Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | Academic Exchange Quarterly

Children's reading attitudes in L1 and FL.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

This study examines elementary school students' reading attitudes in both their first language (L1) and a foreign language (FL) among students who had done extensive reading in both languages at school. Their cognitive and affective attitudes towards reading were examined in relation to their gender and proficiency levels in L1 and FL, and their affective attitudes were further examined with regards to academic and recreational reading.

Introduction

Extensive reading has been recognized as an effective instructional tool for facilitating second/foreign language learning in vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, reading comprehension, and writing abilities among adults (e.g., Bamford & Day, 2004; Krashen, 2002) as well as children (e.g., Cho & Kim, 2004; Elley, 1991; Elley & Mangubhai, 1983). There also is a substantial amount of research among adult L2/FL learners indicating that extensive reading also positively influences attitudes towards reading, which in turn leads to L2/FL learning (e.g., Cho & Krashen, 1994; Constantino, 1994). However, relatively little is known about the role of attitudes among young learners of FL, despite the growing popularity of Foreign Language at Elementary Schools (FLES) worldwide. As part of a larger project examining the effect of recreational reading in FL learning, the present study focuses on examining young learners' attitudes towards reading in their first language (L1) and in a foreign language (FL) in FLES contexts in relation to their gender and proficiency levels in L1 and FL.

Defining reading attitudes is a complex process and a number of different models have been proposed in the attempt to explain the relationship between reading attitudes and reading performance (e.g., Mathewson, 1994; McKenna, 1994). Theories differ with respect to what constitutes reading attitudes, the relationship between beliefs and attitudes, and the causal relationships among different constructs (and subconstructs) including attitudes, beliefs, feelings, behaviors and so forth. In Mathewson's well-known tripartite model, reading attitudes are divided into three components: prevailing feelings (an affective dimension); action readiness; and evaluative beliefs (a cognitive dimension). According to Mathewson, such attitudes towards reading will lead to an intention to read and ultimately influence one's behavior. Focusing on affective and cognitive dimensions (since action readiness is difficult to operationalize in foreign language contexts), Yamashita (2004) found that comfort (a positive affective dimension) and self-perception (a cognitive dimension) showed positive correlations with extensive FL reading among college EFL students in Japan. Yamashita also found that the attitudes prevalent in one's L1 transfer to FL attitudes, but that the attitudinal transfer in affective domains appears less likely to be affected by one's FL proficiency.

The McKenna model (1994), a synthesis of the Mathewson's model and others, was developed based on the view that attitudes are mainly affective and that attitudes and beliefs are...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!