ABSTRACT
The inculcation and development of good reading habits
amongst adults and children is fundamental to the realisation of quality
education and improvement in literacy in Ghana and other African countries. A
good reading habit, especially one that includes reading for pleasure, is an
essential life skill. It does not only increase our knowledge; it also helps in
our mental development, develops our maturity and character, sharpens our
thinking skills and widens our consciousness in societal and worldly issues.
The reading culture in Ghana is on the decline. The general lack of reading
interests among Ghanaians is evident in our lifestyles. The advent of mobile
phones and other technological devices have brought a more attractive mode of
reading. However, these devices are used for other activities aside reading. It
is against this background, that this study was founded. The study sought to
find out the role internal factors such as oneself and external factors such as
parents, peers, the school and modern devices play in the cultivation of
life-long reading habits of tweenagers in Accra. The study reviewed literature
relating to the general overview of pleasure reading, life-long reading habits
and factors that influence life-long reading habits. The study was quantitative
in design. Questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 187 tweenagers
from three basic schools in Accra. Their ages ranged from ten (10) to thirteen
(13) years, with a mean age of eleven point five (11.5) years. 28 questions
were set to collect data from respondents. The results indicated the following:
Tweenagers read for pleasure; they read for information and learning purposes
rather than for recreational and relaxation purposes; parents of tweenagers are
the main group of people who provide their reading materials but their
teachers, the availability of a school library and their peers encourage them
to read most. Tweenagers are also internally motivated to read. In sum, all the
factors, that is, themselves, peers, parents, the school and modern devices
play a significant role in shaping and influencing the cultivation and
development of reading habits among tweenagers. It is recommended
that, parents of tweenagers must spend time reading to and with their children
from a tender age; tweenagers must be encouraged to discover the value and
essence of reading for relaxation, recreation and enjoyment; teachers must be
reading models to tweenagers; schools, the government and stakeholders must
ensure that they provide libraries in schools and communities, furnish the
libraries with books and make them accessible to tweenagers.
CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Life-long reading habits have been defined by Yoke, Azman
& Vasuthavan (2008) as reading habits that are engaged in and developed
continuously throughout an individual‟s life because of the pleasure it brings
to the reader. It may also be defined as reading habits cultivated by an
individual, which does not only involve reading academic materials but also
other materials that broaden, shape and add to the knowledge base of that
individual. Such reading skills are important throughout an individual‟s
lifespan, as it has been found to improve reading comprehension, writing style,
vocabulary, spelling and grammatical development (Yoke, Azman & Vasuthavan,
2008). Reading is one of the most significant components of any language and it
is a vital tool for life-long learning for all learners.
As we respond to new demands and lifestyle changes, reading
for pleasure or recreation will go a long way to improve our comprehension,
writing style, vocabulary, and grammatical development and provide a beneficial
escape into the world of books. Chettri & Rout (2013) asserts that, reading
protects people from loneliness – it is their window on life and an unending
delight. It brings yesterday and tomorrow into now. They further add that,
reading provides the experiences, through which individuals may expand their
horizons of knowledge, identify, extend and intensify their interests and gain
a deeper understanding of themselves, others and the world. Learning to read,
improving and sustaining reading skills encompass a variety of interconnected
components (Byrne, 2007). These include students‟ attitudes towards reading and
motivation to read for enjoyment – leisure or pleasure. (Chamberlain, 2007).
Reading is
the ability to understand words contained in a document and make use of that
knowledge for personal growth and development (Dadzie, 2008). It is one of the
three R‟s with which children start their education. The success and failure of
their academic lives depend largely on their ability to read. Though reading
may be regarded as a basic skill to be acquired by every learner, adequate
efforts should be directed towards its development in children from infancy
(Chettri & Rout, 2013).
Psychological studies have
shown that improvement in the ability to read leads to improvement in learning
ability as a whole, going far beyond mere reception. Good reading is a critical
challenge with the write up and ideas of the author. At higher levels of
education and with longer texts, the understanding of relationships, sentence
construction or structure, and a good interpretation of the context, becomes
more significant (Chettri & Rout, 2013).
A creative and rational
education involves the habit of personal search or learning. This involves a
lot of personal studying, thinking and analysis of anything that is read or
studied. Personal study, which is learning or reading on one‟s own accord,
requires a reading habit. Reading opens the door for a better understanding of
an individual‟s own experiences, provides an exciting journey to self-discovery
and broadens the individual‟s knowledge. Good reading habits are strong weapons,
necessary for an individual to excel in life (Owusu-Acheaw & Larson, 2014).
In an article posted on Graphic
Online on 24th September, 2015, Agyemang-Duah states that, the marks of a
deteriorating reading culture are very obvious in the Ghanaian society. He
further added that, these marks are evident through the following:
1.
