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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.

This study examines the extent of awareness among Iraqi English foreign language learners about the potential impact of reading literature on developing their creative writing abilities. Furthermore, this study investigates the relationship between those who partake in literature reading and their academic skills. It examines the participation of 120 Iraqi EFL learners currently enrolled in the faculties of Arts, Education, and Education in Qurna, affiliated with the University of Basrah. It employs a mixed methods approach, including a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results demonstrate a significant correlation between reading literary texts and developing creative writing skills. Several literary elements enhance creative writing, including a comprehensive understanding of figures of speech, cultivating critical thinking skills, engaging in literature courses, practicing paraphrasing poetry, and exposure to various literary genres. The findings also demonstrate that EFL learners profoundly understand the impact of engaging with literary texts on their academic abilities.

This paper explores the extent to which student teachers, in their final year of a 3-year undergraduate programme teach phonics as part of a holistic reading programme linked to reading for meaning and for pleasure. It reports the results of surveys, lesson observations and interviews with a sample of students studying at one university in the Northwest of England. Findings suggest that student teachers do not always make these links and that the prevailing influence of school culture, notably mentors, on the practices of student teachers and their emerging subject knowledge can be significant.

Background: Literacy is an important skill that is necessary for people--especially adolescents--to access electronic media, including mobile devices. The only way to develop competence in reading is by reading more. Young people who enjoy leisure reading are usually more successful readers. In this study, the authors did research into a group of adolescents' leisure practices by using mobile reading devices. Objectives: The objective was to identify the adolescents' leisure reading identities, as the authors wished to know whether one model of leisure reading support suits everybody. Method: A qualitative research approach was employed, making use of literacy practice interviews, the adolescent participants' mobile reading diaries, focus group discussions, and the researchers' personal field notes. Results: Three distinct leisure reading identities were identified: eager readers, 'fifty-fifty' readers, and non-readers. It was thus evident that leisure reading practices require different types of support and encouragement from teachers and parents. Three reading identities surfaced during the study and it is acknowledged that there could be more reading identities. Conclusion: The influence of certain systems and antecedents that could influence the leisure reading habits of the sampled group also surfaced. It became evident that there should be differentiation when groups of adolescents are supported to enhance their leisure reading and, eventually, their reading abilities. Contribution: The article contributes to a better understanding of literacy practices among adolescent learners regarding the use of mobile devices to encourage leisure reading. It could also contribute to language teachers' knowledge about factors in the education system that could influence learners' reading abilities and the necessity to make provision for different reading identities in their teaching.

The study was a descriptive survey which sought to assess how Junior High School teachers in the Kwadaso Municipality in Ghana reflect on their practices in the classroom. The target population for the study was teachers in public Junior High Schools. Convenience sampling procedure was used to select 72 teachers. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.88. Means and standard deviations were used to analyse the data. The findings showed that teachers reflect their practices to ensure effective delivery of their lessons. Teachers practically reflected by talking about their classroom experiences with their colleagues. Teachers cognitively reflected by reading books related to effective teaching. Teachers should be encouraged by the Ghana Education Service to keep reflecting to improve their practices.

Background: Although the reading of science texts has been reported for high school learners, there is not much research on how younger learners engage with expository texts and how they develop academic language skills. In the instance of this study, the topic came from the curriculum content about animal reproduction. Aim: The study from which this article emanated aimed to explore how a sample of learners engaged with a short text, which required cohesive reading and some background knowledge and vocabulary. Setting: This study was conducted in a suburban school where the learners use English as a second language. Methods: A sample (n = 25) was randomly selected from five Grade 4 classes. Their reading comprehension of a custom-designed test was assessed, along with their writing competence in their responses to content questions as well as their drawings. The data were analysed in a typical content analysis modality. Results: This study showed that the learners do not apply inferencing skills and do not read cohesively across sentences and paragraphs and that their vocabulary and prior knowledge of animal reproduction is limited. Conclusion: The urgent need for the development of academic language skills in the early grades is foregrounded in this article, arguing that it can be infused in subjects across the curriculum of the early grades. Contribution: The task can be used by teachers and by researchers who may wish to replicate the study.

