Developing and Sustaining Reading Habit

Among Teenagers

Azlin Norhaini Mansor, Mohd Sattar

Rasul, Rose Amnah Abd Rauf & Bee Lian
Koh

The Asia-Pacific Education

Researcher

ISSN 0119-5646

Asia-Pacific Edu Res

DOI 10.1007/s40299-012-0017-1

1 23
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 Author's personal copy
Asia-Pacific Edu Res
DOI 10.1007/s40299-012-0017-1
Developing and Sustaining Reading Habit Among Teenagers
Azlin Norhaini Mansor • Mohd Sattar Rasul •
Rose Amnah Abd Rauf • Bee Lian Koh
 De La Salle University 2012
Abstract Reading avidness is recognized as one of the
predictors for academic achievement and as motivators for
adult to be a life-long learner. The fact is that the number of
avid readers is dwindling, and a recent survey showed that
Malaysians read an average of two books per year. Thus, the
focus of this research is to identify the factors that first led to
students’ interest in reading and then to sustain this interest.
The case study uses observations, interviews and documen-
tary analyses method to collect data from seven 15-year-old
Malaysian teenagers selected based on their reading avidness
and various backgrounds. Through the course of this research,
it was recognized that a key factor for reading ability stems
from the home and choice of early childhood education. On
the other hand, although parents do encourage and sustain
interest in reading, the greater force seems to be from peers
with similar interest. Like other facets of a teenager’s life, peer
influence or as in this case positive peer influence, can be a key
to unlock the dilemma of ‘reading reluctance’.
Keywords Reading habit
Early childhood education