The declining numbers of Ghanaians
you literally find reading anything: from newspapers, newsletters, magazines to
books.
2. The
habits of Ghanaians while they are idle, or waiting for a flight, train, bus
etc. or how they use their time while on a long distance journey. Many will
prefer to watch a movie or sleep instead of picking up something to read.
3.
The waning number of publishing
houses, and well-stocked bookstores.
4.
The waning number of newspaper
subscriptions and readers.
5.
The stagnant number and use of
public and community libraries outside academic institutions.
6.
The falling educational standards
fairly due to the increasingly waning interest of students in reading beyond
recommended course materials.
There is a common adage that says, “If you want to conceal
your treasure away from an intruder, hide it in a book” (Agyemang-Duah, 2015).
There is another version of this adage that says, “If you want to hide
something from a Ghanaian or African, hide it in a book”. This is a sad notion
and we as Ghanaians and Africans must take steps to change this perception
about us if we really want to create a literate society.
According to Palani (2012), a reading habit is an essential
and important feature in creating a literate society in this world. It shapes
the personality of individuals and it helps them develop proper thinking
methods, and creates new ideas.
New technological developments
in the world today continue to affect the interest of tweenagers in reading
books, magazines and journals, etc. It is therefore necessary that reading
habits are instilled in children at an early age, as reading habits are best
formed at young impressionable ages and once formed, can last one‟s life time
(Green, 2001).
A reading habit, especially one that includes reading for
pleasure, is an essential life skill. It does not only increase our knowledge,
it also helps in our mental development, develops our maturity and character,
sharpens our thinking skills, and widens our consciousness in societal and
worldly issues. Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of
concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader. It enables
the reader to constantly add to knowledge acquired and helps readers learn and
decipher new words and phrases. This goes a long way to help them in their
daily interactions and conversations with others. When developed into a habit,
it can become an acceptable addiction which adds to the reader‟s knowledge on
numerous topics and subject areas.
Reading involves more than just
recognizing and pronouncing a few characters that are arranged in a particular
manner. It is the ability to understand and perceive the meanings of the
arrangements within the total context. Thus, readers have to be able to engage
in critical and creative thinking in order to relate what they read to what
they already know. The complexity of the reading process demands the reader's
self-interest, motivation from parents, teachers and peers as well as
challenges from modern devices in influencing their reading pattern. These
internal and external factors are important in enabling the building of a reading
culture in society. (Yoke, Azman, & Vasuthavan, 2008)
In recent times, the development of mobile phones, tablets
and electronic reading devices has created a much simpler and attractive method
for reading. However, “in an age when browsing the net, playing with funky
handsets and passing non-stop SMSs seem to be the order of the day, reading a
book in a peaceful corner of a library has become an archaic idea for most
people. While technology is slowly taking a steady control over individual
lives, the reading habit is fast vanishing into thin air” (The Hindu, 2004).
Studies have shown that in our
examination oriented educational system, students do not read beyond reading to
pass examinations or tests. The „chew-pour-pass-forget system‟ of learning does
not help either, as students only learn or read what is necessary to score good
grades on tests or examinations and there after forget all they have learnt.
Knowledge passed on from lecturers or teachers does not go beyond end of
semester or end of term examinations. Even though academic reading is the only
reading students engage in, there still is a problem as students do not perform
well in examinations.
In
an article published on Graphic Online on 17th September, 2014, Inusah
Mohammed, asserts that,
…the truth is that the Ghanaian student does not read! The
Ghanaian student does not cherish books, the nutrients of a fertile brain. The
Ghanaian student does not go beyond his notes. Creativity is stifled and
innovation almost absent due to narrow dimensions of the mind of the Ghanaian
student as a result of the lack of interest in reading. The old concept of ‘go
to school, get good grades, and you will get a good job is the order of the
day’. Students read only their course materials and have no incentive to excel.
Due to the lack of good reading
habits among students, academic performance with respect to examination results
has been dismal in recent times, creating a great source of worry and concern
for all stakeholders in the educational sub-sector (Issa et al, 2012 as cited
in Owusu-Acheaw & Larson, 2012).
This research therefore seeks to examine the roles internal
and external factors such as one-self, peers, family, school, society and
modern devices, play in the cultivation of life-long reading habits.
Though reading has been proven
to be an essential life skill by numerous researchers, it is taken for granted
by most Ghanaians. Aside reading course materials and work related documents,
most Ghanaians do not read. A lot of articles and a number of researches have
been published to this effect (Mohammed, 2014; Owusu-Acheaw & Larson, 2012;
Agyemang-Duah, 2015; Addo, 1964). This may be because the cultivation of reading
habits, especially pleasure reading habits, has not been encouraged by
stakeholders and players in our society.
The publishing industry in Ghana has been a challenging one,
and the struggle to survive in this market of a non-reading people, has been tough.
