Why Teenage Students Are Not Interested in Reading Books Scholarly Works

By Jessica Due east. Moyer, Academy of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Are teens actually not reading as much as they did in the by? Are teens reading, but in nontraditional formats that are underreported? If surveys focus on book reading, what about teens who practise all their reading online or in digital formats? What near teens who listen to audiobooks? If questions are only concerned with literature, how are we counting the many people who read nonfiction, newspapers, magazines, and websites?

Today's teens may be reading just as much as teens in the past, but their methods and formats of reading are so dissimilar from the older generations now creating polls and studies that truthful levels of adolescent literacy leisure activities are not beingness captured. One way to accost these questions and gain deeper understanding of new ways of reading is to written report readers' preferred formats for reading. Do they adopt print books, due east-books, or do they prefer to mind to audiobooks? Tin they comprehend at the same level across all formats? Do they comprehend all-time when reading in their preferred format, or is there a format in which near teens comprehend best? Do teens study being more engaged or interested in leisure reading texts in ane format over another? By knowing more about reading format choices and comprehension, self-reports of reading habits will increase validity and the questions can exist tailored to reflect new developments in reading generations.

Background

Over the last few years, both pop and scholarly presses have been rife with articles almost how kids and immature adults, usually defined every bit people under forty years of historic period, are not reading. As a librarian and literacy researcher, I read these articles with great concern–is information technology really true that kids and young adults are not reading? Only equally I began to await deeper and review the research every bit a literacy scholar, I realized that many studies were only counting traditional book and print-based reading, and sometimes were only narrative texts instead of advisory texts. The widely publicized 2004 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) study, Reading at Run a risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, is written upward on the NEA website as "literary reading in dramatic decline." With results indicating "[T]he 3 youngest groups saw the steepest drops . . . The rate of decline for the youngest adults, those aged xviii to 24, was 55 per centum greater than that of the total adult population."ⁱ

A more contempo USA Today story from 2007 was headlined, "I in four read no books final year" and noted that those age 50 and older reported college rates of volume reading, as did college educated people and women. Readers who responded to this poll most ofttimes reported reading fiction and religious works.^two Also in 2007, the NEA conducted a follow-up, compendium, and analysis of reading focusing on children called To Read or Non to Read. Results indicated that children and young adults were reading significantly less than in the by. "Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Amidst 17-year-olds, the per centum of non-readers doubled over a 20-year flow, from 19 per centum in 1984 to nine percent in 2004. On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading."³ If nearly all Cyberspace surfing and social networking is text-based, how can this be truthful? Is this true for today's teens, or this data more reflective of teens from previous decades with less (or no) Cyberspace admission?

Reading on the Rise is the NEA'due south latest study on reading, released in January 2009 with great fanfare about the increment in reading, specially among adults ages 18 to 24. What the media hype failed to written report was that this survey (once once more) only asked about print-based reading, and whether the participants had read a piece of work of literature (such as a novel, book of poetry, or play) in the past year. Nonfiction reading did not count, nor did non-print-based reading. Significantly, the question that did include nonfiction and other types of print-based reading, request if participants had read any book that was not for work or school in the last year, had results that were unchanged from 2002.⁴ By continuing to disregard nonfiction, digital reading, and audiobook listening, the NEA reports prove merely a slice of the truthful reading habits of today'due south teen readers.

In dissimilarity to the NEA, The Pew Internet and American Life Projection is one of the only national organizations to address the digital literacy activities of 21st century teens. The 2004 report, The Internet and Daily Life, addressed leisure readers who read online, only similar most of the Pew studies, the results were self-reported, and only five pct of respondents reported doing the bulk of their leisure reading online.⁵ Has this changed in the final few years? Is it significantly different among teens versus the developed readers of the Pew study? One recent study on teen's digital literacy activities, Writing, Applied science, and Teens, reported that fifty-fifty teens who report high levels of these literacy activities practise not consider them to exist "real" reading or writing.⁶ This mental attitude is likely responsible for the underreporting of teen leisure reading levels, and information technology is probable that teens' dismissive attitude toward digital literacy activities stems from the attitudes and behavior of their teachers and parents–another indication of the split up betwixt today'southward teens and older adults. More support for the role of digital media in teens' lives ' can be plant in the 2007 Pew report Teens and Social Media, which reports that 59 percent of teens surveyed regularly participate in online creation activities, from reading, writing, and sharing fan fiction, to reading and posting to blogs, to remixing online music, images, and videos.⁷

