Academic Reading and Pacific Students: Profiling Texts, Tasks & Readers in the First Year of University in New Zealand

<p>Central to tertiary study in the literate world is the storage, transmission and retrieval of knowledge via the written word through the complex, multi-faceted and largely invisible process of academic reading. With New Zealand's changing demographics and increasing participation in tertiary education by students of Pacific descent, it cannot be assumed that there is a sufficient degree of match between the cultures of academic literacy of the institution and those of the linguistic /ethnic minority student readers; and this is an issue that requires in-depth investigation. This thesis focuses on student readers of Pacific descent undertaking their first year of study in selected 100-level Humanities and Commerce courses in a NZ university. By drawing together the composite skills, cognitive and socio-cultural traditions of reading research, this study conceptualizes academic reading as the dynamic interplay between Text-Task-Reader within any given socio-cultural context. This three-part understanding of academic reading enables a rich profiling of Readers, Texts, and Tasks within their contexts. It permits the systematic discovery and documentation of the nature of the challenge inherent in the academic texts and tasks of the first year of university, and enables the characteristics of the prototypical 'good reader' in a specific discipline to be established. By identifying and holding the core first year academic reading Task of 'reading to understand and remember' constant, the complex interactions between the Reader and Text were able to be observed, thus providing insights into the ways in which these Pacific readers made meaning from Text. Then, through the holistic profiling of cognitive, affective, skills, and socio-culturally based reader features, the Pacific student readers' academic reading personae were constructed. Combined, the readers' profiles reveal group trends, and individually, the complete holistic profiles of two case study readers were able to be woven together from the various profiling 'strands', thus highlighting the usefulness of the profiling system and the uniqueness of the individual readers. Finally, a comparison between the 'good reader' and the 'real' student readers affords an understanding of the degree of 'fit' between the readers' characteristics and the expectations of the institution. It is argued that this type of holistic profiling is of considerable value to institutions, enabling them to respond in informed, strategic ways to the academic literacy development requirements of their Pacific (and other) students, on both an individual and group scale.</p>

Academic Reading and Pacific Students: Profiling Texts, Tasks & Readers in the First Year of University in New Zealand

<p>Central to tertiary study in the literate world is the storage, transmission and retrieval of knowledge via the written word through the complex, multi-faceted and largely invisible process of academic reading. With New Zealand's changing demographics and increasing participation in tertiary education by students of Pacific descent, it cannot be assumed that there is a sufficient degree of match between the cultures of academic literacy of the institution and those of the linguistic /ethnic minority student readers; and this is an issue that requires in-depth investigation. This thesis focuses on student readers of Pacific descent undertaking their first year of study in selected 100-level Humanities and Commerce courses in a NZ university. By drawing together the composite skills, cognitive and socio-cultural traditions of reading research, this study conceptualizes academic reading as the dynamic interplay between Text-Task-Reader within any given socio-cultural context. This three-part understanding of academic reading enables a rich profiling of Readers, Texts, and Tasks within their contexts. It permits the systematic discovery and documentation of the nature of the challenge inherent in the academic texts and tasks of the first year of university, and enables the characteristics of the prototypical 'good reader' in a specific discipline to be established. By identifying and holding the core first year academic reading Task of 'reading to understand and remember' constant, the complex interactions between the Reader and Text were able to be observed, thus providing insights into the ways in which these Pacific readers made meaning from Text. Then, through the holistic profiling of cognitive, affective, skills, and socio-culturally based reader features, the Pacific student readers' academic reading personae were constructed. Combined, the readers' profiles reveal group trends, and individually, the complete holistic profiles of two case study readers were able to be woven together from the various profiling 'strands', thus highlighting the usefulness of the profiling system and the uniqueness of the individual readers. Finally, a comparison between the 'good reader' and the 'real' student readers affords an understanding of the degree of 'fit' between the readers' characteristics and the expectations of the institution. It is argued that this type of holistic profiling is of considerable value to institutions, enabling them to respond in informed, strategic ways to the academic literacy development requirements of their Pacific (and other) students, on both an individual and group scale.</p>

Reading and its relationships among attitude, motivation, and comprehension achievement in upper secondary school students

Reading is essential in every subject. Reading also has a relationship with the students' achievement. This study is aimed to investigate whether or not there is (1) a significant correlation between reading attitude and reading comprehension achievement, (2) a significant correlation between reading motivation and reading comprehension achievement, (3) a significant correlation between reading attitude and reading motivation, and (4) any correlation between predictor variables and the criterion variable. The study was a correlational study with Pearson-product moment correlation. The sample of this study were 95 eleventh graders of upper secondary school. Cluster random sampling technique is used in this study. Questionnaires of reading attitude, reading motivation, and reading comprehension tests are given. The questionnaire result reveals that the reading attitude was negative, and reading motivation is medium. Furthermore, the results show that reading attitude and reading comprehension has a significant correlation. Reading motivation and reading comprehension also has a significant correlation. The roles of students, parents and teachers must work suitably in order to construct the positive reading atmosphere, thus they could achieve the better achievement in reading even for all subjects. HIGHLIGHTS: The supports from family in motivating the children to be a good reader could build the positive attitude toward reading. Reading motivation can lead to the improvement in language learning performance. The learners who tend to read simple English texts can be said as the learners who were lacking English reading experiences.

