5th year students' reading literacy in English

Abstract

Literacy is “one of the core values, while teaching literacy to pupils is probably the most important and influential contribution of teachers in the educational process as they lead the pupil through spoken language into the vast universe of written language” (Skela, Sešek, Dagarin Fojkar, 2009: 222). Reading is increasingly important in all areas of life including education, work, cultural activities and the exercise of citizen rights. Since Slovenia gained entry into the European Union, all levels of literacy have become more valuable because of the single market, which enables greater access to education and work abroad. To this end, it is vital that each individual fully develops reading comprehension not only in his or her mother tongue, but in a foreign language as well. The principal objective of the empirical part was to examine reading literacy in English of children attending the 5th grade of primary school. The data we collected through a survey questionnaire suggests that pupils attending a school in a city generally learn English for a longer period than the pupils going to a rural school. Furthermore, those pupils who believe they read well in Slovene think the same way about their reading in English, and vice versa. The results also suggest that the pupils who possess more books in English believe their English reading is good, while those with less English books at home think they read poorly. The children who want to read more both in English classes and at home think their reading abilities in English are good. Research reveals what pupils want to read in English class and what are the differences between boys and girls. Girls prefer reading about animals, fashion, music, celebrities, nature and amusing topics. Boys on the other hand prefer comic books and reading about technology and computers, vehicles, sports and military topics. We discovered certain correlations between reading strategies and the ability to recognise one’s own reading ability in English. Those pupils who are not fully aware of their reading abilities in English usually decide to continue reading and do nothing about an unknown word they encountered. However, when asked about the strategies to understand an unknown word, the children who are aware of their reading abilities in English mostly chose the answers “I try to deduce the meaning of the word from other words” and “I ask a family member”. The pupils who, when they started learning English, used to read English words the way they were written, could not understand quite a few words in a text and were never told that letters and sounds in English rarely match, perceive their reading ability in English as poor. On the contrary, the children that could read easily when they started learning English and were familiar with spoken words, now believe their reading ability in English is good