Background: Social annotation has emerged as a promising educational technology that fosters collaborative reading and discussion of digital resources among learners. While the positive impact of social annotation on students' learning process and performance is widely acknowledged, students' behavioural patterns in social annotation are underexplored. Objectives: This study investigated patterns in students' use of annotation and response behaviours in social annotation activities. We also explored how students' performance in the behavioural, cognitive, emotional, and social dimensions varied based on their behavioural patterns. Methods: We recruited 93 undergraduates who were enrolled in an elective course at a large North American University. Students were tasked with collaboratively annotating the class readings uploaded to Perusall, a social annotation platform, over 7 weeks. We used metaclustering to determine the optimal number of clusters pertaining to student behaviours. We compared the differences among clusters across multiple performance dimensions. Results and Conclusions: Two distinct clusters were identified and defined as initiators and responders. We found that responders had significantly longer active reading time and exhibited greater social annotation effort compared to initiators. However, initiators received more peer acknowledgement, as evidenced by higher upvotes. No significant difference was found in cognitive insight between initiators and responders, but responders demonstrated significantly higher cognitive discrepancy. Additionally, there were no significant differences in positive and negative tones between initiators and responders; however, responders displayed higher levels of prosocial behaviours than initiators. This study has significant practical implications regarding promoting students' collaborative learning experience in social annotation.

This study examined the cognitive-linguistic and literacy-related correlates of dyslexia in three Chinese cities and the English word reading and mathematics performances of Chinese children with dyslexia. Chinese children with/without dyslexia were measured with an equivalent test battery of literacy and mathematics in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Univariate analysis results suggested that phonological sensitivity distinguished those with and without dyslexia across all three cities in group comparisons. In Taipei and Hong Kong, morphological awareness, delayed copying, and spelling also distinguished the groups. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that Chinese character reading, as directly compared to Chinese word reading, also distinguished the groups particularly well. In addition, in Beijing and Hong Kong, children with dyslexia performed significantly less well in English word reading than those without dyslexia. In Hong Kong and Taipei, children with dyslexia also had difficulties in mathematics performance. Findings highlight the fundamental importance of some cognitive-linguistic skills for explaining Chinese dyslexia across cultures, the utility of recognizing the individual Chinese character as a foundational unit of analysis in Chinese across cultures, and the generalizability of the comorbidity of both English as a second language (L2) and mathematics with dyslexia in Chinese children in both Beijing and Hong Kong.

Multilingual children living in areas with low socioeconomic status (SES) are at an increased risk of having speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). Many multilingual children with SLCN in Sweden have insufficient basic vocabulary knowledge in the majority language, preventing them from achieving the school's learning goals. However, there is a lack of studies of interventions that could improve vocabulary development in this group, and that can be delivered in an everyday educational setting. This pilot study evaluates the effect of a school-based vocabulary group intervention, which combines elements from shared book reading and the Lexicon Pirate method, on vocabulary skills. A non-randomised pretest-posttest control group design was used. Eighteen six- to seven-year-old multilingual children attending preschool class in low SES areas either received intervention (n = 9) or were included in a control group (n = 9). The intervention group participated in 12 intervention sessions over six weeks. Word knowledge, semantic fluency, and comprehension of semantic relations were assessed pre- and post-intervention. Results revealed that children in the intervention group demonstrated significant gains in knowledge of both trained and untrained words, compared to the control group. No effects were found on semantic fluency or comprehension of semantic relations.

Studies have shown that teacher perceptions of student achievement influence teacher-student interactions, subsequently affecting student outcomes. However, teachers may also take note of and respond to the motivation and engagement of their students in a differential way, which could affect student outcomes as well. In the present study, we thus examined whether teacher perceptions of student motivation and engagement predict student achievement and self-reported motivation and engagement in reading and maths over several school years. Analysing longitudinal data from N = 2402 students and their teachers, we found that teacher perceptions of student motivation and engagement in Grade 5 were significantly related to student achievement in reading 1 year later and in maths 1, 2, and 3 years later. An association with student motivation and engagement was only found for maths 1 year later.