Peer influence
Case study
Introduction
Language theorists (Miller and Gildea 1987; Sternberg
1985; Vygotsky 1978) and researchers (Cunningham and
A. N. Mansor (&)
M. S. Rasul
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
e-mail: azlinmansor@ukm.my
R. A. A. Rauf
Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
B. L. Koh
Open University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Stanovich 1997, 2003; Stanovich 1993) all agree that there
is a strong correlation between avid reading and vocabulary
development which occurs indirectly through continuous
language exposure. Studies have found that a good lan-
guage student is also a good reader (OECD 2011). Reading
teaches a learner to be a good writer because reading
inculcates the skill of arranging words into sentences to
form meaning (Pretorius 2000). Research has also shown
that there is a strong correlation between good readers and
good writers of the language (Eldouma 2005).
Consequently, further research on achievement predictors
has proved that avid readers, especially students who are
highly engaged in a wide range of reading activities, are more
likely to be effective learners and to perform well at school
(Cunningham and Stanovich 2001; Mokatsi 2005; Savolainen
et al. 2007). More research involving adults also documents a
strong link between reading practices, motivation, attitudes,
judgement and proficiency among adults (Sheehan-Holt and
Smith 2011). Reading influences the extent to which a person
can process information, and their accuracy in doing this, as
well as being crucial for individuals to make sense of the world
they live in (Eyre 2005; Satija 2002). In short, reading is an
essential prerequisite for success in today’s society and
enables people to continue learning throughout their lives.
Unfortunately, a survey by Small 1998 reveals that 87 %
of all Malaysians practise reading, but that they only read a
mere two books a year! These findings are similar to those
of a small-scale study done by Long (1984) on the reading
habits of high school students and of studies by Razali
(1997) and Szarina et al. (1994) on reading habits among
pre-university students. All three studies revealed that
secondary school and university students were reluctant to
read material other than that related to academic topics. A
more recent study on reading habits by Pandian (2000)
found that this pattern may not have changed for the better.
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 Author's personal copy
The advent of television and computers has posed a great
challenge to the reading habits of Malaysians in general
and students in particular (Mokhtari et al. 2011; Nor
Shahriza and Hasan 2007).
An observant language teacher will notice that her good
language students are also good readers. Most of the time, there
is a strong correlation between good readers and good writers of
the language (Eldouma 2005). In the Malaysian language syl-
labus, there is an emphasis on the four skills of listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Unfortunately, at the end of the
day, the system rates the child’s competence more on his reading
and writing skills than on the first two. Although reading is
taught, the emphasis is on helping students to read and under-
stand. Thus, reading ends when the class ends. The teaching of
reading does not include the added component of generating
further interest in reading by students. What then should a lan-
guage teacher do to plant that seed of reading among students?
How can she water the seed so that it grows into a plant, and
nurture the plant so that it will continue to thrive?
What Makes and Sustain an Avid Reader?
Most avid readers began their reading habit very early because
of conduciveness of home factors. Studies by Morrow (1983)
on avid readers among kindergarten children found that most
children with a high interest in reading came from parents that
support the literary environments at home. These parents read
to their children, watch less television, and having more
children’s books in the home. Morrow also found that children
that went to kindergarten with supportive well-planned liter-
ature programme tend to read more compared to other chil-
dren who do not have this advantage. Other home factors that
support an early reading habit are; parent who read, the free-
dom to choose what to read, getting books as gift, frequent
library visits and strong reading reinforcement (Fielding et al.
1986; Anderson et al. 1988; Shapiro and Whitney 1997; Hall
and Moats 2000; Davis 2007; Pitcher et al. 2007; McKool
2007).
A similar study done in Taiwan but with 9th and 12th
grade avid readers also found that home factors such as
availability of reading materials at home, parental reading
frequency, and parents’ regular visits to the bookstore
correlates highly with being an avid reader (Chen 2008).
Chen’s study supports earlier findings of Strommen and
Mates (2004) that being role models who read frequently,
inevitably creates parents who influence their children to
love reading and eventually become avid readers them-
selves. Baker (2003) continues by stating that students
from supportive environments also have more positive
attitudes towards reading along with engaging in more
leisure reading.
All the studies mentioned above provide empirical evi-
dence that home factors especially parents reading
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A. N. Mansor et al.
behaviour and literary support, simultaneously influence
and sustain their children’s interest in reading. The children
involved in these studies were predominantly found to read
for leisure and view reading as a recreational activity.
Studies done by Ruddell (1995), Strommen and Mates
(2004), and Chen (2008) in particular, make another sig-
nificant finding in that the teachers’ enthusiasm about
books and those who always share their passion and
appreciation of knowledge have a greater effect on stu-
dents’ being avid readers. Chen perceived that by sharing
their enthusiasm in books they have somehow transferred
the ‘excitement, passion, and appreciation’ for knowledge
to the students in the classroom. Thus, Chen concludes that
the teacher’s influence on students reading avidness is as
important as the parents’. Studies done by Pandian (2000);
Belzer (2002); Sanacore (2000) and Pitcher et al. (2007)
promote further the fact that teachers do make an impact in
sustaining students interest in reading.
The Role of Teens’ Peers in Sustaining Avid Readers
Studies on the role of peers in promoting and sustaining
reading habits among younger teens, 14–15-year-old,
remain conclusive to this day. The reading habits of this
age group is an interesting subject of investigation mainly
because several earlier studies have traced the beginning of
the decline in pleasure reading to this critical age range
(The Reading Agency 2000; Nieuwenhuizen 2001; The
National Endowment for the Arts 2007).
The role of teens’ peers in supporting teenagers’ reading
habits was highlighted by Howard (2008). She interviewed
nine focus groups with a total of sixty-eight 12–15-year
olds and concluded, ‘for many young teen readers, reading
takes place almost exclusively in a social context and is
seen as an effective way to cement peer friendships. These
teens actively seek to read the same materials as their
closest friends and use reading (talking about reading,
exchanging reading material, following the same series) as
a form of social bonding’ (pg. 9).
There is evidently a strong need to nurture and sustain this
‘reading habit’ rather than allowing another generation of
reluctant readers to go through the system. According to
Pandian (2000), ‘reluctant readers’ are people who can read
but do not read. In contrast, willing readers are readers who
have developed the ‘reading habit’, who will pick up a book or
magazine and avidly pore over the pages for information or
entertainment. In the context of this research, a ‘reading habit’
is confined to non-digital reading, that is, to printed material
like magazines and story books, particularly novels.
Overall, to clearly display a picture of the effects of
variables taken on reading habits, this research adapted
Pandian’s Explanatory Model of reading behaviour (Pan-
dian 2000), as presented in Fig. 1.
 Author's personal copy
Reading Habit Among Teenagers

