efficacy, Reading Challenge, Reading Curiosity, Reading Involvement, Importance of Reading, Recognition for Reading, Reading for Grades, and Social Reasons for Reading). In addition, we included some items based on the extensive reading, principles, and technology acceptance model. The study recruited 558 undergraduate students of English as a foreign language in Indonesia via Google Forms. The structure of the questionnaire was validated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. To determine the dependability of the instrument, internal consistency reliabilities of the instrument as a whole and per factor were calculated. We computed the average variance extracted and the Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio of Correlation to determine convergent and discriminant validities. The results led to the omission of six items with loading values < 0.50. The omissions included one item for Reading Involvement (0.42) and five items for Social Reasons for Reading (0.47; 0.43; n/s.; n/s.; and n/s.). Lastly, the study presented the significance of the results and directions for future studies.

Being recognized as one of the President's Lister (PL) in an academic institution reflects one specific student's dedication, intelligence, and hard work. Therefore, this research investigated and revealed the real-life experiences of students who achieved President's List status as they endeavored to maintain consistency amidst the challenges posed by the pandemic. This phenomenological research comprised 10 participants, evenly distributed between in-depth interviews (IDI) and focus group discussions (FGD). These individuals were exclusively selected from Kapalong College of Agriculture, Sciences, and Technology, all of whom were consistent President's List (PL) students enrolled in the Institute of Teacher Education (ITEd), specifically third-year and fourth-year students. The collected data underwent analysis through coding and thematic analysis. The findings of the study delineated varied experiences, coping mechanisms, strategies, and perspectives of the chosen PL students regarding their pursuit of consistency amidst the pandemic. Lastly, the findings and results of the study are deemed essential and beneficial to the field of education, especially in all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as this may serve as their basis for crafting guidelines and policies like special scholarships to these honour students in support to their consistency with their academic pursuit. The results could also provide valuable insights to the Commission on Higher Education for formulating a memorandum and updating the Program Standard and Guidelines, particularly in implementing a flexible learning approach while taking into account the preparedness of both students and educators.

Our research aims to predict students' academic performance by considering the variables affecting academic performance in science courses using the deep learning method from machine learning algorithms and to determine the importance of independent variables affecting students' academic performance in science courses. 445 students from 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades attending a school in Central Anatolian City in Turkey, participated in this study in the 2022-2023 school year. Data was collected with a. A deep learning method called deep neural network, one of the ways of machine learning, was used in data analysis. The average number of books read per year had the highest importance among the variables affecting academic performance in science courses. In addition, deep learning predicted students' final science scores with 90% accuracy. According to the results of this study, the percentage of the academic achievement prediction might be raised by reproducing the required data set for the data analysis method with deep learning. A forecast of the student's academic achievement with artificial intelligence and detecting the importance of variables' percentage might be researched for other courses in addition to the Science course.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of India reframed the present structure of higher education such as syllabi, examinations, and assessments. Due to the pandemic, many educational and research institutions are building a knowledge and skill-based curriculum and designing new credit-based courses, while encouraging students to attend online courses as a way to meet the recommendations of NEP. Any e-learning platform or online course has four basic components: Videos, Activities, Additional Reading Material, and Discussions, with Additional Reading Material being a more important component. Online courses that are open to everyone (MOOCs) can be adopted irrespective of the students' specialization or area. The instructor provides the reading material to the learners as a fixed, recommended list irrespective of the learner's interest or specialization. Instructors are finding it difficult to cater to the diversity of learners' interests and learning styles. In this paper, I have focused and analyzed the additional reading material and digital reading patterns of learners in various MOOC platforms by conducting online surveys. I concluded that there is a need to use learning eXtension Trajectories (LxT) in the learner-centric MOOC model where an instructor can identify various supportive domains and provide a shortened list of resources comprising various media to the learners.

Research suggests that reading compliance among higher education students is low, warranting enhancement of educational practices to support reading, especially for students enrolled in health professional programs. Researchers used a cross-sectional study design to explore the effects of a learner-generated podcast assignment as a reading supplement in occupational therapy education using two different survey instruments assessing student perceptions and learning styles. Forty-three Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) students participated in this study. Descriptive statistics indicated positive attitudes towards creating and preparing the podcasts but remained mostly neutral towards listening and watching podcasts. Tukey's HSD test for multiple comparisons detected tactile learners on average completed less readings (40%) compared to visual and auditory learners (60%-70%), with a significant difference (0.05) between visual and auditory learners. Learner-generated podcasts present an opportunity to enhance student learning, but further research is needed to determine the best educational practices.