The Kaiser Family unit Foundation has conducted similar research to the Pew studies, which was published in the report, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8 to xviii Yr Olds. This report is a comprehensive overview of the many unlike kinds of media that are part of the daily lives of youth, from iPods to abode computers with net access (74 percent in 2005) to cell phones and TVs, and the many and rapid changes of the last few years and its furnishings on the lives of young people. The data in this study is drawn from a nationally representative sample of students ranging from third to twelfth grades, and, like the others, is compiled from a survey that relies on self-reporting and the questions that the researchers call up to inquire near. ⁸ For example, they did not recall to enquire near instant messaging, but results from the 2005 study betoken that information technology is one of the near popular activities among respondents.⁹ A small subsection of the participants filled out media use diaries, which did permit for additional activities to exist described, but not soon enough to be office of the larger survey.

Sections of the report intermission downward media use by type, such as TV or computer use. The computer use section is illuminating, as it tracks changes from 1999 to 2004, during which the participants significantly increased time spent on games, web surfing, instant messaging, and overall computer use (from 27 minutes per day to 62 minutes per day). Missing from this section are questions about online reading and utilise or participation in fan fiction. In terms of overall media utilize, they constitute that youth accept a ceiling of approximately six to vi and a half hours per day to devote to media, and all the different media must compete for that time. This section of the report breaks down overall media use, and here print media (reading) is included. In both 1999 and 2004, amount of time dedicated to print stayed the same, 43 minutes per day. This stability in daily reading fourth dimension directly contradicts the results reported in the diverse NEA studies, indicating pregnant differences in how these results were nerveless and analyzed. Finally, in comparing heavy uses of media types, they found, for instance, that heavy readers are also likely to be heavy Television watchers or calculator users, and that heavy use of any one media type is often linked with heavy use of some other media type. This matches the results of the Sound Publishers Association almanac surveys on sound apply, which found that impress readers are more than likely to be listeners than non-readers.¹⁰

Data Sources

Four information sources will be used to answer the enquiry questions. Each is discussed in detail beneath. All participants will be 18 to 21 years of age and first-year college students from the psychology discipline pool, who are required to participate in ii hours of research as office of their psychology course requirements:

1. Observational quantitative information–background knowledge surveys, categorical information (sexual practice, age, etc.), Act scores for reading ability, ranking of formats, cocky-reports of reading habits, and interests.
2. Experimental data–within group and between grouping contrasts, comprehension scores beyond formats, involvement, and appointment ratings.
3. Six to viii purposefully selected example studies representing print readers, digital readers, or listeners–for further exploration of format choices and furnishings on interest and comprehension.

Each of the three is described in detail beneath, along with the associated analyses and strategies.

1. Observational Quantitative Data

In order to provide baseline information for each participant and to control for additional variables in the statistical model, several types of observational quantitative data will exist collected on each discipline.

Prior to the start of data collection, participants volition sign a form allowing for the gathering of ACT scores, which are required for all UW-Stout students. The Human action scores will be used equally a measure of participants' reading ability and will either exist used as a covariate to account for differences in reading ability or as a blocking variable.

To control for the effects of background noesis in comprehension, a test of background knowledge volition exist administered to each participant. This test will be created by the researcher and will consist of yes/no questions asking participants about 5 to six central ideas associated with each of the reading selections. They will be randomly ordered and written in such a mode equally not to signal the bodily text.

The first part of the follow-up survey will be a ranking of the iii formats: impress, eastward-volume, or audiobook. Participants will be asked to rank the formats in terms of their preferred choices for leisure reading and most their experience with each modality. Office 2 will cover all remaining observational quantitative data categories. Categorical information will include their age, sexual activity, race, and level of education. Participants volition exist asked to consummate a series of questions about their regular reading habits: when they read, how often they read, what types of materials they adopt reading, where they go their reading materials, what formats they prefer reading on, if they have types of reading that they only do on certain formats, and their preferred genres for leisure reading.