The above model was constructed for a quantitative
research in Pandian’s study ‘A study on readership
behaviour among multi-ethnic, multi-lingual Malaysian
students’ and covers a wider scope of both secondary and
university students. Thus, it is only partially applicable to
this research.
Pandian defines the term as reading ability and will-
ingness to read for information and leisure as well as
reading practices that engage different print and audio-
visual contents, such as newspapers, magazines, non-text-
books and informative material of various multimedia. He
also introduces the term ‘reading reluctance’ to refer to the
state of unwillingness to read even though one is able to.
The article combines two studies and thus gives an in depth
insight to the reading behaviour of both university and
secondary students.
Background of the Study
In his review of literature, which was overly general and
non-specific regarding his source, Pandian agrees that ‘…a
plethora of relationships’ and ‘multi-factorial’ things affect
reading behaviour. The three major domains are, however,
the home, school and characteristics of students. To his
credit, he has elaborated in greater detail each factor and
identifies specific codes for them. He has added ‘inter-
vening variables’, as additional variables were not listed in
his review of the literature.
Pandian had used the quantitative research method and
used a set of structured questionnaire which examine the
‘home and school settings; the time spent on reading per
week, activeness in acquisition of reading materials, the
variety of newspapers, books and magazines and the
availability of the reading area’. He uses the cross-sectional
survey and uses the random and stratified sampling method
over two target groups. In each group, he ensures there are
samples from both gender and total sample is sufficient and
operational. In his conclusion, he profiled the ‘habitual
reader’ of both groups and identified the differences. As
our research covers the secondary students, the profile of
the secondary habitual reader is relevant to this study.
Except for the gender, the target group of 15-year-old
students in this purposive convenience sampling method
conforms to the profile used by Pandian.
In his conclusion, Pandian further asserts the importance
of reading models, both at home and in school. However,
he has not looked into how these models were practiced to
influence the subject’s reading lifestyle.
Fortunately, this aspect of teacher model was mentioned
in Ng (2004), ‘Inculcating the Reading Habit through the
NILAM programme’. In her school, she implemented the
Mentor–mentee programme to give meaning and added
value to the NILAM programme, which tended to degen-
erate into a recording process. Through a period of
4–5 years, the teachers persisted with their mentoring, even
to the point of forcing the child to read and record books
read. Notable was the 50-min silent reading programme
held every Thursday and every rained-out assembly. Prizes
were awarded to most number of books read for both
mentee and mentor. In her final analysis of a survey done in
2004, she claimed a positive increase in the number of
books read and a decrease in percentage of ‘zero reading’.
However, Ng’s report did not clearly state how the mentors
helped their respective mentees. No account were given
(other than forced reading in the library) of teachers

B: Home Variables
B1: Varity of Reading Materials at Home
B2: Amount of Reading Materials at Home
B3: Home influence
B4: Parent/Sibling Reading Material

E: Reading Habit Variables

E1: Varity of Reading Materials
A: Background Variables E2: Activities in Acquisition of
A1: Residential Area D: Intervening Variables Reading Materials
A2: Sex D1: Exposure to Language E3: Time Spent in Reading
A3: Ethnicity D2: Attitudes towards Reading E4: Value Attached to Reading
A4: Type of School D3: Attitudes towards E6: The Degree of Habitualness in
A5: SES Reading

C: School Variables
C1: Varity of Reading Materials in School
C2: Amount of Reading Materials in
School
C3: Availability of Reading Areas
C4: Teacher Influence