Background: South Africa's reading problems are evident in tertiary education, particularly among students studying in a foreign language. Therefore, many reading researchers in South Africa have argued that poor reading skills among tertiary students are a direct result of poor reading skills at school. Some research has found that psychological factors such as test anxiety, self-concept, and attitude have a negative and significant impact on student academic performance. Objectives: Therefore, the current study focuses on self-concept as it specifically explores university students' self-perceptions as readers. Method: The study followed a qualitative research approach, and a case study design was deemed relevant for the study. A targeted sample of 65 respondents was selected to answer the open-ended questionnaire. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. Results: The findings showed that university students defined themselves as readers in different ways and their reading self-concepts were based on their reading behaviour. The students specifically described themselves as readers who enjoy reading, analytic readers, or reluctant readers with poor and slow reading abilities displaying inconsistent reading habits; they admitted that they only read for academic purposes including tests and exams. Conclusion: Students' reading self-concept has implications for reading instruction, student support, choice of reading material, reading motivation, and syllabus design. Contribution: The findings of the study provide data that could create English lecturers' awareness of their students' reading self-concepts so that they could change their students' reading culture.

Background: South Africans are widely perceived as not being a reading nation. For many South African children, their first encounter with books and stories occurs when they formally enter the schooling system. This raises the question of how teachers understand their role as reading role models. Objectives: This article aims to investigate how pre-service teachers who are registered at an open distance learning institution evaluate their reading habits. Method: The study employed phenomenography as a research design. All students registered for the Children's Literature module in 2023 were invited to participate in the study. The submissions of a formal forum discussion assessment of students who agreed to participate in the study were analysed and arranged in themes and codes using Atlas.ti. Results: The article shows that most students perceive themselves as readers, though for varied reasons. The findings suggest the rejection of a monolithic definition of a reader identity. Instead, the notion of categories of readers provides more valuable information for understanding reading behaviour and reader identities. Conclusion: This study confirmed that pre-service teachers are aware of the benefits of reading, though their actions to improve their reading ability, are inadequate. Contribution: Since pre-service teacher training is arguably an important opportunity for addressing the literacy crisis, the findings of this study emphasise the important role of teachers as reading role models.

This study investigated relationships among home reading practices, shared book reading (SBR) behaviors, and child literacy outcomes in young children with cochlear implants in Baltimore, Maryland. Parents (N=18) completed a home reading questionnaire and recorded themselves reading books with their children at home. Shared book reading sessions were coded for interactive reading behaviors. Children's early language skills and literacy skills were also assessed. We explored variability in these behaviors with regard to demographic characteristics and type of book; these exploratory analyses revealed that parents used more literacy teaching techniques when reading the wordless picture book and that parent interaction and engagement and literacy teaching techniques were more frequent with younger children than with older children. While many families frequently used interactive reading behaviors, our analysis did not find significant relationships between the parent behaviors and children's literacy scores. However, there was an interaction between the "amount" of reading and cochlear implant experience such that more cochlear implant experience was associated with better reading outcomes "only" for the group of children who received more reading time. In a sample of young children with cochlear implants, reading time, cochlear implant experience, and child language skills were better predictors of reading outcomes than parents' frequency of SBR behaviors alone.

Background: This paper investigates multiple antecedents of literacy in children, such as demographics, child reading behaviour, parent reading behaviour and family context. Methods: The study included a Romanian sample of 924 primary schoolers (Grades 1-4) and their parents; children and parents were tested with a standardised measure of literacy, and parents answered a number of self-report questions about their and their child's literacy-related behaviours. Results: Regression analyses and relative predictor weights showed a significant positive association between child literacy and child behaviour (time currently spent by the child reading books), as well as with family context (especially parent literacy), followed by demographics and, to a lesser degree, with parent behaviour. Conclusions: The findings provide a first solid understanding of the children's literacy phenomenon in the less investigated educational and cultural environment of Romania and encourage further research on this important topic.

