Students Reading Motivation - Literature review Example

STUDENTS READING MOTIVATION (Your name) (Instructor/Tutor) (Course/Subject) (Institution/University) (Date) Chapter 2 2.0 Literature Review 1. 2. Different theories and concepts were put across in order to understand and perform this study. The following chapter will address the terminology, theories and factors that contribute to the foundation of this study. The chapter begins with the explanation of the term ‘motivation’. However, the literature review tries to evaluate student reading motivation theories and how these theories were adapted and linked to the reading motivation. Motivation is a psychological feature that propels an individual to act towards the attainment of a particular goal. It is more of a force which draws out, controls and maintains certain goal oriented behaviour. It may also be considered as the energy that reinforces an action toward an intended goal. Previous research has shown that learner motivation is of major concern to many educators. Thus in education, ‘reading motivation’ concerns with the problem of establishing conditions that will enable students to perform to their level best. Student reading motivation refers to the processes employed by teachers to enable students add more effort on their reading. Many teachers are in agreement that the term motivation can also be used to describe a learners’ internal drive to take part in their education. It can also be taken to imply the commitment by learners to schooling. The concept of motivation is as well closely related to another term engagement. This term entails a learner’s participation in resolving to complete or finish academic assignments (Manhack, B. 2010). Many teachers admit that low motivation among learners is the cause of numerous problems they come face to face with when teaching. Motivation often brings the distinction between learning which is superficial and temporary and learning that is internalized and permanent. During the early stages of admission to school, most children are always excited concerning learning and will often be highly motivated. However, this motivation to study appears to decline during the primary school years in all subjects, reading included. It has been observed that the motivation to read while at home and in the school environment wanes as children get older. This decline in reading motivation has been linked to children’s increasing awareness of self-performance in comparison to their peers. The decline has also been linked to learning that puts more emphasis on competition at the expense of considering learners’ interests (Edmunds & Bauserman, 2006). 2.1 Theories of reading motivation Different perspectives in psychology are normally used to explain motivation in four diverse ways. These perspectives include; humanistic, behavioral, social and cognitive. The humanistic perspective stresses on the learners’ capacity for personal development, autonomy to select their destiny and positive traits. There are two theories arising from this perspective .These two theories include; Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory and Roger’s motivation theory. According to Maslow’s theory, once basic psychological needs have been fulfilled, efforts are aimed at accomplishment of needs linked to love and belonging, safety, and self-esteem. Roger’s theory postulates that the behaviour depicted by an individual is directly related to personal perception of both individual and environmental aspects. Regarding the social learning perspective, motivation is envisioned as object-directed behaviour that is closely associated to feelings of individual effectiveness. In other words, individuals who frequently register success are more probable to constructively value their personal competence than those who frequently experience failure (Guthrie, 2007). There are two theories that emanate from the cognitive perspective including achievement motivation and Weiner Attribution theory. According to the theory of achievement, learners with a high drive for accomplishment are motivated to get occupied in an undertaking if they have faith that they may be successful. According to the attribution theory, an individual’s rationalization of success and failure has some influence on the person’s consequent motivation and behaviour. Learners may ascribe success or failure to a variety of reasons, based on their beliefs regarding who or what influences their success or failure. With regards to the behavioral perspective, when learners get rewarded with praise for doing their work correctly, they tend to look forward to the next task with a lot of enthusiasm. Thus, proponents of this theory underscore the use of extrinsic motivation to reinforce task engagement by learners (Smith, 2010). Most students are driven to learn when they get to decide what kind of work they would like to read. According to Pachtman, in his several studies he tries to show that students develop a sense of ownership on the kind of material they choose to read given that each and everyone has their own hold of interest (2009). This is possibly a major key to motivate and drive the student because students, who were granted the opportunity, read and enjoyed doing it. Students also revealed that they enjoyed being read to by their colleagues and being narrated about books and various works others were reading. In addition proximate is revealed as another factor contributing to students reading motivation as in a number of studies it is shown that the easy the students get access to books they wanted to read the more they enjoyed reading them (Smith, 2010). Interestingly, two surprising findings reveal that students showed that when they were in a position to discuss books with their friends and the intention and expectation to read was there, their enjoyment and time to read increased. According to Bandura (2005), a motivation theorist, students have different beliefs about the nature of their intelligence: Some believe that intelligence is fixed; whereas others believe it can be developed by