Fig. 1 Pandian’s Explanatory Model of reading behaviour

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 Author's personal copy
reading to or reading with their mentees. In essence, Ng’s
effort to practicalize NILAM shows that the programme
can inculcate reading behaviour with concerted effort and
well-designed constructive activities.
At the school level, under the auspices of the school
library, all Malaysian schools incorporate a NILAM pro-
gramme where students are encouraged to record the books
they have read. NILAM stands for ‘Nadi Ilmu Amalan
Membaca’ (Reading as the Pulse of Knowledge) (Ng 2004).
Launched in September 1999, this programme hopes to
inculcate a lasting reading habit among students. It is oper-
ated through two levels or elements. The first requires a
reading record, where the total number of books read are
tabulated and recorded by the students in a special book. In
this record book, students write the necessary details of the
book read, a short synopsis of the book and valuable lessons
learnt. Records are then verified by a teacher. The second
level is Recognition. Based on the number of books read, the
students are awarded a particular NILAM status: bronze,
silver, gold and the pinnacle NILAM.
At the secondary level, a student must have read at least
72 books to attain bronze status and 288 books to achieve
NILAM status. Bonus marks are awarded to students under
the co-curricular activities record, and these bonus marks
and recognition statuses open doors to selected schools,
universities and scholarships.
For this particular study, as the profile of a habitual reader
was the basis of choice of sample, the NILAM record of
students from class 2A was a basis to identify the prolific
reader to explore the main factors that affects a teenager
reading habit. This study is also underpinned by earlier
articles that attribute good readership or ‘reading habits’ to
the home, and in particular to parental involvement (Auer-
bach 2010; Bennett et al. 2002; Sukhram and Hsu 2012).
Thus, this study aimed to investigate the reading
behaviour of some of these students, and to gain insights
A: HOME
• SES
• Parental early intervention
• Reading materials
Reading
behavior/
ability
B: SCHOOL
• Teacher support
• Reading programme-NILAM
Fig. 2 Explanatory Model of reading behaviour
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A. N. Mansor et al.
into how they have developed an interest in reading and
how they sustain this interest.
Research Methodology
With the above objectives in mind, the subjects inter-
viewed responded to questions on two levels. At the first
level, the subject was asked when and how his or her
interest in reading was developed, and who was responsible
for this development. At the second level, the questions
aimed to investigate how many books the subject was
reading, how often s/he reads and why s/he reads. Parents
were also interviewed to gather students’ early childhood
information and out of school reading behaviour.
The following is our adapted model, focusing mainly on
factors that develop reading behaviour and factors that
sustain the reading habit Fig. 2.
This research model aims to zoom in on the more per-
tinent details of how the home and/or school have con-
tributed to the development of the habitual reader, from the
perspective of the reader him or herself. Rather than a
questionnaire that limits the respondents’ views and defines
the researcher’s hypothesis, the qualitative mode of using
interviews gave greater insight into what moves and
motivates the readers. Although this study involved only a
few respondents, the findings shed very pertinent infor-
mation that could be used by researchers, educators and
parents to inculcate early reading habits among our future
generations.
Thus, interviews were conducted on a chosen sample of
seven 15-year-old students. A NILAM document, which
represents the class record of the number of books read,
was used as a basis for identifying the students to inter-
view. Respondents chosen from this list will be identified
as Naomi, Ilia and Mira. Naomi had attained silver status
SUSTAINABILITY
FACTORS
Intrinsic
• Fun
• Love/passion
• Language
acquisition
Extrinsic Reading
• Rewards Habit
• Home support
• Peer support
• Financial support
• Resources
• Time
 Author's personal copy
Reading Habit Among Teenagers
by the time of the interview, while Mira and Ilia had
attained bronze status. However, observation in class also
showed Nicole to be a keen reader. She was always ready
with a book during the reading period. She wears thick
glasses, symptomatic of someone who reads widely. The
snowballing sampling method was then used, as Nicole
introduced friends who read: Iqa (total books recorded: 47)
and, most notably, Aisya and Adam whose NILAM records
show a total of only 13–14 books. This is significant, as
they would not have been interviewed based on the NI-
LAM records. However, Ilia mentioned Iqa as a friend who
has encouraged her to read, while Nicole identified Ming as
a keen reader. Observation similarly showed that these
students were always ready with their own story book
during the reading class, and settled quickly to reading
their books during the allotted time. Interview protocol
stopped at the 7th subject upon saturation and no new
information was gathered. The subjects interviewed have
similar background, are all living in the same community
and of the same class. Thus, sampling is convenient and the