ASSESSMENT OF READING COMPREHENSION LEVELS AMONG GRADE 11 SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPOSED K-12 CONTEXT APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTIONAL TOOL

The reading comprehension is a basic requirement when the students enter in the universities or colleges or decide to work in the industry. Therefore, it is necessary for the teachers to give as many opportunities as possible by providing them with wide range of effective and useful materials in reading as well as to develop students reading habit and enhance their reading techniques. Students nowadays are observed having a great dilemma when it comes to comprehending a text. Reading comprehension is said to be the heart and goal of reading since the purpose of it is to gather meaning from the text. A good reader must always see to it that reading materials is properly understood. Most students can easily read a text but cannot comprehend its meaning. The study assesses the levels of reading comprehension of grade 11 General Academic Strand Students of Buting Senior High School towards the development of K-12 Context Appropriate Instructional Tool. This study sought to answer the following questions: What are the students reading profile? What are the levels of reading comprehension the respondents? Is there significant difference on the levels of reading comprehension of the two sections? And What K-12 instructional toolcan be proposed? The data was calculated using simple statistical tool of percentage, weighted mean and T-test. Students reading profile reveals that they read few times a week with 11-20 minutes reading time, read only one to five books during free time and they use electronic sources when reading. Students sometimes prefer to read the materials they want to read. With regards to reading techniques, they sometime make predictions, guessesand set goals when reading, however, students rarely summarize the story. There is no significant difference on students preference in reading habit and reading techniques between the two sections. The results of readingcomprehension levels:70% are outstanding in literal level 55% are satisfactory in inferential level and 42% are fair in critical-evaluative level. There is no significant difference on the levels of Reading Comprehension between the two sections. The study recommends instructional tools must be constructed which will be beneficial to the students with low levels of reading comprehension.

The Use of Technology in Dyslexia: An Analysis of Recent Trends

Dyslexia is a common reading difficulty and bring difficulties in the academic and social lives of individuals. A good reader is expected to complete the reading task at a certain speed and understanding. Technological tools can be used to solve the problem for individuals who have problems in different dimensions of reading skills. Instructional technologies may be aimed at improving one's reading ability or facilitating reading action. This study aims to generate a comprehensive litera-ture review and determine the current trends in the studies on dyslexia and tech-nology in order to shed light for researchers and professionals working with in-dividuals with dyslexia. This study was carried out to determine the potential and functional value of instructional technologies in learning processes of individuals with dyslexia through literature. A total number of 180 published documents in international databases through content analysis method. Results are presented with frequency and percentages in tables and figures. Results are discussed with relevant literature on dyslexia and technology and recommendations for further research and practices are provided. Keywords— Dyslexia, technology, content analysis, learning difficulty.

The Influence of Hypnoteaching Method on Students’ Reading Motivation and Achievement in Secondary School

This pre-experimental research was aimed to examine the influence of hypnoteaching method toward students’ reading motivation and achievement. The sample was 40 students with purposive sampling technique. Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) and test were the research instruments to gain the data quantitatively. Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) adopted from Wigfield and Guthrie (1997) to examine students’ reading motivation levels. For reading achievement, pre-test and post-test were distributed to assess the students’ reading outcome about Narrative Text before and after applying hypnoteaching method. The results of this research showed that the implementation of hypnoteaching method affected students reading motivation and learning outcome. The mean score of pre motivation for reading Questionnaire (MRQ) was 40.2 indicated poor reader and it raised to be 81.1 showing good reader after the implementation of hypnoteaching method. Furthermore, hypnoteaching method also affects English reading result which the mean of pre-test was 45.30 indicating poor score criterion of English subject, meanwhile, after being taught applying hypnoteaching method, the score inclined to 90.25 which asserted good score criterion of English subject. The value of t test was 14.88 from data of pre-test and post-test, however the value of t table was 1.99. It represented that the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted and revealed that hypnoteaching method can influence students’ reading achievement. Finally, it was suggested that English teacher should implement this method in teaching English for secondary school students and can be conducted for further research.

The Book Market, the Good Reader, and the Rise of Fan Fiction

Chapter 1 documents the rise of fan fiction in the decades after 1760, as it transformed from something radically unexpected to an accepted, if hotly debated, literary practice. This chapter argues that widespread changes in reading and writing habits, as well as the emergence of new aesthetic theories, provided a social and educational framework that primed readers to write fan fiction. The attendant writing revolution modified the book trade in ways that further spurred the creation of fan fiction. As the market became saturated with novels, publishers and booksellers looked for promising new products. Because works of fan fiction had established audiences, these texts became a safe bet for profit-hungry publishers and authors. The result was the proliferation of fan fiction.