working hard on something. Edmunds as well found that students regard knowledge as a motivation for them to initiate on reading. The librarian can also have a role influencing on the students reading, various studies have indicated that the librarians should come up with flexible schedules since the exposure to the library affects the students reading motivation positively by introducing them to variety of books thus teachers should relate well and collaborate with librarians to get the motivation work done (Smith, 2010). According to Williams (2013), teachers need to think beyond and outside the classroom to enhance the students’ motivation and create a classroom atmosphere that interacts well with them. When students first enter school they are so proud and excited about learning and in the course very motivated. However, their motivation decreases during the time of their study in all academic subjects reading included. Indeed, students’ motivation to read in school decline as they get older. This decline has been affiliated to children’s growing awareness of their performance as to others not to mention instruction that reflects competition and does not show students interests. Educators also recognized motivation may be correlated to the magnitude of students reading. Wang discovered in one of his studies that students’ reading motivation narrated differences in text comprehension. For instance, when students fail continuously, they lose their motivation. In all the studies, it is clear that poor reading skills and low motivation influences one another hence early interventions in reading skills can raise reading motivation later in life. One of the recent studies by Mallete suggested that self-efficacy theory has a vital position in enhancing reading for the students since if the students identify and feels that they are better readers, they will be motivated to read hence better readers (Williams, 2013). This theory is steered by self-perception, progress, observation, social feedback, and physiological states. Sex characteristics differences also play a vital role in student reading motivation. For instance, girls posse better attitude towards recreational reading than their boys counterparts do. May be to motivate boys to read would mean broadening our definition of what literacy have make relate these connections to the class work. Literacy results and life learning activities and practices are to develop when motivation is a major element in attaining this goal. It is clear that many research studies on motivation and reading that increases motivation translates to a rise in reading efficiency and ability. Most of the studies concur to use intrinsic motivators as opposed to extrinsic as a way to promote long lasting reading habits. Book clubs and sustained silent reader needs to be internalized in order to decide if they can secure recreational reading motivations 2.3 Types of Student Motivation Two types of motivation have been identified: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation means rewards which are realized not from an activity, but as an outcome of the activity. It results from the use of external incentives or bonuses including praise, food, money or free-time, toward a given activity. A student may work hard in school to obtain better grades because of the prize attached to good grades. Note that the students drive is nothing but the prize and not the interest in the subjects being studied. The incentives are all external. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation means rewards afforded by a given activity. The cause of this kind of motivation is internal factors. Students that are intrinsically motivated will study hard not for the prize but for their interest of the subject under study (Edmunds & Bauserman, 2006). 2.2 Roles of Motivation in Reading A lot of research findings indicate that student reading motivation plays a significant role in learning. It has been established that readers who are highly motivated have two distinguishing characteristics. The first one is that they are self-determining and secondly, they have the ability to generate their own reading prospects. Such students want to read and select a variety of individual reasons including involvement, curiosity, emotional satisfaction and social interchange (Leigh ,2012). On the other hand, reading motivation plays various roles in the lives of students and that is why teachers should learn and have a clear concept on how to effectively motivate the students. Reading motivation is that it has been used to encourage both teacher and students to work towards increasing the student academic performance. This is because reading gives the students a desire to work hard and on their own as they learn to be proud of their achievements. Readers who are highly motivated can generate self-learning chances, and, in so doing, play a role in determining their destiny as literacy pupils. Theoretical and empirical findings indicate that increased motivation to read is linked to positive self- belief and high value task. On the other hand, low motivation to read is linked to poor self-belief ad low value task. Furthermore, research findings about learners who are motivated to read shows that they end up spending more time studying. On the other hand, their counterparts who fail to be motivated end up spending less time reading. The development of lifetime readers has also been linked to reading motivation. In addition, motivation has been found to play a role in influencing the success of multiple strategies teaching (Roberts, 2008). According to Roberts (2008.), when learners find that an activity is worthwhile or interesting, they end up putting more effort in order to see its completion. They often do their best and think more innovatively or creatively. They also found that student motivation significantly boosts a learner’s level of energy and consequently the drive to complete the task at hand. Furthermore, the researchers found out that when students develop an interest in a given activity, they automatically