subjects could be re-contacted easily for further verification
of details or for extra information. Of the students listed,
two are male and the other five, female.
Findings
The interviews are transcripted and coded to identify the key
factors mentioned by the various candidates. Theoretically,
it was hypothesized that the home and school are two major
factors that decide whether a child will develop a reading
behaviour. It was also theorized that this behaviour has to be
sustained to be considered a reading habit. This sustaining
power could be intrinsic or extrinsic and the research hopes
to identify the various factors that sustain this reading habit.
This is important in view that today’s children especially
teenagers are bombarded by many demands and distractions.
The sustainability factors identified will be helpful to edu-
cators and even educationists to draw up programmes and
projects to inculcate the reading habit.
The findings are presented in line with the objective of the
research that is to investigate the factors that develop and
sustain reading habits. In both aspects, this study found that
the home is the main pushing factor that will first inculcate
the literacy behaviour during infancy, fostering the reading
ability during childhood, promotes the habit into the teens
and finally maintains the avidness towards adolescent. Other
pertinent sustaining factors are discussed below.
Development of Reading Habits
One of the most notable findings of this study is that par-
ents are the main influence in developing reading habits.
The entire sample was from middle or upper middle class
families, with parents who are professionals. Another sig-
nificant feature is the size of their family, which was rel-
atively small with only one or two siblings; two of them
were only children. This background is significant, as it
enables the children to have access to resources for reading
readily and easily.
It was found that the ‘mother’ stands out as the strong
factor in all the interviewees except two. The majority
fondly remember bedtime stories with mother: ‘She started
with Peter and Jane and then to other story books, funny
ones where we laughed together. I used to enjoy those
moments’ (Ilia). Another commented: ‘My mum read
bedtime stories until I slept’ (Iqa). Although most cannot
remember doing specific activities other than bedtime
stories, documents from their mothers show that they made
efforts to start their children reading young. The children
were exposed to songs from Sesame Street and Barney,
flashcards to read words and various early readers. Thus,
most of them were recognizing words or reading by the age
of 3–5. Most notable is Naomi, whose mother used the
Letterland programme from the UK with her. She started
reading when she was 1‘ years old. In most cases, these
are mothers who also read, and one teen commented that
his interest in reading was spurred in Standard 4 upon
seeing his mother reading: ‘I saw my mother reading and
asked her why. She explained the benefits and gave me my
first book’ (Ming). Of the two respondents who cannot
recall their mothers’ direct involvement in their reading
development, documents from their mothers show that they
did occasionally read bedtime stories, and used flashcards,
songs and children’s shows to stimulate the children’s
mental development. It is interesting to note that, of the
seven interviewees, none mentioned that their father had
played a significant role in establishing and inculcating the
ability to read. It seems that the job has been delegated to
mothers and that it is the mothers who see the importance
of encouraging their children to read early.
All the seven respondents were exposed to a positive
literary environment very early in their life. All had an
early childhood education, enrolling into kindergartens as
early as 4 years old. However, the respondents do not
credit their reading abilities to the kindergartens they
attended. Only one respondent commented on the inter-
esting story-telling sessions by the teacher and agreed that
they stimulated her interest to read. Another remembered
that her kindergarten had to re-tailor its reading programme
to suit her standard, as she was reading well above other
children of her age. However, documents from the mothers
credit certain programmes for their children’s early reading
abilities. Naomi had benefitted from Letterland at Tumble
Tots, Ming from Phonics in Ringrose Kindergarten and Ilia
from Smart Readers at Kuen Chen Kindergarten. Only one
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respondent supplemented her kindergarten classes with
extra reading activities from a Speech and Drama Centre.
Overall, all the parents sent their children to early child-
hood centres even though they had given time and effort to
teach their children to read early, and expected these cen-
tres to continue with the effort they had started, to move
their children to another level of reading (as in the case of
Nicole).
Sustaining the Reading Habits
As these children grow into their teens, how do they sustain
their interest in reading? What keeps them reading and why
do they continue reading? Prevalent among them is the
desire ‘to have fun’ and ‘to enjoy’. Through early influ-
ences, these young teens have received an interest in books
and developed a perception that reading can be fun and
interesting. These intrinsic motivators are enhanced by the
variety of books in the market which continue to feed their