This article deals with reading as a significant challenge for higher education students. The study aimed to understand students' experiences of challenges in reading during their first three semesters at university and how they handled these challenges. It is a qualitative case study built on in-depth interviews with nine people studying to be primary teachers and their diaries about reading experiences in the academy. The findings show that students experience considerable anxiety and stress regarding finding enough time for reading tasks and comprehending what they read. They soon discover that extensive reading is a prerequisite for writing, questioning, and active participation in lectures and seminars. Despite experiences of lack of support from their teachers, most students identify new approaches and strategies to develop their reading, moving from passive to active engagement with texts. The findings implicate that continuous support from disciplinary experts is crucial for students' reading and writing development. Such support includes inviting students to participate in disciplinary practices, its tools, concepts, ways of thinking, genres used, approaches to reading, and what it means to reason, analyze, and argue in a discipline.

It has been widely accepted that developmental dyslexia (DD) exhibits deficits in reading and spelling. However, the role of phonology and semantics in reading and spelling in dyslexia has not been systematically investigated. In Experiment 1, 45 Chinese children with DD and 43 age-matched controls read two tests with Chinese characters. One test controlled character's familiarity and regularity, and the other test controlled character's phonological consistency and semantic transparency. In Experiment 2, 43 Chinese children with DD and 41 controls spelled a sublist of characters in the two tests in Experiment 1. Our results support two main facts. Firstly, typically developing Chinese children can utilize more lexical or semantic information in reading characters when phonetic regularity or consistency in characters are absent, but Chinese children with DD cannot, indicating an impairment in the division of labor between phonology and semantics in reading in Chinese DD. Secondly, the division of labor between phonology and semantics in spelling have different patterns in Chinese DD compared with controls. Controls utilize semantics as a compensation for the absence of phonetic regularity or consistency when spelling characters, while children with DD do not, indicating an impairment in the division of labor between phonology and semantics in spelling in Chinese DD. The research supports the triangle model and provides empirical evidence for the division of labor between phonology and semantics in reading and spelling in Chinese children with and without reading disabilities.

The expanding use of social media has the potential to enhance the quality of English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction and learning. The purpose of this online survey-based study was to investigate the mediating effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for reading English social media text among 348 Chinese undergraduate EFL learners. PLS-SEM analyses revealed a significant relationship between the extrinsic motivation to read English text on social media and English language performance. In addition, the extrinsic motivation was also found to significantly mediated the relationship between English reading self-efficacy and English language performance. The findings indicate that in the context of reading English text on social media amongst Chinese undergraduate EFL learners, extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between English reading self-efficacy and English language performance, implying the potentials to use social media as an instructional medium to improve EFL teaching and learning outcomes in China.

It remains an open question whether second language (L2) learners can process linguistic properties at the syntax-discourse interface. This study examines this issue in the context of the L2 processing of Korean dative sentences under different information structure requirements. Given that discourse constraints associated with information structure tend to manifest more strongly in noncanonical than in canonical structures, we tested whether L2 learners of Korean show sensitivity to such constraints during online processing. In a story-continuation task, both native and nonnative speaker groups showed a strong preference for producing canonical dative patterns, indicating their comparable knowledge of the canonical status of Korean dative sentences. In a self-paced reading task, both groups spent longer reading times when the word order of dative sentences did not follow given-new information structure, but only for the noncanonical and not the canonical structure. These results suggest that L2 processing of dative structures at the syntax-discourse interface relies on the same parsing architecture that guides native-speaker processing.

Besides explicit inference of word meanings, associating words with diverse contexts may be a key mechanism underlying vocabulary learning through reading. Drawing from distributional semantic theory, we developed a text modification method called reflash to facilitate both word-context association and explicit inference. Using a set of left and right arrows, learners can jump to a target word's previous or subsequent occurrences in digital books to synthesize clues across contexts. Participants read stories with target words modified by reflash-only, gloss-only, gloss + reflash, or unmodified. Learning outcomes were measured via Vocabulary Knowledge Scale and a researcher-developed interview to probe word-context association. We modeled the learning trajectories of words across five weeks among three adolescent L2 English learners (113 word-learner pairings) using Bayesian multilevel models. We found that reflash-only words made more gains than words in other conditions on both outcomes, controlling for key covariates such as types of existing knowledge. Our analysis also revealed that context synthesis may be particularly useful for learning specific types of words like homonyms, which has significant pedagogical implications.