This study explores the similarities and differences in reading strategies applied by students to Chinese versus English reading. 842 students responded to a reading strategy inventory in terms of their habits when reading in Chinese versus in English. The result validates the general structure of a reading strategy inventory originally designed for English. The general scale seemed reasonable for Chinese reading as well as English reading. However, gender differences were found on some items. In addition, there was no statistically significant correlation between strategy use and test scores, which is inconsistent with previous research. Besides, we found a strong correlation between English and classical Chinese reading scores, but not between English and modern Chinese reading. Language as L1 or L2, curriculum and restricted test formats may partly explain the low correlations while social and educational environment can contribute to the high correlation observed. This study also serves as a rare example of a complete cycle of invariance test for ordinal data with a repeated design in Mplus. Implications for research and pedagogy were discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore the literacy practices of mothers with refugee backgrounds and the ways that they position themselves in relation to these practices. Data include fieldnotes, interviews, artifacts, and informal conversations. The findings reveal the participants' family literacy practices within the specific domains of education, family, and community in the United States. The findings also show that the participants had multiple identity positions as cultural experts and parents who provided educational resources for their children. The study has implications for parental involvement in urban schools and for educators practicing in K-12 and adult ESL.

Reading habits play an active role in promoting students' reading skills and making them prepared to participate in modern society. Gender differences regarding students' habits in the use of reading medium, amount of time spent on leisure reading, and the frequency of school-related reading and of leisure reading were examined. The relation between these habits and the level of student reading performance was further explored. Data on 439,847 15-year-old students in 61 countries/regions were extracted from the most recent database of the Programme for International Student Assessment. Descriptive statistics showed that female students preferred print reading and multiformat use, that they spent more time on leisure reading, and that they read fiction and magazines more often than male students. Then, 3-level hierarchical linear modeling was conducted. The results indicated that the use of a paper format, the school-related reading of texts with tables or graphs and of fiction, and the leisure reading of fiction and nonfiction positively influenced reading performance among members of both gender groups and that a small amount of leisure reading of magazines and newspapers only showed a significant, albeit small, positive impact among members of the female group. Additionally, more than 2 h of leisure reading a day brought greater benefits for female students, while 1 to 2 h a day seemed to be more effective for male students. The practical implications for the cultivation of reading habits by students as well as those for the implementation of educational interventions were further discussed.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and use of diverse picturebooks to support reading development and social-emotional skills are gaining acceptance and broader use. With this shift, new measures of efficacy are needed to confirm, bolster, and source new policies and strategies for family and classroom literacy practices. To this end, the Reading Builds Empathy (RBE) literacy study sought to develop and pilot a new instrument that uses picturebook reading as a way to understand empathy development. The RBE study participants included 21 parent-child dyads (N = 42) and piloted a tool that was created to measure children's empathy development for children ages six-eight. The tool includes collecting parent reports of children's at-home literacy practices and engagement with picturebooks as well as parents' perspectives on their child's empathy development. The tool also includes a researcher-administered tool to directly measure children's empathy development in a developmentally appropriate format across three domains: affective, cognitive, and ethnocultural empathy. This paper describes the process for instrument development, initial pilot data, considerations for changes to the instrument, and ideas for how the instrument can be used in future intervention studies.

Despite the widespread popularity of online reading challenges on platforms like Goodreads and The StoryGraph, research on this phenomenon has been mostly absent. This article addresses this gap by examining the motivations of adolescent participants in reading challenges, the outcomes of their participation and the implications for their reading routines. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews with 20 participants aged 15-20 years, the article shows that motivations range from a desire for social engagement within a book-loving peer group to self-challenge. A common thread is that reading challenges serve as a catalyst for increased volitional reading by adolescents, accompanied by changes in their reading habits. Furthermore, analysis of the responses reveals that these evolving reading practices are perceived by participants as both stimulating and self-directed. However, the research also underscores the significant role played by algorithms on platforms like Goodreads in influencing reading routines. The study also shows that some participants in online reading challenges are guided by social motivation, although most of them experience social motives as secondary to their individual and intrinsic desire to read more. At the same time, some individuals partaking in online reading challenges prove susceptible to negative perceptions from others. Hence, this research foregrounds crucial tensions in online reading cultures adolescents engage in, specifically those between autonomy and algorithm and sociocentrism and egocentrism.

This study involves translating, cross-culturally adapting, and validating the "Literary Response Questionnaire" (LRQ) for 413 Spanish adolescents. It explores the evolution of literary education in Spain and its alignment with the Reading Responses paradigm. The LRQ, adapted across various locations, is validated in Spanish through Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The research analyzes reading responses in dimensions like Leisure Escape, Insight, Empathy, Story-driven Reading, Concern with Author, Imagery Vividness, and Rejecting Literary Values. Findings reveal widespread indifference and rejection toward literary reading among the adolescents, along with a clear disapproval of the historicist-authorial approach to literary education. Significant variations were identified based on students' gender, enrollment in a bilingual program, and notably, the number of books read per year. This underscores the significance of introducing literary reading practices in secondary education that align with the leisure preferences of adolescents, encouraging personal and experiential engagement with texts. This could materialize in the classroom the shift from a historicist to a reader-centered approach suggested by the current Spanish curriculum.