interests. The latest genres that captivate them are fantasies
and ‘vampire’ romantic novels. With such novels appear-
ing as series (the Harry Porter series, or the Narnia books),
interest in the development of the storyline captivates the
teenager further and causes him or her to read more.
Nicole, who will not put a book down until she finishes it
(one book a day), describes her passionate interest as an
‘escape for me’. ‘You step into someone’s world and you
see the different aspects of their world. It is exciting
…inspiring, like Diary of Anne Frank.’ To Nicole, books
are ‘an escape from the real world’, a way to de-stress, and
to Ming, books are a better way ‘to overcome boredom’.
All recognize that reading helps to improve their language
skills. It is a beneficial hobby as they ‘pick up new words’,
‘learn big words’, or ‘hope to write better’. To her credit,
Nicole writes very well, having submitted a story called
‘Letting Go’ to the local newspaper (The STAR) which was
published. The others, particularly Naomi, feel that their
essays can be better if they continue to read more. There is
thus an inherent awareness within these readers that their
language writing skills (especially English as all of them
mostly read English books) will become better as they read
more. These children have certainly learnt fast and well.
Extrinsic motivators are also important in sustaining
their interest in reading. To read and continue reading,
these teens must have a continuous supply of books. Most
buy and borrow books. As books are not very cheap,
parental financial support to purchase books helps to
maintain their reading habit. Visits to bookshops are fre-
quent, and such visits are made with mothers who are also
avid readers. Ming, Nicole and Iqa prefer to buy books as
they are ‘good investments’, and Nicole prefers ‘crisp new
books’ to those limp pages borrowed from the library.
Visits to bookshops are made as often as once a week, or
123
A. N. Mansor et al.
only during sales. In the latter situation, a large number of
books will be purchased to take advantage of the discounts.
Fortunate Mira, who is the only child, visits the bookshop
almost every weekend and gets to pick books that she likes
to read. This parental support is noted in all documents
returned by the mothers, that, to encourage their children to
read, they have purchased story books and magazines to
enable the children keep reading.
However, Adam buys less and borrows more, especially
from the school as well as public libraries. The rest of the
respondents, when they do borrow books, prefer to borrow
from their peers and relatives rather than from libraries.
There is also a network among friends for exchanging
books. More importantly, this sharing extends to sharing
information about the stories read. This is a very significant
aspect of sustaining the reading habit, as youths look for
recognition and support from peers. This finding also
promotes the idea that reading is a social activity and for it
to be engaging, it needs to be hands on and validated
through peers.
‘I actually went into reading seriously when I heard
my friends talk about Harry Potter, felt left out and a
great need to read and then found the book was
fantastic’ (Mira).
‘There is a group of about 10 of us who share books
and ideas (about the books read). It really helps to
encourage us to read more and yet save money’ (Iqa).
‘I generally borrow from or exchange with
friends…friends from 3 Berlian’ (Naomi).
‘My friends, Iqa and Mira. We share what we read.
They will tell me what are the exciting books they are
reading and vice versa. So we will just be dying to lay
our hands on the book. Switch books and if I par-
ticularly like the book I will buy and keep it’ (Nicole).
All these comments evidently translate to SUPPORT––
from parents, peers and school and public libraries.
Rewards are also extrinsic motivators; however, rewards
do not encourage all the respondents, but only three of
them. Adam, Ilia and Naomi have made special efforts to
fill up their NILAM record book as they recognize that
points gained as co-curricular marks will come in useful
when they apply for universities and scholarships. Naomi
has set her target on achieving NILAM status as early as
the end of this year. She is confident that she can read 100
books to meet the requirement, as she speed reads. Adam is
reading less this year in view of the upcoming Lower
Secondary Examination at the end of this year, but prom-
ises to meet the target of NILAM when he leaves the
school in 2 years. Ilia has diligently filled in her record
book to please the teacher more than for the tangible
rewards. She feels that, like the others who have been laid
back about filling in the NILAM record book, the reward is
 Author's personal copy
Reading Habit Among Teenagers
in and from the reading of the books itself. The NILAM
programme has thus, to a certain extent, encouraged certain
individuals to read more. However, to others, it is irrele-
vant as they read to better themselves.
Will these teens continue to read? All the respondents
are confident of carrying forward the reading habit with
them. They will continue to read during the holidays and
weekends. During weekdays, reading will have to come
after school work and homework. As long as they have the
time, these respondents will not forego their reading; to
some, reading takes precedence over the television and
computer. As mentioned by Adam, ‘TV and computer have