With the increased popularity of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education, many East Asian universities are using international English proficiency tests to make admissions and placement decisions. Since these tests were not originally designed for the EMI contexts, validity evidence is needed to support the use of these tests in this new context. To interpret performance on a test as representative of performance in a target language use (TLU) domain, this study investigated (1) the characteristics of English reading tasks in Korean EMI undergraduate and graduate courses, (2) the extent to which they are comparable to the characteristics of reading tasks on TOEFL iBT and IELTS, and (3) the extent to which students perceive EMI reading tasks and the test reading tasks to be comparable. Fifty-four undergraduate and graduate students in EMI content courses at a Korean university completed an online questionnaire. Analyses revealed that EMI reading tasks share several characteristics with USA/UK university reading tasks. Although EMI reading tasks had some key characteristics in common with TOEFL and IELTS reading tasks, the test tasks were much more limited in range. Finally, the extent to which students perceived EMI reading tasks and TOEFL/IELTS reading tasks comparable varied across academic areas.

Digital reading facilitates L2 development by allowing anytime-anywhere learning with various digital resources. Although there has been increasing research exploring the role of digital reading on L2 vocabulary learning, synthesized evidence regarding the overall facilitating power of digital reading is still lacking. This meta-analysis aggregates 21 important empirical studies published within the last 20 years and indexed in scholarly recognized databases, so as to provide a comprehensive panoramic assessment of how effectively digital reading has enhanced second and foreign language vocabulary acquisition with diversified learner backgrounds and learning environments. A total of 77 effect sizes were yielded across different studies, and random-effect modeling was employed for analyzing the study-level heterogeneity and sub-group variability. Results demonstrate that digital reading had an overall significant effect (dimmediate = 1.45, p < 0.01; ddeleayed = 2.98, p < 0.01) on L2 vocabulary learning of between-subject studies. For within-subject studies, digital reading was found to have an upper-medium (d = 1.39, p < 0.01) and medium (d = 0.86, p < 0.01) effect on immediate and delayed L2 vocabulary post-tests. Moderating factor analysis results show that L2 proficiency, vocabulary test formats, and digital resources could robustly explain the variance of effect sizes. The findings have strong pedagogical implications on the effective design for digital reading tasks, including the development of adaptive learning algorithms and personalized lexical glosses. Recommendations for future research in the field are provided by pinpointing where to improve in terms of experimental design and the focus of the learner group.

This study explored if the Advanced Placement (AP) World History: Modern Reading is effective teacher professional development (PD). The researcher used a mixed methods explanatory sequential design. A survey was completed by 83 AP World History: Modern high school teachers who had attended the AP World History: Modern on-site Reading. The researcher then conducted a focus group discussion with eight participants to study teacher perceptions of the Reading experience. Quantitative and qualitative results were integrated in order to gain a deeper understanding. The researcher found that attending the AP World History: Modern on-site Reading is beneficial teacher professional development. The structure of the in-person Reading allows for collaboration, engages participants and is relevant to the attendees' classroom practice.

The learning styles of students vary both among individuals and across different disciplines they choose to study. In higher education, academic discipline appears to be a key factor influencing students' distinctive learning styles. This study, which aims to determine the dominant learning styles and models of talented pre-service teachers, was designed with the survey model. The study group research consisted of 1019 volunteer pre-service teachers who continued their education in Physical Education and Sports, Music, and Arts & Craft Teaching departments. In the study, the VARK Learning Style Inventory was used as a data collection tool; students were asked to answer questions in a digital environment through Google Forms. According to the research results, kinesthetic style is the dominant learning preference for preservice teachers in the visual arts and sports sciences, and both kinesthetic and aural styles are the dominant learning preferences for pre-service teachers in music education. Although talented pre-service teachers tend to learn predominantly kinesthetic and aural styles when evaluated, 61.2% of pre-service teachers prefer to learn with a Multiple Learning Model, which covers the entire instructional diversity, rather than sticking to just one learning style.

Coordinating meaning across sentences is crucial to reading comprehension, because sentences can take on quite different meanings depending on the surrounding context. The same need applies in a far more complex way when reading textbooks. Writers organize the material hierarchically, so readers often need to connect what they're reading now to something they read a few pages ago. But readers expect a simple format, since people first learn to read storybooks. Stories are easy to understand because the structure is simple and linear: A causes B, which causes C, and so on. Textbooks' hierarchical format and content are more challenging, so one shouldn't sit down to read a textbook and expect that the author will make the job easy. There needs to be a different approach to reading such content. This article provides tips for reading carefully, both to learn now and to develop the knowledge, skills, and habits that will make one a successful reader in the future.