In English teaching, developing students' reading habits has been emphasized for its critical role in promoting overall core competencies. However, in practice, many teachers and parents are not informed of the effective approaches to developing good English reading habits, hindering the overall development of students' core competencies. In light of this, an empirical study was carried out to explore the developmental features of students' English reading habits and individual, family and school factors that affect its development. A questionnaire was adopted to collect quantitative data. A total of 2,130 primary and secondary school students from China participated in the study. The results indicated that their English reading habits varied with age and gender. In terms of age, secondary school students, especially middle school students, performed better than primary school students. In terms of gender, females performed better in reading frequency, reading time and ways of reading, while males had a larger reading volume. Reading habits were found to be impacted by individual, school and family factors. Among them, age had the strongest influence on the development of English reading habits. These findings shed light on effective ways to develop English reading habits, especially in foreign-language-learning contexts.

Reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of learning to read, as the understanding of text is at the root of the purpose for reading, whether reading for pleasure or reading to learn. At-home reading practices can vary widely family to family -- some families have the knowledge and resources to read effectively with their children, while others have not been afforded the opportunity or knowledge to read with their children. The Advancing Comprehension and Engagement (ACE) Literacy Project is a free reading comprehension resource bringing the evidence-based Knowledge Acquisition & Transformation (KAT) Framework to families via podcast and video episodes in English and Spanish. The aim of the ACE Project is to help ameliorate access barriers to high-quality literacy resources for families by providing engaging, interactive episodes available on major platforms and accessible via cell phones, tablets, or computers. The present article describes the theoretical foundations underlying the ACE Project, details the methods used to develop ACE, describes the format followed in each episode, and discusses the pilot year of the project. Usage statistics are presented. Implications for the future of the ACE Project are discussed in light of initial data collection.

We aim to examine similarities and differences in the developmental patterns of habitual (HRM) and situational reading motivation (SRM). We investigated the correlated change of SRM and two aspects of HRM: habitual reading enjoyment and habitual reading for interest. The sample comprised N = 1508 students with four waves of data collections spaced approximately every 18 months. Applying multivariate curve-of-factors models, first we found a decline in all three aspects of reading motivation from T1 to T3, and a stable trajectory from T3 to T4. Second, all three aspects of reading motivation correlated strongly regarding time-specific aspects, as well as level and trend factors. Third, the two HRM aspects showed higher correlations than did any aspect of HRM with SRM. Implications of the correlated declines of HRM and SRM, and for future research on reading motivation in general, are discussed.

Numerous studies have revealed the benefits of parents' reading-related activities that support children's cognitive development. However, little is known about the reading-related achievement emotions that are essential for self-confidence and well-being as a reader. To advance research in this important area of achievement emotions, it is critical to focus on the impact of parents' reading-related activities on reading-related achievement emotions pertaining to enjoyment and boredom and their internal mechanisms. Based on the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we investigated 12,322 Chinese students through a national reading program. Results indicated that parents' reading-related activities positively predicted reading enjoyment but negatively predicted reading boredom through the mediators of self-educational expectation and reading self-efficacy after controlling for gender, age, and SES. This study highlights the values of parent-child shared reading, makes a unique contribution to the field of achievement emotions, and explains how self-educational expectation and reading self-efficacy mediate this process.

The importance of parent-child shared book reading (SBR) is well established. However, there is a limited understanding of parental interaction patterns during SBR among preschool children in the Indian context. Using a cross-sectional observational study design, mothers' verbal and nonverbal behavior during SBR was analyzed in 26 Kannada-speaking mother-child dyads. Relationships between the quantity of SBR experiences and parental attitudes and beliefs about storybook reading were examined. Findings revealed that mothers predominantly used dialogic reading strategies followed by extra-textual talk, print referencing strategies, and nonverbal strategies. Few correlations were found between parental attitudes and beliefs and the quantity of SBR experiences. Implications for parent training in SBR are discussed.