no hold on me. I will still go for a book’.
Discussion
This study supports the core findings of earlier research on
reading avidness that reading behaviour is first developed at
home. The results indicate that mothers are the key factor,
who will unlock the reading ability of a child. Mothers,
through their simple efforts like reading a bedtime story,
regularly have an impact on the child’s reading life. Whether
working or a home-maker, mothers should find time to guide
their children with the different tried and tested methods,
such as sing-a-longs, nursery rhymes and story books, to
ensure that their children have a head start in life. Good role
modelling by mothers who are themselves readers has an
additional impact on sealing-in the potential reading habit.
Creating a literary environment at home and in kinder-
garten was also found to be another pushing factor in
developing reading behaviour among children. Although the
respondents from this simple study have a good socio-eco-
nomic status, inculcating good reading behaviour and habits
is not and should not be the domain of only the well-to-do. In
fact, all parents regardless of their socio-economic back-
ground should pool their resources together to develop good
reading behaviour among their children, by emulating what
mothers in this study do to their children. Reading materials,
books, flashcards and tapes are not beyond their means and,
with a little effort, could easily be obtained. Thus, a national
awareness of the benefits of reading to young children could
be imparted through a soft campaign, so that all mothers with
young children will be adequately informed of the benefits of
this simple activity for the future of their children.
Once the reading behaviour has been developed, the
greater challenge is to sustain an interest in reading. For
this aspect, the school as well as the home has a significant
role to play. As against avid reading, ‘reading reluctance’
(Pandian 2000) seems more prevalent as people get older.
Thus, it is important to maintain that interest in reading
through various means. In this aspect, the Ministry of
Education should be lauded for the introduction of NILAM
to schools, but the perception of how and what NILAM is
and should be needs to be reviewed. There is now a new
emphasis on NILAM in the right direction: silent reading at
the assembly ground once a month for a single period. The
Weberian bureaucracy of our education system is entren-
ched, and schools tend to wait for directives from the top
instead of being proactive. Thus, reading activities planned
and constructed at national levels should be directed to the
schools. Although the introduction of literary text in lan-
guage learning is an important first step in this direction,
the drawback is that reading story books is now associated
with examinations rather than the ‘fun’ and ‘excitement’
that motivate students to pick up books and read. Another
interesting finding to note is that none of the respondents in
this study attributes their teachers for their reading avid-
ness, as had been mentioned in earlier studies. However,
they did admit that other than parents, friends also influ-
ence their reading behaviour.
Based on this study, the concept of peer support and
sharing of books and interests among young people is an
important factor that kept the respondents reading actively.
This aspect can be looked into more seriously at the school
level. Can a programme based on peer support be incor-
porated into the NILAM programme and activities? If so,
how can such a programme be implemented to achieve the
maximum result? Should teachers be trained to move stu-
dents into groups of readers and mentor such groups? Next
is to review the choice of books in the literature compo-
nent. Should more contemporary literature that interests the
young be incorporated even if it does not replace existing
literary texts? Unfortunately, this study does not effectively
answer this question, and this is an area in which more
studies and research can be done to find answers to the
increasing problem of ‘reading reluctance’.
Although the home is an important factor that launched
these respondents into reading, not all homes have the
same privileges as these middle class respondents. Students
from less well-off homes will have to depend on schools to
stimulate situations to encourage the reading habit. It is
evident that the mere existence of a library will not
encourage reading, and more concerted programmes
should be organized at the school level to inculcate this
habit.
Conclusions
This study, despite its limitation, confirmed previous
research that the mother’s early childhood interventions
followed by a supportive home environment initiate a
child’s interest in reading. Yet, the most difficult part is
sustaining the interest through the child’s teens and main-
taining the habit to adulthood. On the other hand, although
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parents do encourage reading, schools also play a role in
sustaining the interest; yet, this study found that the greater
influence seems to be from peers with similar interests.
Hence, like other facets of a teenager’s life, peer influence
can be a key to unlock the dilemma of ‘reading reluctance’.
This important finding should not be taken lightly, and
must be explored further to ensure that avid readers do not
become extinct in this digital-globalized world.
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