This essay, called Motivation and reading comprehension, is a study of the correlation between the motivation to read and the reading comprehension of Swedish students in their final year of school before university level, meaning that they are eighteen or nineteen years old, sometimes more.The relation between the identity of the individual and the learning process has been a matter of scientific interest for some time, and this essay works in that tradition by investigating the connection between how pupils regard reading and how well developed their ability to decode text is.The reading comprehension is measured through a test that consists of a text from the Swedish epic by Vilhelm Moberg, Invandrarna, where the reader at certain intervals throughout the text is asked to mark the correct word from a choice of three. This test has been used and evaluated extensively by Per Fröjd, who has found that the results are reliable and useful.To measure the motivation to read I?ve constructed a survey to be answered before taking the reading test. It focuses on three different parts of reading motivation that are noted as the most important ones by Ivar Bråten. These are the feeling of joy and interest for reading, the goal to acquire knowledge of a specific subject, and the expectations that you have on yourself as a reader.Results show a weak or non-existent correlation between the two factors for the whole of the subjects, but once those who have a first language other than Swedish are removed the correlation becomes significant.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to find out how the central content of the compulsory school curriculum (Lgr11) is handled in three teacher?s manuals for instruction in reading and writing for grade 1, and how these consider interaction and variation in learning how to read and write. Through a qualitative analysis with a hermeneutic approach, the three teacher?s manuals in Swedish for grade 1 were subjected to a close reading. The result shows that parts of the central content of the curriculum are considered, but that it is by studying exercises and texts that these become visible.

In this study, six teachers have been interviewed about their vision and teaching of reading comprehension, both for pupils who has cleared the reading code and those who have not. The aim is to illustrate if teachers in middle school spend time to exercise reading comprehension, or if this is left to the Swedish teachers. Thus only according to the subject Swedish, the students are entitled to be given the opportunity to develop reading strategies.The interviews are semi-structured based on qualitative research. The informants are three teachers of Swedish and three teachers of other subjects. Two different interview guides were used containing three questions.

Our aim with this Master thesis is to show how some selected actors react on the decrease in reading amongst people within the LO group the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. The methods used are interviews and literary studies. The theoretical background of our discussion is based on the theories and definitions of Bourdieu. The actors we investigate are the public libraries, some various trade unions, the adult education Organization ABF, the cultural affairs committee. We discuss from what view on their own role/obligations respective the society they act and what barriers that prevents reading, the actors consider exists within the group of adults less familiar with reading.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the thoughts and attitudes that parents have regarding reading aloud. In today?s society the positive effects of reading aloud are often pointed at and in the perspective of the new learning theories I found the issue even more interesting.The two main questions posed are: How do the parents describe the practice of reading aloud?Is the parents? life situation and background visible in their descriptions and in that case how does it show in their thoughts about reading aloud?The theoretical perspective of the thesis is sociocultural and can be divided into two themes. The first theme concerns the learning process that can be the result of reading aloud and the second theme focuses on social aspects. The results of the study show that parents think that reading aloud is valuable and positive.

AbstractThis essay concerns a qualitative case study seeking to understand six boys? reading habits and to investigate why it is that some boys who do not like reading nevertheless display good reading comprehension according to the results achieved for that skill in national tests. The study shows that the boys? perception of reading has a lot to do with the contact they have with books when they are small. Whether or not there are adult role models in the home and whether the early encounter with texts in school is a positive or negative experience is significant for the boys? later attitude to reading.

The purpose with this essay is to study how children in the fifth grade experience reading in three different reading cultures; library, home and in school. The children?s experiences from reading are compared to expectations from library and school.Data, to this study, is collected through qualitative interviews in two focus groups and analyzed by using an idea analysis. The INSU-model, Information Needs, Seeking and Use, and Aidan Chambers reading circle in combination with a triangle of the three reading cultures are used as a theoretical framework. The analysis shows that children are using reading for different purposes in different reading cultures.

The purpose of this master thesis is to show how a chosen actor in form of the Swedish union organization IF Metall (the Swedish union for metal- and industrial workers) works with pro-reading activities. The project being scrutinized is the Read to me dad-project which aims at fathers who are not used to reading activities within the LO-group (the Swedish Trade Union Confederation). The methods used are interviews and literary studies. The theoretical background of my discussion is based on three education ideals. The neo-humanist ideal emphasizes the personal improvement through literature.

The aim of this essay is to examine why and how three teachers who work in elementary classes choose to use ability grouping during math lessons and what they think of ability grouping as a method to individualize the activities according to the pupil?s needs.I chose one main question for this study that is the following:What is the teacher?s point of view and experience of ability grouping in teaching mathematics?And three sub-questions:What are the motives behind the choice of ability grouping?What are the advantages of ability grouping?What are the disadvantages of ability grouping?In order to be able to answer my questions, I used the qualitative method. I interviewed three teachers who work in the elementary classes (First to fifth grade) to find out what they think about ability grouping and how it is experienced in mathematic teaching.The result shows that the common thing between these three teachers is that they don?t use ability grouping as the only teaching method. They all agree that the whole class teaching has many benefits for the pupils.

Do the principals who have the pedagogical responsibility of the school find reading comprehension important? This is the underpinning of my thesis for the special teacher-training program. The survey was conducted through interviews with two principals. The results show that they believe reading comprehension is important but it has not been given priority in the organization. The essay could form the basis for further research into reading habits, home environment influences and other factors that may contribute to improve reading comprehension performance..

The aim of the study is to investigate pupils? attitudes to and experiences of reading aloud by the teacher in grade 1. The study answers questions about how the pupils perceive the reading aloud, what they think they learn from it, and what books they prefer the teacher to read from. The study was conducted with the aid of semi-structured interviews with eleven pupils, six girls and five boys. The study shows that the pupils have a great deal to say about reading aloud.

The aim of this thesis is to accomplish a user study on how e-book users experience the electronic book, the e-book, as an instrument for reading fiction. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with twelve e-book users and a small survey carried out at the Stockholm City Library. The purpose is to identify the users' incentive for choosing the e-book as a medium for reading fiction, elucidate if and how the interface of the e-book affects the reading experience, and distinguish if there are any factors common to the users in their choice of reading e-books. How the users look upon the future of the e-book is also discussed. Among the people asked in the survey we note little if any demand for the e-book as an instrument for reading fiction.

Why should teachers devote themselves to reading aloud? Reading aloud has a given place in most of the Swedish preschools. Many teachers read to children. Research on the subject has shown that it is very rewarding for preschoolers to have stories read to them. They hear how the language is constructed, becomes aware of matter of text, and they are able to take part of how other people live.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how people from Iran experience reading in their mother tongue, Persian, compared to how they experience reading in Swedish and if there was a difference. The questions to be answered in the thesis were: What is the dominant purpose when people read their mother tongue and when they read in Swedish. Do they read because they need information, because they want to relax or do they, when they read, reflect on their own lives? The method was qualitative, interviews were conducted with 8 Iranians living in Sweden. The theoretical background consists of a description of theories on reading and theories on language and identity.

The purpose of this study was to identify reading strategies used by high school students when reading textbooks and school-related material. Any differences in reading strategies between Biology and English were also of importance. A study sample of 62 students from three different high schools in Sweden participated in the study and were asked to fill out a survey questionnaire. Eight students from this sample were also interviewed. The findings of this study show that students use a number of different reading strategies of which metacognitive and sociocultural factors play a crucial part.