This study highlights a cross-course collaboration around children's literature and grammar in one teacher preparation program. Pre-service teachers created digital picture books and video feedback for their peers in which they ultimately adopted shifting stances in thinking like readers and writers throughout their process. By situating reading and writing as reciprocal acts, pre-service teachers developed more nuanced understandings of authorship, audience, and language. Implications for this work suggest the power of creating learning opportunities for students and pre-service teachers that integrate--rather than silo--the varying strands of English language arts.

This paper describes an academic service learning project that enabled teacher education candidates to create research-based family literacy activities around a diverse selection of children's books. The book and family literacy activities were donated to local families at a Title I school during a reading night event. Teacher education candidates reflected on the experience of creating the family literacy project and their future plans for involving families in their students' literacy learning.

The state of reading to meet a person's needs develops over time, and this habit becomes a part of the person's life. In this study, a focus group interview was the preferred method of qualitative research. High-level readers who read more than 30 books a year were included in the study. Even though they read about 30 to 100 books a year, they still think they should improve in some respects. Their reading habits were acquired at an early age from a role model or by the encouragement of people around them. When a person feels the need to read, the habit starts to be acquired internally, but it is during later stages (high school and university period) that habits are solidified. According to this study, the most important factor in gaining reading habits are the surrounding people (parents, relatives, teachers, and friends). Moreover, it is determined that the fact that each of the participants has different experiences, opinions, and feelings about reading and that their reading orientations, desires, and expectations and the discovery of their world of meaning make them high-level readers.

The purpose of this study was to improve the vocabulary of fourth-grade primary school students through action plans based on digital tools. The study was conducted within the framework of participatory action research design, one of the qualitative research approaches. The participants were 32 fourth-grade students from a public elementary school in Konya during the spring semester of 2023. The study started with a pre-test using Bulut's (2013) vocabulary test to assess the students' vocabulary levels. Subsequently, four action plans were developed, consisting of eight activities focusing on different Turkish learning areas (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). These action plans were implemented over an eight-week period. Following the intervention, a post-test was conducted, and the pre- and post-test results were compared to assess the students' progress. Additionally, qualitative data including observation notes, digital diaries, teacher and student interviews, video recordings, and research meetings were analyzed to gather feedback on the implementation process. The results indicated an improvement in students' vocabulary skills. The use of digital tools suitable for various learning domains and the incorporation of diverse text types in the activities fostered student engagement, enjoyment, and a comprehensive approach to vocabulary development. Furthermore, the implementation of group strategies positively influenced students' motivation and willingness to learn.

This research examines the relationship between reading and writing anxiety of primary school fourth-grade students according to different variables. In this context, the research was carried out with the correlational research model, one of the quantitative research methods. The sample of the study consists of 402 students determined by convenient sampling. The data were collected using the Personal Information Form consisting of demographic variables, the Reading Anxiety Scale used to determine students' reading anxiety, and the Writing Anxiety Scale used to measure students' writing anxiety. SPSS 24 statistical software was used in the analysis of the data. In line with the purpose of the research, a t-test for gender ANOVA was used for parental education levels. Relationships between reading and writing anxiety were analyzed using Pearson Product-Moment correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. In the findings obtained, it was determined that the student's reading and writing anxiety were moderate, there was a difference in reading anxiety according to gender, and education level of the parents, and a difference in writing anxiety according to the education level of the parents. It was determined that there was a positive and highly significant relationship between reading and writing anxiety. In addition, there is a significant predictiveness of reading anxiety in students' writing anxiety.