become motivated to carry it out. According to them, when learners are interested in a given lesson or activity, they register a high level of attention and show more eagerness to carry out that lesson or activity. Edmunds & Bauserman have established that motivated learners play a key role in creating a learning environment that is engaging (2006). Their eagerness plays a role in rewarding the teachers, who thereby gets encouraged to put their soul and heart into teaching. Furthermore, the two researchers found out that students who are motivated pay more attention in class and thus end up retaining more information. This in turn contributes towards the enhancement of the quality of learning in pupils. This means that motivated learners end up performing better in their academics thereby making education their priority. Such learners get disappointed whenever they score low grades. Reading motivation also play a major role in the success of student’s academic performance since most academic knowledge is achieved through reading. In order to become effective reader students should learn to ready quiet often and very early in their lives. Reading motivation also plays an important role in students learning because it influences the student reading development, achievement and keeps them grounded. In addition, reading motivation helps the students who are weaker in reading to learn and improve both their reading skills as well as concentration. It also gives them a sense of responsibility as they are constantly given the responsibility to do something on their own. 2.3 Factors Influencing Student Reading Motivation When studying a new subject, learners tend to wonder how they will apply the knowledge so acquired to their individual lives. They may feel less motivated to take part in lessons that do manifest any practical application. In order to increase motivation, the tutor should elaborate how the material is related to life outside class. Positive responses or feedback on work done may increase learners’ motivation by uplifting their self-confidence. On the other hand, when the learner keeps on receiving negative feedback, they get discouraged and also frustrated; this may ultimately lead to lack of motivation. Difficult subjects or concepts may also lower learner motivation. In addition, very demanding subjects may also lower learner motivation. Therefore, when teaching difficult topics or subjects, the instructor must take extra care to present the content in a very simple and organized way. For instance, the instructor may make use of examples in order to help students understand abstract concepts (Roberts, 2008). 2.4 Students self-reading Strategies Reading requires that students understand the meaning of what they read. The brain processes what you read in order for you to understand. Cognitive skills deal with how your brain recognizes or understands things. Reading comprehension is the active construction of meaning from what one reads in order to understand. Students may be able to read but however find difficulty in comprehending. When a student fails to comprehend what they are reading they need repair reading strategies. Comprehension fails when there are words in the text that the students do not know. Repair strategies will include word attack and comprehension fix-up strategies. Word attack strategies involve re-reading the text, checking up the word in the dictionary, skipping the unknown word then reading to the end of the sentence, looking up smaller words and using pictures. For comprehension repair strategies to work the student needs to know when the comprehension has broken down. This will include asking questions and re-reading the text. Cognitive strategies include word recognition and comprehension. A cognitive strategy assists one to think about the goals and tasks that will help them deeply understand what they are reading. Reading strategies are important where students lack the motivation to read. In any classroom situation, there will be students who achieve low grades and those who do not. The students with low grades need more motivation to read to reach the level of the other students who read more. Different cognitive strategies need to be used to achieve this. Edmunds and Bauserman (2006), state that motivation is the key to learning. Research has shown that students who read more are more intrinsically motivated. The cognitive strategies that students can use include, monitoring and clarifying, making connections, determining important ideas, asking questions, visualizing, using inferences and summarizing. Monitoring and clarifying involves stopping to think about what one is reading. The students are required to know what to do when they cannot understand what they are reading. Making connections of what they are reading with themselves, the text and the world. As one reads on a certain topic they must have some idea on the subject, connecting ensures they can relate what they already know with what they are reading. Students must determine the main ideas of the text they are reading in order to look at the bigger picture. They will use supporting information to increase their understanding of the subject. Asking questions helps them to clarify what they knew before and after regarding the text to understand the subject better. Visualizing involves the use of the senses of sight, smell, taste and feel. Students can use their senses to visualize what is happening as they read to get a better understanding. Using inferences is reading between the lines which improve the students’ level of understanding. Students can form an opinion about the subject matter based on information that they already have. Summarizing and synthesizing involves using all the ideas they have gathered and putting it in their own words. It also includes analyzing how the author has expressed his ideas. Students need to be strategic readers, as they read they should make predictions based on what they know and what they have read. 2.5 Teachers Strategies in student reading motivate In order to make their students