Reporting on reading: a survey into the reading attitudes and personal reading habits of Year 2 children

Good reading ability is the key to success in school (Swalander and Taube, 2007) and reading is an important factor in many language and cognitive skills and in the development of general knowledge and vocabulary (Logan and Johnston, 2009). However, despite widespread efforts to prevent reading problems, reading continues to be exceptionally difficult for many pupils (Martinez, Aricak and Jewell, 2008). Understanding the role of attitude in developing readers is important for two main reasons. Firstly, attitude may affect the level of ability eventually attained by pupils, through its influence on engagement and practice (Adam and Wild, 1997). Secondly, even for confident readers, poor attitude may lead to a choice not to read when other option exist, a condition known as aliteracy (McKenna, Kear and Ellsworth, 1995). Consequently, teachers cannot afford to ignore the attitudes of pupils since these are often important in the attainment of reading skills and in the continued use of reading for information and recreation (Alexander and Fuller, 1976). The aim of this study was to establish the reading attitudes and personal reading habits of Year 2 children in an attempt to assess how one impacts on the other. Factors that have been shown to affect children’s attitudes towards reading include age, achievement, gender, reading materials, home influences and the role of teachers, and several of these areas were examined in the study.