2. Experimental Data

The second source of data will come from an experiment of formats, interests, date, and comprehension. All participants will read iii selections from 3 different texts and on each of the three formats.

All participants will be eighteen to 21 years old and first-twelvemonth female college students from the psychology subject area pool, who are required to participate in two hours of research as part of their psychology form requirements. All participants volition exist female to control for the furnishings of gender on reading. As reading research shows that men and women have distinctly different interests in reading genres and reading habits, using both sexes at this time would introduce additional complications and potential confounding interactions in the assay. Using get-go-yr college students allows for the results to be generalized towards older adolescents and immature adults, the two age groups singled out in the concluding two NEA reading studies (Reading on the Rise 2009; To Read or Non to Read 2007), and the subject of the Kaiser report.¹¹

To limit ordering effects and ensure counterbalancing, each of the iii reading selections volition be from different subsets of the mystery genres, such legal thriller, constabulary procedural, and gimmicky. Only mysteries will be used and then as to best control for the variables of interest and comprehension. Mysteries have been selected because many years of reading enquiry across all ages has shown them to exist i of the most popular (along with thrillers and romance) and a genre that is consistently popular with readers of all ages. Unlike romance or science fiction, far fewer readers report hating mysteries or thrillers, thus making them a adept selection for this research. Every bit a general rule, mysteries and thrillers besides seem to be one of the most socially acceptable genres, especially when compared to romance (trash for housewives) or scientific discipline fiction (only for super geeks).

Since nonfiction reading creates boosted complications surrounding comprehension, background knowledge, disciplinary literacy, etc., no nonfiction reading selections will be included at this fourth dimension. However, it is recognized that nonfiction reading is a pregnant leisure reading area, and may account for even more than digital reading than impress reading. Additionally, as nonfiction is read more often by males, and this report will only include females, it is not possible for it to be included at this time. It is nevertheless, along with sex, 1 of the most important factors to consider in any follow-upwards studies.

Afterwards completing each reading selection, participants will be given a cursory measure to rate their interest and date with the text, each with five possible responses (Likert scale). Grimshaw et al. used this same type of measure in their written report of children'due south e-book reading.¹² Side by side, each participant will complete a Content Reading Inventory (CRI) comprehension measure adult by the researchers.¹³ It will be based solely on the selection that was simply read and volition provide a measure of reading comprehension for that text and format for each participant.

This bicycle will exist repeated two times so that each participant reads all iii formats and all three texts with involvement and comprehension measures later each reading.

3. Case Studies

Half dozen to eight participants will exist interviewed subsequently the completion of prior data collection. These instance studies will be used to gain a deeper understanding of print readers, electronic readers, and/or listeners, as well as for understanding their ranking of formats and how they felt about using each of the formats. The sampling for the cases volition be purposive and will exist exemplary cases of either impress readers, east-readers, listeners or omnivorous readers. The sampling can exist described every bit what Patton refers to equally "critical case sampling." Closely related to typical case sampling, critical case samples are "those that can make a point quite dramatically or are . . . specially of import."¹⁴ Disquisitional example sampling has been chosen due to the power of the logical generalizations that can be made from studying critical cases. In this project, the critical cases will be those participants who are frequent, heavy readers/listeners, and tin be considered representative of their reading blazon.

All of the case studies interviews volition be semi-structured and open-ended. Each volition be digitally recorded and transcribed for analysis. Analysis of the transcripts will be washed in complement to the quantitative data and will look for themes and categories that represent the previously gathered data, both from the particular participant and the larger group.

The case studies will be used to gain deeper agreement of individual and representative participants in the study. They will exist used in the write-up of the data to illustrate data and conclusions from the quantitative experimental and survey sources. They will likewise be used to frame the unabridged study to make it more interesting and more readable, providing touches of personal stories to the write-up.

