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.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the factors that contribute to childrens feelings of enjoyment and wellbeing while reading pleasure reading. The research is founded on qualitative interviews with eight children aged between 9 and 12 years. In the review of the literature different theories of reading experiences are examined and the theory of flow is used to analyse and interpret childrens statements of reading experiences. The theory of flow has not been developed to investigate reading but aims to describe and explain when and how people experience happiness and joy. The results of this study reveal that many different factors influence childrens reading.

By studying recent literature and following current research we know that language awareness and a rich language is important to all children when learning reading and writing and that decoding and understanding of the words are the fundamental processes in reading. How do pupils with visual impairment learn how to read and write? What strategies do they use in their contacts with reading and writing? What are the advantages do pupils with visual impairment have when learning to read and write? These questions have been the starting points in a study we have done by following two pupils with visual impairment. By meeting and discussing with the children, their parents, teachers, and lowvisiontherapists we have got a deeper knowledge in how these children meet the language in reading and writing. We have also come to an understanding regarding people surrounding the children have to make reading and writing comprehensive, enjoying, and meaningful.The problem for a child with visual impairment is the decoding, to catch letters and pictures of words good enough with the sight.

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 object of this thesis is to direct attention onto female inmates who is a disregarded user group within the discipline of library and information sciences. This study has been performed on location at the Hinseberg correctional institution where nine female criminal offenders constitute the empirical foundation of our inquiry. The question proposed for solution is as follows: Is there a correlation between socio-cultural prerequisites and the reading habits of the female inmates - and if so how can it be described? Among the conclusions that we have drawn from our study is that the socio-cultural environment has an influence on the well-being of the inmates which in its turn has an impact on their reading. However, the effects on their mental state vary and consequently so does also their reading.

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.

The aim of this study was to investigate the result of an effort to support reading development and the reading motivation. My approach was an intervention study during four weeks, where intensive reading in a group of three pupils in grade one took place. Individual conversations and group conversations were central methods in combination with different ways of processing the texts. Interviews were conducted with the class teacher and the participating children to see the difference in reading and motivation before and after the project. The result shows that an intensive period with reading fiction books with subsequent conversations and different processing of the text is a useful developing method for decoding, reading comprehension and reading motivation.