Acquiring mastery in reading is considered one of the primary academic skills during the early years of elementary school. Additionally, attaining proficiency in reading during the early grades of elementary school serves as a strong predictor for future academic achievements and overall success in life. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the effect of several linguistic and cognitive variables on decoding abilities in the Bosnian language. The sample consisted of 153 children in the 2nd to 5th grades of elementary school. To assess decoding abilities, we employed tasks involving reading real words and non-words (pseudowords). The key predictors for both tasks included phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming of letters, working memory, and processing speed. Both models accounted for approximately 64% of the variance in the scores, signifying a substantial advancement compared to existing models of reading in the Bosnian language. The results of this study may contribute to the development of targeted and effective reading interventions in early elementary education.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an initiative of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ESD contributes to a sustainable community by teaching students about their personal impact on their community to help them make resourceful decisions. The researchers are interested in principals' role when implementing ESD within their schools. This was a qualitative study, which included six school principal interviews. The findings included the following themes: math and reading were a priority, social and emotional needs were prioritized, ESD was seen as extracurricular, and current events and students' interests influence learning content and activities.

The increasing use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has brought advances in interventions for people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to review the scientific literature of the last ten years regarding technologies as tools for improving the quality of life of people with disabilities. To this end, PRISMA methodology was used, performing a search in two different databases: Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), obtaining a final sample of 21 studies. To evaluate the risk of bias, the ROBIS tool was used, and the VOSviewer software was employed to carry out a keyword co-occurrence analysis. The main result to emerge was that the scientific literature is increasing, and that the most studied skills are those related to writing and reading. Most of the participants have intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder move this sentence up. The scientific literature is still scarce; therefore, further research is necessary in this field, since the inclusion of ICT in the day-to-day, both in the teaching-learning process and in activities of daily living, offers new opportunities to people with disability.

People regularly read multi-line texts in different formats and publishers, internationally, must decide how to present text to make reading most effective and efficient. Relatively few studies have examined multi-line reading, and fewer still Chinese multi-line reading. Here, we examined whether texts presented in single or double columns, and either left-justified or fully-justified affect Chinese reading. Text format had minimal influence on overall reading time; however, it significantly impacted return-sweeps (large saccades moving the eyes from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next). Return-sweeps were launched and landed further away from margins and involved more corrective saccades in single- than double-column format. For left- compared to fully-justified format, return-sweeps were launched and landed closer to margins. More corrective saccades also occurred. Our results showed more efficient return-sweep behavior for fully- than left-justified text. Moreover, there were clear trade-off effects such that formats requiring increased numbers of shorter return-sweeps produced more accurate targeting and reduced numbers of corrective fixations, whereas formats requiring reduced numbers of longer return-sweeps caused less accurate targeting and an increased rate of corrective fixations. Overall, our results demonstrate that text formats substantially affect return-sweep eye movement behavior during Chinese reading without affecting efficiency and effectiveness, that is, the overall time it takes to read and understand the text.

Despite the value of reading, research documents declining reading rates among American adolescents - a decline that exacerbates student dropout rates and academic performance. As a high school English teacher in a public, regional, suburban school, increasing the number of students who deeply read the assigned texts for class has been a career-long focus. Therefore, one of my goals for the 2021-2022 school year was to promote better reading practices among my students using a note-per-pages assignment and to reflect on the results via a teacher research study design. Findings indicate that while certainly not a fail-proof assignment without its flaws, the note-per-pages assignment as the focus of this action research did increase the overall number of students reading the assigned texts and that more students reported feeling the assignment was helpful to their reading practices as the school year progressed. Implications regarding student engagement in and ownership of the reading process, class reading culture, and involving students in the action research process are included.

The benefits afforded to young children through shared reading are well-documented, but few studies have focused on what contributes to enjoyment of shared reading, especially as it pertains to caregivers' enjoyment. This study explored child and caregiver enjoyment of shared reading through an online survey. Caregivers named books their 0- to 3-year-old child had recently enjoyed reading with them and gave information about their experience, including a rating of how much they and their child enjoyed each book. Variables about the children, caregivers, and the reading experience were analyzed to better understand what promotes enjoyment of shared reading. Child and caregiver enjoyment, while related, were not equal and were not influenced by the same factors. Children's enjoyment is related to their own characteristics and their caregiver's enjoyment, whereas caregiver enjoyment is related to their scaffolding of the reading to best suit their child's abilities and the characteristics of the reading environment.

In light of recent protests at Drag Queen Story Hour events, this essay offers a critical examination of the role of gender performance in secondary schools and English lessons through a personal exploration of how I perform gender as a queer English teacher. I show that schools perpetuate a model of gender that is binary and heterosexist; that teachers and students perform gender in complex ways; that reading in English requires queer performances of gender; and that the professional is always personal when it comes to teacher development.