Procedures

The data described in a higher place will be collected in a mixed methods written report. This adjacent department will describe each footstep of the inquiry procedures and note the blazon or data being collected. Unless otherwise noted, all research will be collected in a single session in a enquiry lab space at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, in Menomonie, WI.

Once recruited, participants will be scheduled for a 90-infinitesimal visit to the research lab. Upon arrival, consent and assent forms will be reviewed and signed. The adjacent pace volition be completion of the groundwork survey, based on the materials in each of the text selections. Before any further data is gathered, participants will be wired for the EDA collection, which will go along throughout the experiment.

Participants will exist randomly assigned to one of three groups for the experiment, based on the three-by-three grid in Figure 1. They will read from a printed volume, an e-volume on an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, or heed to an audiobook using a Playaway audio playback device.

The Kindle is a self-contained e-book reader designed and sold past Amazon for apply with its Kindle format e-books. With more than 700,000 titles bachelor, the Kindle library is one of the largest east-book libraries in being. The Kindle emulates the print reading feel in several ways; it is the same full general size and shape of a merchandise paperback book (although it is significantly lighter) and the eastward-ink text is not backlit and thus does not crusade eye strain in the way that a computer-based reader does. In many cases, the eastward-ink is clearer and easier to read than poorly-printed text on thin pages of many mass market paperbacks. When reading on a Kindle, readers "plough the folio" past clicking on a button on the side, which refreshes the e-ink to the next page. The Kindle cannot exist turned on or off; it only uses battery for refreshing the page and using the built-in wireless connection, which tin exist used for blog or paper reading, equally well as for purchasing additional books from Amazon. The Kindle tin can also play Audible.com and MP3 audiobook files, but this characteristic will non be used in this report.

Audiobooks volition be played using Playaway audios, which are cocky-independent audiobooks players preloaded with a single title, and are based on MP3 audio players. They have nearly all the same features for listening and are slightly smaller than the current generation of iPod Nanos. Their cocky-contained nature, needing only batteries and earphones or speakers, makes them ideal for this project. They are also quickly becoming an important source of audiobook circulation in public libraries.

Participants will read the assigned text and format for each reading time. Before using the audiobooks and eastward-books, participants volition be given a brief demonstration of how they work. After the first reading is completed, they volition answer the interest and engagement questions. Then they will complete the Content Reading Inventory comprehension exam for their assigned text. This will be repeated twice until all participants have proceeded through all three reading formats.

At this point, the participants will take completed the experimental section of the research project. Before leaving, participants will fill out the general reading questionnaire and be debriefed. They volition likewise exist asked if they can be contacted for a follow-upwards interview.

Part two of the data collection is for the instance study portion of the research. Information technology volition have place sometime afterward the initial data collection. If possible, it will be conducted soon after experimental data collection to best obtain data virtually their experiences with the different formats and reading. It will take the grade of a semi-structured interview. All interviews volition be recorded and transcribed.

Assay

A repeated measures ANOVA (analysis of variance) will be used for the main portion of the data analysis. The ACT scores will be used equally either a covariate, in which instance the analysis will be a repeated measures ANCOVA (analysis of covariance), or as a blocking variable. The independent variable volition be format. The dependent variables volition be comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nested models will exist designed to test for spurious correlations and confounding variables to increment the likelihood that the findings are related to format, not some other variable. The ranking of formats will also be analyzed to see how it might take affected comprehension, interest, or engagement, if at all.

Correlational analyses will be also be done using the information gathered from the questionnaire, focusing on inside-group and betwixt differences, such as sexual activity, online computer habits, or self-reported types of reading. The format rankings will also be part of the correlational analyses.

The follow-up interviews will be transcribed and analyzed to determine similarities and differences from the quantitative results. They will exist used to farther understand and explain the quantitative data, either every bit supporting cases or as negative cases.

Write-Upward

The dissertation write-upward, like the data collection, volition be a mix of styles. It will incorporate traditional scientific reporting sections like design, methodology, and results for the reporting of the experimental data and the survey information. The experimental results, regression analyses, and the correlations from the survey information will be reported in data displays, probable charts and tables that best represent the quantitative information.

