Books that were prescribed literature in high school
5.3. Theoretical implications
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to their academic schedules, the students appeared not to have had the time to do recreational reading.
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In this study I also found students who had high self-efficacy and valued reading chose not to read. This contradicts findings by Wigfield and Eccles (2000) who argued that the individual’s choice, persistence, and performance in an activity could be explained by his/her beliefs about how well he/she will do in the activity and the extent to which he/she values the activity. Their study showed that if students view reading as important and valuable they would engage in reading in a more planned and structured and perhaps effortless manner.
The shortcomings in the self-efficacy and the expectancy-value theories are that there are conditions where self-efficacy beliefs and value beliefs do not perform their influential and predictive roles (Bandura, 1986). I found that there were students who preferred other activities to reading. Although these students have high self-efficacy, high expectations on how well they perform in reading tasks and how they see the value in reading, were not enough to make them want to read. These students seemed to need some form of incentive to read like knowing that if they read they would pass the test or examination. This highlighted the importance of motivation.
Findings from my study revealed that developing reading habits requires more than self-belief. I found that students needed to be exposed to reading at a very young age. Students need to be given reading tasks to be able to realise their potential. Availability of resources such as libraries and good reading material promote good reading habits. I also found that students need a motivating factor that will push them to initiate engagement in reading activities. This extra push may not only come from within the self but may also be from external stimuli like getting a reward for performing a task.
The intrinsic and extrinsic motivation theory and the SDT were able to answer the question of why students read. Motivation is seen as the driving force that makes people put in effort to perform a task, which in this case was reading (Ülper, 2011; Dӧrnyei and Otto, 1998). In accordance with these theories, the motivation to engage in certain behaviour is determined by intrinsic and extrinsic goals. The SDT expanded on the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation by arguing that extrinsic goals can be determined by a number of factors that regulate the behaviour. This theory defines behaviour where highly competent individuals choose not to read as amotivation. This is also a concept that the self-efficacy and the expectancy theories fell short on.
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Intrinsically motivated people engage in activities because they are interested and they have innate love for the activity. Extrinsically motivated people engage in activities because they expect to gain something from doing the task like receiving an award. Deci and Ryan’s (2000) theory showed that extrinsic motivation for behaviour can be regulated from outside to inside the individual. These regulations are external, introjected, identified and integrated. The SDT argues that if behaviour is self-determined, the person is highly likely to engage in an activity. If a person feels competent, has autonomy or control over the activity and feels a sense of relatedness towards the activity then the person will be determined to engage in the activity. When individuals are self-determined, their reasons for engaging in an activity are fully internalised or become intrinsic (Eccles and Wigfield, 2002).
A major finding in this study is that students read for both academic and recreational purposes.
Students who read for leisure had intrinsic motivation to read, they found reading fun and interesting. They read because they gained inspiration from books and they could engage with books at a deeper level where they felt one with the characters in books. Reading extensively has made them competent in reading. These students liked to read material that they related to like reading material in their mother tongue, which gave them a sense of relatedness. They read from books, social media and various internet websites to find information on their favourite subjects.
They also read magazines and newspapers to stay informed about what is going on in the world.
They read widely for a variety of purposes.
I found that when students read for recreational purposes they have the choice and the autonomy to choose the materials they like to read. These are students who have the determination to read because they are confident in their reading abilities, they have autonomy over what they read and feel a sense of relatedness towards the materials they read. For these students reading is self- determined and intrinsic.
Findings showed that students read academic books for extrinsic goals. The source of regulation for behaviour differed from student to student. I found that students read to study in order to pass tests and examinations or to avoid punishment because some lecturers would not allow them in their class if they had not read. This behaviour comes from external regulation. Students with introjected regulation read to impress their lecturers. Regulation through identification was displayed by students who read because they see the value in reading. Most of the students read
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because they have experienced the many benefits of having good reading habits. They mentioned that through reading their proficiency in English improves, vocabulary is increased and their comprehension skills improve. As a result, they read out of their own volition, which is known as integrated regulation.
These findings are in line with those of Ryan and Deci (2000, 2002, 2008) and Gagńe and Deci (2005) who found that people with genuine motivation for reading have more interest, excitement and confidence for reading than those whose reasons for reading are externally controlled. Those who are intrinsically motivated and self-determined will show persistence in doing tasks.
However, the SDT and the intrinsic/extrinsic motivation theory do not explain the role that the individual’s environments can play in improving or hindering reading habits. I found that even if you are intrinsically motivated to read, factors like having no access to a school or public library, no early exposure to reading material, attending schools with poor reading culture, among other factors, might hinder students’ reading habits.
In hindsight, the SDT was the most relevant theory for this study because it illustrated how behaviour is regulated which was evident from the findings that even confident and competent readers need that extra stimuli to push them to put forth effort to engage in reading activities thus contributing to developing good reading habits.