This discussion article examines the potential integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI), including advanced Large-Language Models like the popular platform ChatGPT into subject English education. Following the significant public and academic attention in response to these technologies through 2023, this paper considers the transformative potential and challenges posed by Gen-AI in educational settings. Central to the discussion is the exploration of how English teachers can leverage Gen-AI to enrich student learning beyond the obvious domain of writing skills. Instead, the article foregrounds the necessity for students' understanding of Gen-AI as an essential component of digital literacy. While acknowledging ethical concerns such as plagiarism, equity, and access, the paper presents an argument for the productive use of Gen-AI in the classroom to augment reading, viewing, and interpretation lessons. Avoiding an evangelical or dystopian view of AI, this discussion piece explores the time-critical and urgent issue of how, when, and why English can engage with the technology.

The importance of effective teacher-child interactions in preschool classrooms has been well documented; however, very few studies examined the difference between novice and experienced teachers. The aim of this study was to quantitatively compare the characteristics and patterns of teacher-child interactions during preschool picture book reading activities between novice and experienced teachers. Video observation data were collected from nine novice teachers and nine experienced teachers from a Chinese preschool, and were coded using the Flanders Interaction Analysis System. A total of 7,642 codes of experienced teachers and 6,444 codes of novice teachers were obtained. Aside from some commonalities, results indicated that there were several major differences between novice and experienced teachers. The indirect and positive influence on children, and the rate of positive influence to negative influence of experienced teachers were higher than that of novice teachers; the proportion of teacher talk, positive integration grid, steady-state grid, open question, and indirect response of novice teachers were higher than that of experienced teachers. The findings shed light on how novice and experienced teachers interact with their children, and how professional development supports should be delivered differently to novice and experienced teachers.

Over the past two years, as a professor of reading education, I have listened to, collaborated, and met with various PreK-12 educators virtually and in person. I collected questions, comments, successes, and challenges related to the ongoing transitions and demands of this post-pandemic era on teachers, students, and parents. The topics of student motivation to read and engagement in reading remain among the top two areas of need and support for educators. In this article, I present a short summary of research on reading motivation and engagement followed by sample research-based recommendations for strengthening students' reading motivation and engagement in today's learning environments and resources to support your instructional decisions.

This paper studies the association between caregiver--child interactions and early childhood development in literacy and numeracy in West and Central Africa. Data comes from Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) conducted in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Togo between 2017 and 2020. A multilevel logistic regression is used to estimate the likelihood of being developmentally on track for 35,752 children aged 3-4 years. The results indicate that cognitively stimulating interactions with caregivers such as reading and telling stories are correlated with a higher likelihood of being developmentally on track. Interactions with mothers are associated with significantly higher odds of being developmentally on track but not interactions with fathers.

This conceptual article examines the role of "speculation" in driving responses to generative AI platforms in literacy education and the implications for research, pedagogy, and practice. Our focus on "speculation" encompasses two meanings of the term -- each of which has inspired lively lines of inquiry in literacy studies and transdisciplinary research on artificial intelligence, respectively. In the first sense, literacy scholars have recognized literacy education as a speculative project -- one characterized by the cultivation of particular reading and writing practices in order to prefigure different imagined social futures. In the second sense, scholars of media and computational cultural studies have theorized a different kind of speculative logic that underwrites the design and functioning of AI platforms -- one characterized by extrapolative prediction and algorithmic reasoning. Investigating the evolving relationship between these modes of speculation, we argue that the former has allowed literacy education to be uniquely susceptible to the influence of the latter; and likewise, that the latter exerts its influence in ways that remake the former in its image. We theorize this relation as a process of "speculative capture," and we highlight its stakes for equitable literacy education. We then conclude by providing provocations for researchers and teachers that may be of use in preempting the collapse of these speculative formations into one another; and perhaps, in mobilizing a conception of the speculative that works productively toward alternative ethico-political ends.