achieve much in classroom, instructors should go beyond the processes and materials typically utilized to stimulate and comprehend underlying fundamentals involved in the motivation to study. Teachers are therefore called to design effective strategies which they can use to motivate their students to read. This section summarizes some of such strategies (Waren , 2010). The teacher must ensure that there is a supportive and favorable learning environment that motivates learners by properly organizing and managing the classroom. They must also ensure that the activities which students are required to accomplish are challenging and not so easy as to trigger boredom among them. In order to motivate learners, the instructor must choose academic objectives which teach some skill or knowledge which is worth studying. Motivation tools should also be applied with moderation since overdoing it results to lose of effectiveness. Instructors should also train learners how to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) goals that will enable them easily gauge themselves against set standards and thereby know their level of success. They should also help learners recognize the relationship between effort and outcome. The instructors should also be able to provide remedial socialization with regards to discouraged learners. In order to reinforce performance, tutors should also offer incentives for improved and/or exemplary performance (Williams, 2013) Teachers should ensure that each word that is read is pronounced correctly both for the purpose of spelling and pronunciation. Sensory organs should also be integrated with the reading materials (Cahndice, 2007). An example is when reading a word like orange the students visualize, see the colour shape and size, feel the texture, smell and even taste it. The teacher can also organize the words in an attractive way that is appealing to the reader. For students who already know how to read but require extra encouragement, you can inspire reading by giving a talk about the book or the text that they are going to read. This is considered to be a good idea because the student will get an interesting bit of the story form what they have been told prior, and this will enable them to invest their time and energy into reading a book. Reading motivation especially for younger children can also be enhanced by images, music or song within the story. Instructors should also design their systems to encourage healthy competition among learners that will help challenge the non-performers to work harder. In addition, activities should be adapted to learners’ interests. Teachers should also ensure some element of newness in a very lesson/topic covered in order to trigger interest on the part of the learner. Opportunities for student to respond enthusiastically to lessons should also be availed. Immediate feedback to students should also be provided. Lessons or topics that enable learners to generate finished products will increase their interest in the subject being taught. The inclusion of game-like features in topics e.g., also facilitates learner motivation. Opportunities for students to interact with classmates or peers should be provided to further enhance student motivation (Smith, 2010). In conclusion, motivation is the key to learning. If students are not motivated to read they will not learn. Reading affects many students who even struggle with it later in high school and university. Students need to improve their reading in areas of words, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and motivation. Students are intrinsically motivated to read if they can relate the outcomes they achieve to the factors they can control. These students become high achievers and succeed academically. Extrinsically motivated students will read based on the external factors such as the rewards they will achieve. Reading strategies need to be applied to improve students’ level of reading and comprehension. Extrinsic motivation is always the starting point to motivate students to read but as students see their progress and achievements they eventually read due to intrinsic motivation. Students become reflective readers who are able to reflect on what they read applying cognitive strategies not only when they cannot understand but also to gain deeper understanding. List of references Baker, L. (2009). Dimensions of students. Retrieved 2013, from https://www.msu.edu/~dwong/CEP991/CEP991Resources/Baker%26Wigfield- MotivRdng Bandura, (2005). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cahndice A. M.(2007). Reading Motivation in Upper Elementary Grades: What Fifth and Sixth Graders Say about Narrative and Informational Text. The University of Southern Mississippi: ProQuest, Edmund, K.M., & Bauserman, K.L., (2006). What Teachers Can Learn About Reading Motivation through Conversations with Children. The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 140-156. Print. Guthrie, J.T.(2007). Reading Motivation and Reading Comprehension Growth in the later Elementary Years. Contemporary Educational Psychology Harold, F. (2007). Motivation. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Leigh ,A,H. (2012) The Role of Reading Identities and Reading Abilities in Students Discussions abou Texts and Comprehension Strategies.Unniversity of North Carolina Manhack, B. (2010). Reading Motivation.Exploring the Elementary Gender Gap.BLiteracy, Research & Instruction. Pgs 129 - 141 Roberts, G.( 2008). Learning Disabilities Research and Practice Volume 23, Issue 2 Pgs 63-69. Ormrod, J.E. (2006). Educational Psychology: Developing Learners (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Chapters 11&12. Sharan, S. (2006). Cooperative Learning. Westport: Praeger. Smith, c. (2010). Motivations and Benefits of Student. Retrieved 2013, from http://www.anserj.ca/index.php/cjnser Williams, K. C. (2013). Five key ingredients for improving student motivation. Retrieved 2013, from http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/11834 Waren., E. (2010). Enhancing Student Motivation. New York: Educators. Read More