impact of past language arts teachers on the reading motivation of twelfth grade students

Abstract

Adolescents' motivation to read continues to decline. The purpose of this embedded single case study was to explore adolescent reading motivation to determine some ways in which adolescents are motivated to read. Through purposeful sampling, the participants included seven twelfth grade students and three English Language Arts teachers in grades nine through eleven.The research site was a small technology-rich, rural, public high school in the northeastern United States. Using the framework of modern expectancy-value theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002), the focus of this study was to explore and examine adolescent students' motivation to read through an analysis of both students' self-perceptions of reading motivation and reading attitude, and teachers' perceptions of students' reading motivation and attitudes as observed in class. A linear logic model guided the qualitative data analysis process through three phases of data analysis, including coding and thematic development. Findings included that: 1) students held high expectancy-beliefs with lower task-values for reading, 2) students enjoyed digital recreational reading best, while academic digital and recreational print domains were enjoyed less, and academic print was scored least enjoyable, 3) teachers motivate students by observing and adapting to students' levels of reading motivation, 4) students did not perceive reading as useful outside of school now or in the future, 5) teachers developed successful strategies to address reading motivation and attitudes. Recommendations for increasing reading motivation were developed for the research site. Areas for future study include analysis of adolescents': level and basis for motivation, attitudes toward printed versus digital text in the classroom, and perceptions of English Language Arts skills in the workforce and secondary education.