Reading plays a pivotal role in lifelong development, serving as an indispensable foundation for students to thrive. The present study therefore aimed to assess the English reading literacy of senior high school students. A self-developed questionnaire was administered to 427 students from three schools in Chongqing, China. The questionnaire encompassed three dimensions: reading ability, reading character, and teachers' assistance in enhancing the two domains. Results revealed that the participants exhibited moderate English reading literacy levels, with gender and parental education exerting significant influence on their English reading literacy. Furthermore, teachers primarily focused on improving academic performance rather than fostering well-rounded readership abilities, leading to slight variations regarding the concepts and methodologies employed for cultivating comprehensive literary competence. Individual attributes, family background, teacher-related factors, institutional dynamics, and societal factors significantly impacted the participants' English reading literacy levels. Consequently, corresponding strategies and suggestions were discussed.

This study focuses on the problem that the process of building learning habits has not been clearly described. Therefore, we aim to extract the stages of learning habits from log data. We propose a data model to extract stages of learning habits based on the transtheoretical model and apply the model to the learning logs of self-directed extensive reading to demonstrate the process of building learning habits. We uncover the various stages (i.e., the precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance stage) that learners underwent, and different proportions of the maximum stage that they achieved during an 11-month, self-directed, extensive reading program-implemented in a Japanese junior high school. This study contributes to realizing a method to evaluate the learning process, by tracing the stages of learning habits in long-term, and continuous learning activities. Further, this study can help guide the development of evidence-based educational interventions to support the building of lifelong learning habits and self-directed learning, using data-driven methods.

In studies of academic resilience, the concept is typically operationalized by pre-defined cutoff values of students' achievement level and their social background. A threat to the validity of such arbitrary operationalizations is that students around the cutoff values may be misclassified. The main objective of the current study is to apply a modeling approach to identify academically resilient students. Data come from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016. The primary method used was latent profile analysis. The study demonstrates that it is possible to identify a group of academically resilient students using a set of variables indicating achievement level and protective factors. Even though results suggest that academically resilient students have higher reading achievement compared to other less-advantaged students, it is evident that they have higher interest and confidence in reading than the non-resilient groups. A sensitivity analysis for other countries indicated similar results. Implications stemming from the results are discussed.

Gamification is gaining popularity in education because of its positive effects on learning motivation and engagement. However, several studies have doubted the long-term sustainable effects of gamification pedagogy, arguing that it provides only short-term benefits. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to explore the sustainability of gamification effects in learning. A crossover quasi-experiment was designed to trace the change of the impact of a gamified reading tool on children's reading over time. The results show that active participants' reading habits, motivation, and interests increased sharply during the use of the gamification application and then decreased slightly after they ceased using the application but remained higher than before the intervention. A discussion of how to create the persistence and sustainability of the effects of gamification for learning is presented.

In addition to pre- and in-service teacher education programmes, teachers' autonomous reading of content related to their work contributes significantly to their professional development. This study investigated the factors that influenced the professional reading of 10,469 language teachers in the 2018 dataset of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Two machine learning models -- logistic regression and Support Vector Machines (SVM) -- were used to classify light and heavy readers. Nineteen variables related to teachers, including various aspects of their life, education and instructional practices, were used as predictors for classification. The results indicate that the two models had very similar accuracy scores around 65%. Moreover, the length of the reading texts that teachers assign to their students, instruction of reading comprehension strategies, and teachers' own general reading habits were found to be the most important predictors of professional reading time.

In this qualitative research we employed the case study method to identify the factors that affect Turkish fifth to eight graders' selection of books to read and the reasons that cause them to stop reading the books they have selected. To identify those factors and reasons, data were collected from a total of 32 participating students who were selected using stratified purposive sampling. A group was formed for each grade. Each grade group included 8 students who borrowed books from public libraries and voluntarily participated in the study. The participants were interviewed using open-ended questions. Interviews revealed that in selecting books to read, the students considered theme, genre, and structural features such as title, cover design, author, publisher, and recommendations made by peers, teachers, and family members as criteria. The students also stated that the events and themes in the books, language features, font size, insufficient time to read, and the library's requirement to return a book in 15 days were the reasons to give up reading a selected book.

