"I got mad about that book" : A study of Vietnamese children's views on reading

Abstract

The aim of this Bachelor thesis and Minor Field Study is, from the perspective of the Vietnamese children at The General Science Library in Ho Chi Minh City, to obtain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the reading environment of The Children's Room supports children's interest in reading and their reading experience. It is assumed that reading is a dynamic and social activity made possible by internal and external conditions. In this context limited freedom of expression is one of the external conditions that is taken into consideration. In order to obtain understanding of Vietnamese children's experiences of reading, I used Aidan Chambers' model of The Reading Circle as a theoretical framework. The methods used in this study were semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese young people at the library, four girls and five boys, aged between 10 and 15 years. The children in this study describe two types of reading experiences: 1) reading that gives feelings of excitement and joy, and makes them want to reread a book, talk about it with others, think of it, remember and analyse it. And 2) reading they describe as developing, either spiritually or intellectually, a form of reading for improvement. Four reading environments are identified that both enable and obstruct reading experiences, their homes, school, library and the bookstore. Primarily, The Children's Room enables reading