With the poor reading culture in Ghana, the falling of the quality of education
and our lifestyles, the market for books in Ghana has been quite bleak (Sakyi,
2012). As a result, most publishers have focused on business survival and
market research has led them into academic and scholarly publications. A few
publishers have created a niche in religious publications considering the
rising number of religious following in this country. However, a clear majority
concentrate their resources on producing text books and supplementary readers
since that market is sure and has a lower risk of loss than other types of
publications. As such, few to none among publishers in Ghana publish materials
for pleasure reading. The culture of reading story books and other materials
that has nothing to do with school and work is practically nonexistent and the
little that exists is dying slowly.
A random question posed to
students of the Department of Publishing Studies of KNUST showed that most of
the pleasure reading materials students claimed to have read were actually
books that are used as course materials and not books they bought and read on
their own volition. In order for our society and we as Ghanaians to move
towards becoming a literate
society, reading habits, especially reading for pleasure must be encouraged.
Against this background, the objectives of this research are as follows:
1.
To investigate the pleasure reading habits of tweenagers in
Accra.
2.
To examine the roles that
individuals themselves, parents, school and modern devices play in the
cultivation of life-long reading habits.
3.
To identify the factors that will
motivate tweenagers to be more interested in reading.
1.3 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1.
What pleasure reading habits do
tweenagers in Accra have?
2.
What roles do individuals
themselves, parents, school and modern devices play in the cultivation of
life-long reading habits?
3.
What factors that will motivate tweenagers to be more interested in reading?
1.4 JUSTIFICATION
AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
As this research is an academic exercise, the results will
add to the body knowledge in the area of reading for pleasure, creating
life-long reading habits and will provide further insight into the pattern of
reading behaviour among tweenagers in Accra. It will also help to increase
awareness on the current situation as well as inform all the players involved
in inculcating and motivating reading habits among people in Ghana. Though this
research was small-scaled, it will be very significant in the framework for
instilling and promoting life-long reading habits among Ghanaians, including
people at all levels of academia and from various backgrounds. After all, it is
the young child reader who grows to be the well-read, well-informed, skillful,
knowledgeable teacher, doctor, lawyer, mechanic, driver, accountant and worker in the country. As the
slogan of the Ghana Book Publishers Association goes, “a reading nation is a
winning nation”, so if tweenagers read, they will remain readers in their
adulthood and this will benefit the country in the long run.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
This research covers only
tweenagers from three basic schools in Accra. Their ages ranged from ten (10)
years to thirteen (13) years with the mean age of eleven and half (11.5) years.
1.6 DEFINITION OF
KEY TERMS
READING: A
complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive
meaning.
LIFE-LONG
READING: The
act of any reading an extensive variety of books and publications is primarily
for enjoyment.
FACTOR: Anything
that contributes causally to an outcome
INTERNAL
FACTOR: Reactions individuals
create inside themselves
in response to a
phenomenon.
EXTERNAL
FACTOR: Circumstances
or situations outside the individual that he or she has little or no control
over.
TWEENAGERS: Children who are
approaching or are in early teenage years. That is, ages ten (10) – thirteen
(13).
CULTIVATION
: The
process of socialisation through training and education to develop an
individual‟s mind or manners.
This research work contains
five chapters. The details of these chapters have been outlined below.
1.7.1 CHAPTER ONE
This chapter is the foundation
of the entire project work. It provides enough information for anyone who wants
to know what the project is about, what necessitated it and its importance to
academia and other stake holders. In this chapter, the area of the study is
introduced, the statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research
questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, definition of key
terms and the structure of the study are also spelt out.
1.7.2 CHAPTER
TWO
This chapter is dedicated to reviewing related literature
and other scholarly works that have been written on reading habits and the
factors that affect the life-long cultivation of reading habits. It provides a
general overview of reading, reading habits, the factors that affect life-long
reading habits, and reading habits among Africans. It also provides background
information about Bloom‟s Taxonomy of Affective Domain, the theoretical
framework used in this study. Newspapers, reports, magazines, journals from the
various sources such as Research Reading Quarterly, ERIC, Taylor and Francis,
and many other works of a cerebral nature were consulted.
1.7.3 CHAPTER
THREE
In this chapter, the methods of
data collection and data analysis are discussed and broken down. The methods
chosen are stated and justified. This chapter also outlines and discusses the research
process, design, population, sample size, data collection methods, and data
analysis.
1.7.4 CHAPTER FOUR
This chapter is dedicated to data collection and analysis.
Findings are stated and discussed. It is therefore the application of the
methods for data collection and analysis stated in chapter three.
1.7.5 CHAPTER
FIVE
In this chapter, inferences are
made based on the results from the data collected, and conclusions and
recommendations will be made for the consideration of all stakeholders.
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