Reading Background, Understandings of Reading, Self-Perception as Reader, and Reading Behaviors in Adult Competent Readers

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Motivation

Abstract

The current study reports case studies of four competent adult readers, aiming at a description of competent adult reading that incorporates readers' backgrounds, understandings of reading, perceptions of themselves as readers, and reading behaviors under conditions of varying levels of topic knowledge and interest. Key findings include the persistence of childhood experiences and identities, the difficulty of talking about reading knowledge, a tension around the roles of academic and personal reading, and a potential influence of graduate school training on reading for information and reading critically, along with the concomitant influence of earlier reading experiences and identity formation as a reader. Two reader profiles (out of 12 offered) emerged as focal for participants in identifying their own reader type.

Author

• Emily W. Fox, University of Maryland