AbstractMany pupils struggleto read. Teachers must therefore know how to motivate these pupils. In this qualitative study the aim is to investigate what some teachers do to motivate pupils to read. Data were collected through interviews with four teachers from two schools. The teachers said that the choice of book was extremely important for making pupils interested in reading, and that reading aloud and cooperation with parents and libraries are of great importance.

The paper describes a study on reading aloud to a group of four women with mild or moderate dementia living in a nursing home. The purpose of the study was to examine what reactions the reading aloud creates and if the reactions are different if the literature is written in common Swedish or in easy-to-read Swedish. Original and easy-to-read version of the book "The Lady with the Camelias" by Alexandre Dumas was chosen for reading aloud. The study was conducted in two separate parts with four reading sessions in each part. All sessions were filmed with two cameras, one of them focusing the group and the other focusing one individual.

This study is based on my work as a teacher of Swedish language and literature to upper secondary school students, and my interest in developing the teaching of literature by using both new criticism theories and theories of literary perception focusing on reader response. The purpose of the study is to examine the learning process in trying to develop literary competence and to find out how to describe the competence shown by the students. My starting-point is a discussion about literary competence and the theory and model of literary competence by Örjan Torell. In examining literary competence, by how students use their constitutional competence as well as performance and literary transfer competences, Torell´s model shows the possibility and the need for both knowledge of literature and personal reception by focusing on the dialogue between author and reader.The method is qualitative and the empirics are material collected in one senior high school class in the Social Science programme during their second and third year. The material contains written reading logs, written answers to tasks and transcribed recordings of discussions of literature.The analysis shows a variety among the literary competence shown and developed by the students and points to the complexity of understanding the concept of literary competence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers choose to work with the teaching of reading and writing skills, how teachers justify their choice of teaching method and how the documentation of student development is being used. This paper also discusses the definition of reading and writing, phonological awareness and how different reading- and writing educational methods can be combined. The gathering of information has been done through a literature review in which I have looked at past research on reading and writing. I have also conducted qualitative interviews with teachers involved in literacy learning. The result of my research shows that it is not possible to determine which literacy learning methods that are most effective.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine similarities and differences in qualitative experiences between formal and informal reading groups from the participants? point of view. The empirical data was acquired from interviews with nine reading group participants, of whom four of them participated in formal reading groups and five in informal reading groups. To analyze the empirical data, Louise M. Rosenblatt?s theory concerning reading and a method concerning reading groups by Immi Lundin were used.

The purpose of this Master Thesis was to study the reader in the informal reading group. To fulfil our purpose we have used the following questions: how did the reader become a reader and what does her reading look like, why do people choose to participate in a reading group, how may the group influence the individual member in her reading and interpretation of a book, does the reading group have a therapeutic function, how does the informant find the group dynamics and different roles in the reading group, and finally how does the informant experience the discussion in the reading group. We have used two studies about reading groups, one by Elizabeth Long and one by Jenny Hartley. Our theory is divided into reading and group psychology. We have interviewed seven women belonging to different reading groups.

Books and reading are important elements in cultural policy. On 1 January 2002 VAT on books and magazines was reduced from 25 per cent to 6 per cent. The purpose was to increase reading in all sections of the population. A special Book Price Commission was appointed to follow and examine price trends and to work for an enhancement of reading in all groups of the Swedish population. But what form of reading are the BPC talking about? With a theoretical point of departure in the theory of power and discourse by Michel Foucault the aim of this thesis is to explore if there is an existing discourse about reading and, if so, how this discourse is operating in the BPC reports.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how teachers choose to work with the teaching of reading and writing skills, how teachers justify their choice of teaching method and how the documentation of student development is being used. This paper also discusses the definition of reading and writing, phonological awareness and how different reading- and writing educational methods can be combined. The gathering of information has been done through a literature review in which I have looked at past research on reading and writing. I have also conducted qualitative interviews with teachers involved in literacy learning. The result of my research shows that it is not possible to determine which literacy learning methods that are most effective.

This Masters thesis is a study in library and information science, that examines literature as a tool for young people in their identity creation. Both scientists and teachers have found that teenagers like to identify themselves, when reading literature. The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how youths construct their identity through reading in relation to the purpose that libraries and cultural politics have in youth novels. The starting point of this study is the sociologist Thomas Ziehe and his idea about identity try-out identitetsutprovning and Erving Goffmans dramaturgy perspective. The main question is: what is the relation between young peoples identity creation in youth novels and in their reality in proportion to the young peoples reading of youth literature and the science about their reading? The question is answered in three parts.

The purpose of this essay is to present research-based literature and in that find basic practics that benefit the process of reading comprehension in the further reading. To get a broader perspective and a practical school related, we also held a small empirical study in the form of interviews with six active teachers. We discussed among other things, what reading means, the use of textbooks, how the reading process is conducted and so on. The results were correlated against the reported literature and the curriculum. It revealed a gap between theory and practice.

The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers and pupils experience the use of fictional literature as a tool for language development in the teaching of English as a foreign language. Through surveys and interviews and with Vygotsky?s theory on development in a social environment as a theoretical base, I examine which methods are used to promote language development and also which functions pupils and teachers consider fictional literature to have in the teaching of English. Results show that teachers consider fiction to be among the top methods to get pupils to learn English. Teachers and pupils both favour the use of fun and stimulating reading activities as well as group activities where learning is social to go along with the reading of fiction.

 The aim of this thesis is to examine men's attitudes towards literature, and how social norms affect their book reading, in order to contribute to the knowledge of why men's book reading is decreasing. This is realized through a discourse analysis of literature recommendations in men's lifestyle magazines.Two magazines, King of Sweden and Magazine Café, are examined through critical discourse analysis. Theories of discourse are combined with theories of gender to explore how gender stereotypes affect men's reading habits.The analysis shows that ideals of masculinity have a great influence on the book recommendations. Social norms, associated with gender, also seem to have significance to whether or not a book is considered suitable for men to read. These are, inter alia, norms of heterosexuality and violence.

The purpose of this thesis is to form an idea about the qualitative value and meaning of reading fiction in a psychological perspective and over a lifetime. Seven women, 68-79 years old, were interviewed about their reading habits of fiction in their lifetime. The material is presented as life stories. I use an inter-nordic research project called the SKRIN project which looks upon reading habits from an individualistic and psychological perspective. I also refer to an American study which focus on reading development with roles readers take in different ages of life written by J A Appleyard.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how librarians perceive the importance of staff reading groups in helping to make fiction more accessible to adult users of public libraries. The study also examines how librarians perceive the learning processes in such groups, and what these learning processes involve and how they appear. The empirical data was acquired via observations of four staff reading groups and interviews with seven public librarians who took part in the groups. In part, the empirical data is interpreted by means of Lena Wilhelmsson?s analytical tool, which deals with changes of perspective within an organised group.

The objective of the present study was to highlight preschool children?s encounters with children?s literature, in a heterogeneous language context.  The idea was to identify significant features in the linkages between the reading of children?s literature, didactic activities and children?s learning, language development and emergent literacy activities.  Our interest was directed towards the activities connected with read-alouds, as well as the preschool teacher?s perceptions of those activities.  The empiric material was collected by use of participant observations of four read-aloud sessions. After the observations the preschool teacher in charge of the observed read-aloud was in-depth interviewed. In addition, the physical print environment in the actual preschool was observed. The results indicate that the physical and social reading environment interact with each other.  Furthermore, the preschool  teachers? approaches and ways of working with literature does not always optimize the language, literacy and content area  learning opportunities for the children.