Investigating grade eight students' reading engagement in English language in private sector schools in Ghizer, GB
Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Education (MEd)
Department
Institute for Educational Development, Karachi
Abstract
Reading engagement is associated with reading for pleasure, in which engaged readers are those who want to read, choose to read, find satisfaction in the reading process, use strategies in reading and are motivated to read (Cremin, Mottram, Collins, Powell, & Safford, 2014; Protacio, 2017). All these components emerged from the study conducted to investigate grade eight students’ perspectives regarding their English language engagement at school and at home, along with the relationship between reading engagement and their socio economic status (SES). It was observed that many students in the research site were disengaged with reading in both school and the home context. Based on my previous assumptions students’ disengagement with reading could be due to lack of expert English Language Teachers (ELTs), constraints in Socio Economic Status (SES), students’ lack of interest and motivation. A cross-sectional survey was employed under the quantitative paradigm to carry out the study. In total, 220 participants from a private organization, in the context of the Puniyal region of district Ghizer, GB, participated in the study. The perspectives were taken through using a self-developed, validated questionnaire containing 50 items. Results of the study indicated that the students were highly engaged with reading at the school whenever teachers used interesting pedagogic choices in teaching along with interesting reading material having images or pictures and attractive titles. Similarly, the home environment was also an emerging factor for reading engagement where parents could provide assistance in reading and give time for their children in English language reading texts. Moreover, the students were highly engaged with reading when they saw their siblings and peers also reading. This indicated that siblings and peers were facilitating factor for reading engagement. Furthermore, the results also depict that there is a weak positive relationship between SES and reading engagement. It means that the more high the SES, the more students engaged with reading. However, the students were disengaged with reading when there was no proper follow- up by teachers after giving reading tasks and parents’ unawareness of reading along with their inability to provide reading materials. Therefore, it is important to enhance motivation of students by giving them a reward or gift; using praise in order to make children better engaged with reading. The study suggested that English Language teachers need to focus on teaching reading strategies in the classroom and the use of effective reading material by keeping in view students’ level and interest. Parents are also suggested to allocate time along with multiple reading materials, for extending students’ reading skills at home.
Recommended Citation
Rifat, . (2019). Investigating grade eight students' reading engagement in English language in private sector schools in Ghizer, GB (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.