| Summary: | The present study investigates children's behaviour and attitudes to reading in the primary school classroom. In attempting to examine children's reading behaviour, this study probes classroom practices concerning reading and also examines children's views and preferences. A Case Study approach was adopted for its capacity to explore the complexities of human behaviour and of the classroom context, and to generate hypotheses and explanations - The Case Study approach involved naturalistic observation of five primary school classes in three different schools in East Anglia. The professional and social settings of classroom activities were taken into account. Interviews with children and teachers provided additional data on the participants views, opinions and beliefs, which enhances data from observation. The investigation focused upon the children's perspective. The thesis intends to illustrate the broad argument that the complex context of the primary school classroom, in which children learn to read and are expected to become readers, has influence upon their reading behaviour in the classroom and their attitudes to reading. This is suggested by the issues which are generated from analysis of the collected data. The study sheds light on the topic of young children's notions of reading and attitudes to books within the classroom reading context. It indicates the kinds of support required by young children so as to become 'real' readers, who derive pleasure as well as information from books.
|
|---|
