What are teenagers reading? An exploration into the reading lives of a class of year 9 pupils

ABSTRACT

In an era of smart-phones, tablets and online gaming, it seems that a young person’s motivation to pick up a book and start to read is relatively low. The article explores this claim by investigating the reading habits of a class of 23 female students at a single sex school in the south-east of England. The case-study particularly focuses on the students’ own perceptions of reading and the transaction between the reader and the text, with consideration of the differences between “reading for pleasure” as opposed to “reading for instruction”. The intended outcome of the research was to provide an overview of young people as readers in today’s educational and social climate and to explore strategies schools could adopt to promote positive pupil attitudes towards reading.

KEYWORDS:

• Reading
• KS3
• motivation
• pupil perception
• technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louise Chapman

Louise Chapman undertook both the PGCE and MEd programme at the University of Cambridge, before teaching as an English teacher in the UK. She has currently relocated to Tianjin, China where she is teaching at an international school.