Reading morphologically complex words requires analysis of their morphemic subunits (e.g., play + er); however, the positional constraints of morphemic processing are still little understood. The current study involved three unprimed lexical decision experiments to directly compare the positional encoding of stems and affixes during reading and to investigate the role of semantics during the position encoding of morphemes. Experiment 1 revealed that transposed compound words were harder to reject than their controls (e.g., dreamday vs. shadeday), whereas there was no difference between transposed suffixed words and their controls (e.g., fulpain vs. adepain). Experiment 2 replicated the results for transposed compound words of the first experiment and further showed that there was no difference between transposed prefixed words and their controls (e.g., qualifydis vs. qualifymis). Experiment 3 investigated the role of semantic transparency in morpheme transposition effects and revealed a larger morpheme transposition effect for semantically transparent transposed compound words (e.g., cuptea vs. taptea) than for semantically opaque transposed compound words (e.g., linedead vs. deskdead). These results bring to light important differences in the positional encoding of stems and affixes, suggesting that prefixes and suffixes are recognized in a position-dependent manner compared to the position-independent encoding of embedded stems and that morpheme transposition effects are guided by semantics. The current findings call for more clearly specified theoretical models of visual word recognition that reflect the distinct positional constraints of stems and affixes, as well as the influence of semantics on morphological processing.

This study examined the relations between reading anxiety, general anxiety, and test anxiety in a sample of students with reading difficulties (n = 536). It also tested if dimensions of anxiety were differentially related to word reading accuracy and fluency, text reading fluency, or reading comprehension. The results indicated that the three anxiety measures were significantly related (r = 0.51 to 0.56, p < 0.001). Additionally, higher reading anxiety was related to poorer word reading fluency, text reading fluency, and comprehension outcomes. Further analyses indicated that these relations existed in students who fell in the middle and upper quantiles for reading, but not the lowest quantile. This pattern of findings suggests that the relation is complex and varies depending on severity of reading difficulty. Results may help to inform future efforts to support students with reading difficulties, including students with dyslexia.

College faculty often struggle with getting their students to read assigned materials. Even if students do read, they may not read closely or critically. Not only does the lack of effective reading undermine understanding, but it also hampers class discussions and engagement. To promote close and critical reading in a required, upper-division International Security Studies course, we offered optional reading guide worksheets as tools to increase students' reading comprehension and completion. While our reading guides helped students focus on key terms and lesson objectives, flaws in our implementation produced a lack of perceptual value and extrinsic motivation in using the reading guides. In this article, we offer our lessons learned from the use of reading guides, focusing on their form, function, and frequency. These findings equip faculty with useful guidance in how to design and implement effective reading guides across the disciplines.

Critically-oriented teacher education has been under assault in the United States (U.S.), England, and Australia through policies that have had a chilling effect on teaching critical race theory, gender, and sexuality. We are concerned that these reactionary movements will further distort the histories, lives, and humanity of minoritized groups while reinforcing the single storylines of dominant groups. Our post-qualitative inquiry demonstrates how four literacy teacher education instructors and four preservice literacy teachers from various regions of the U.S. used visual-verbal journals (VVJs) and quality literature in critically-oriented, artful pedagogy to disrupt normative forces in teacher education. Data analyses were informed by the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari, particularly the concepts of "becoming" and "health," which have explanatory power over affective encounters across the four different sites. We focus on encounters that produced "literacies of well-becoming," which are reading, composing, and thinking processes that multiply the ways learners: 1) encounter self and other; 2) relate to histories and sociopolitical forces; and 3) circulate life-affirming practices. This article provides affirmative examples of how affects can produce health, which for Deleuze involves distributed capacities to break out of well-worn grooves of habit by connecting to the world in new ways.

Reading confers significant benefits to children in both social and academic domains. However, the number of children who read for pleasure is decreasing and has been shown to drop significantly between the ages of 8 and 9. Despite the rising popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, research on children's listening to spoken stories remains in its infancy. Thus, the present study explores how children engage with these realtively novel media. Fifty-two parents of children aged 8-13 years completed an online survey that asked about their children's listening habits. Results showed that 74% of children listen to spoken stories, with the vast majority (92.5%) listening at least 1-2 times per week. While the survey revealed children are engaging with both podcasts and audiobooks, being read aloud to continues to be the most popular format for story listening in this age group (77.4% of listeners). Across platforms, the genre most frequently listened to was fantasy stories (84.9%; more detailed descriptions of popular themes and sub-themes are described in text). In sum, access to technology is becoming an increasingly important part of children's lives. The data described here provide a timely perspective and a basis for informed studies of listening engagement in children.