The example studies based on the follow-upward interviews will be used throughout the dissertation report. They volition be used in the write-upwardly of the data to illustrate data and conclusions from the quantitative experimental and survey sources. They will also be used to frame the entire study to brand information technology more than interesting and more readable, providing touches of personal stories to the write-upwards.

Because this study is about nontraditional methods of reading, similar e-book reading and audiobook listening, the actual written dissertation report will also have a nontraditional format. Instead of being a lengthy, give-and-take-processed document, information technology will be written, edited, and disseminated as a wiki, using the free wiki software PBWiki. It is currently housed at http://readingformatchoicesdissertation.pbwiki.com. Copies of all related files, including the proposal, literature review, and theoretical framework are likewise hosted here for like shooting fish in a barrel accessibility.

By using a wiki as the final production, information technology will be easily accessible on the Web, allowing for embedded HTML links to dissimilar sections of the document and to outside web-based sources, and will allow readers to feel it every bit a digital text. Most chiefly, it volition allow for embedding of the digital and audio text selections so that readers of the dissertation can come across and feel the different formats of reading. This will likewise make information technology easier to provide access to boosted information and information, such every bit the comprehension measure and raw results or the survey data, all of which can easily be housed as a page of the wiki.

While critical case sampling will exist used in the information analysis for understanding the variations on reading format choices, typical case sampling may be selectively used in the write-upward, equally Patton recommends, "In describing a civilisation or programme to people non familiar with the setting studied, information technology can be helpful to provide a qualitative profile of 1 or more than typical cases."¹⁵ In the write-up for this project, I will be using some of the case study data to illustrate typical e-readers and typical audiobook listeners, as these are less likely to be familiar to my audition.

References

1. National Endowment for the Arts, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, Research Segmentation Report no. 46 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).
2. Associated Printing, "Ane in Four Read No Books Last Yr." United states of america Today (August 21, 2007; accessed December 8, 2008).
3. National Endowment for the Arts, To Read or Non to Read: A Question of National Event, Enquiry Division Report no. 47 (Washington, D.C.: 2007).
4. National Endowment for the Arts, Reading on the Rise (Washington, D.C.: 2009).
5. Deborah Fallows, The Internet and Daily Life, Pew Internet and American Life Project (Washington, D.C.: 2007).
6. Amanda Lenhart, et al., Writing, Technology and Teens, Pew Internet and American Life Project (Washington, D.C.: 2008).
7. Amanda Lenhart, et al., Teens and Social Media, Pew Internet and American Life Projection (Washington, D.C.: 2007).
8. D. F. Roberts, U. G. Foehr, and V. Rideout, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8 to eighteen Year Olds ( Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005): 3-iv.
9. Ibid., nine
10. Audio Publishers Association, "Audio Publishers Association Press Release September 12, 2006: Audio publishing industry continues to grow; shows 4.seven% increase in sales: Audiobook sales accomplish an estimated $871 meg," 2006; Sound Publishers Association, "Audio Publishers Association Releases Major Consumer Survey and Announces Increase in Audiobook Usage: Most 25% of US Population is Listening to Audiobooks," 2006. QY: Admission dates? May 7, 2009
    
11. Roberts, Reading on the Rise; To Read or Not to Read.
12. Shirley Grimshaw, Naomi Dungworth, Cliff McKnight, and Anne Morris, "Electronic Books: Children'southward Reading and Comprehension," British Periodical of Educational Engineering 38:4 (2007): 583-599.
13. J. E. Readence, T. W Bean, and R. S. Baldwin, Content Area Literacy: An Integrated Approach (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt, 1995).
14. Michael Quinn Patton, Qualitative Inquiry and Evaluation Methods (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002): 236-7.
15. Patton, 236-7.

About the Author

Jessica E. Moyer is a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota in literacy education.'  She is the author of Inquiry Based Readers' Advisory (ALA Editions, 2008) and editor of The Readers' Informational Toolkit (ALA Editions, 2010) and Integrated Advisory Services (Libraries Unlimited, 2010)

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