To explore the ways in which Latinx older siblings support younger siblings during shared reading, researchers investigated the following question with three Latinx families in the U.S.: "How are older siblings modeling and intentionally supporting focal children's cognitive self-regulation in the context of shared reading?" Analyses of video recorded interactions across six visits revealed that older siblings intentionally supported focal children's cognitive self-regulation by fostering autonomy and choice through the use of verbal and nonverbal cues to guide attention, using prosody to engage their sibling, and to initiate reading beyond resistance, and vicarious modeling of metacognitive processes by engaging in self-corrections and demonstrating positive affect during shared reading interactions. Findings highlight the importance of older siblings, particularly sisters, as key figures in the sociocultural context of development for Latinx younger siblings in the U.S.

This study aims to determine the cognitive awareness of reading strategies of secondary school students, the relation between the cognitive awareness of reading strategies and writing anxiety, and the common effect of some variables on cognitive awareness of reading strategies. This quantitative study is an example of a relational survey model with correlational research features. Data have been collected through two different scales. 339 secondary school students have participated in this research. Mean, frequencies, standard deviation, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Simple Linear Regression, and Two Way Anova have been used for data analysis. As a result of the study, secondary school students have good cognitive awareness of reading strategies, and there is a negative relation between cognitive awareness of reading strategies and writing anxiety. Verbal academic success is a predictor of cognitive awareness of reading strategies, and the common effect of gender and writing anxiety doesn't influence cognitive awareness of reading strategies.

The authors examine the relationships between home play and learning--measured by reading and teaching practices at home--among low-income families, including those with mental health issues. Based on a large database from the Family Map Inventory, a screening tool for home visiting programs, the authors' findings revealed that play-related concerns such as play materials, home play, and the variety of play away from home had significant impact. They conclude that care givers who provide children with more play opportunities both at home and away from home tend to read books with children more frequently and to teach them more basic academic skills. This suggests that early play interactions can contribute to early learning and implies that intervention programs such as Early Head Start and home-visiting programs focusing on play may boost a family's resilience and add value to existing services.

This research was created in order to detect the indirect, direct and total effects of some factors affecting the academic success of secondary school students in Turkish courses. Concordantly, in the research, the explanatory and predictive relationships between students' individual verbal expression self-efficacy perceptions, group verbal expression self-efficacy perceptions, motivation towards school and demographic characteristics (gender, number of siblings, education level of parents) as well as various variables (number of books at home, number of book pages read daily, the daily television watching frequency and daily internet use frequency) and academic success in Turkish lessons were examined. In the study group of the research, there are 506 eighth grade students studying in seven public secondary schools in the city center of Kilis. The data obtained were analyzed with a structural equation model to reveal the indirect and direct causality between internal and external variables through structural equations. As a result of the research, individual verbal expression self-efficacy perceptions and motivation towards school have only indirect effects on students' academic success in Turkish lessons, group verbal expression self-efficacy perception, number of siblings and father's education level have only direct effects. Besides, gender, the number of books at home and the number of daily book pages read have both indirect and direct effects on the academic success of students in Turkish lessons. However, in the study, it was detected that individual verbal expression self-efficacy perceptions, gender, number of books at home, number of daily book pages read, and motivation towards secondary school had indirect and/or direct effects on group verbal expression self-efficacy. [Note: The publication year (2022) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct publication year for this article is 2023.]

With rapidly developing technology, the most common social area of our lives has become social media. While social media brings with it new notions, it also affects the culture we have. One of them is the culture of reading. Reading culture includes making the act of reading a philosophy of life. The act of reading requires education. The most common place where we receive this education is in schools. Teachers, one of the basic elements of schools, play an important role in the transformation of reading into a reading culture. For this purpose, this research aims to determine the effect of teacher candidates' social media use on their reading culture. The study consists of two parts. In the first part, reading culture was examined according to the variables of gender, class level, region of residence, number of siblings, economic status of the family, education level of parents, and number of annual book readings. In the second part, the reading cultures of teacher candidates were examined according to the variables of daily online time, duration of social media use, age of having a social media account, and purposes of using social media. The study was created by scanning method. Türkel et al. (2017) developed the scale applied. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 24. Mann-Whitney U Test was used for pairwise comparisons and the Kruskal-Wallis H test for multiple comparisons. In conclusion, there was a significant difference in favor of women in terms of teacher candidates' reading cultures and gender variables. In terms of grade level, a significant difference was found in favor of 3rd and 4th-grade levels. There is no significant difference in reading culture in terms of other variables. However, when we ignore the student with a master's education level, the reading culture score of the teacher candidates with illiterate parents in the education level of the parents was higher. Again, in terms of daily use of social media, the reading culture scores of the candidates who used one hour or less were higher. The social media factor is important in terms of transferring and enriching the reading culture.