The College of Education announces the final Dissertation of

Raquell Barton

for the degree of Doctor of Education

April 19, 2018 at 2:30 pm  / 405 Ball Hall

Major Advisor: Clif Mims, PhD

The Effect of Pleasure Reading On Ninth and Tenth Grade Students Reading Motivation in an English Language Arts Classroom

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this quasi-experimental, pre-posttest nonequivalent control group study was to compare two types of reading instruction (English Language Arts vs. English Language Arts with pleasure reading) on 9th and 10th-grade students’ reading motivation. Much of the research on reading motivation is focused on elementary and middle school students, even though the decrease in reading motivation is detrimental at the high school level. Therefore, this study was guided by research questions that examined if there were differences in ninth- and tenth-grade high school students’ 1) reading motivation, 2) self-concept as a reader, and/or 3) value of reading after participating in traditional English Language Arts instruction as compared to the intervention of English Language Arts instruction with pleasure reading. In this four-week study involving 216 students, the control group (N = 94) received traditional English Language Arts instruction while the experimental group (N = 122) received the same instruction enhanced with ten minutes of daily classroom pleasure or choice reading. Pre- and post survey data were collected with the Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (AMRP) to gauge self-reported attitudes toward reading before and after four weeks of study implementation. A two-way mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to compare the AMRP mean scores of the two groups to determine if there were statistically significant changes over time to students reading motivation, self-concept as a reader, and/or value of reading. Results revealed that students’ in the experimental group did show a significant increase in reading motivation; however, overall, students’ self-concept as a reader and value of reading showed only a slight, non-significant increase. Thus, daily involvement in pleasure reading appears to be beneficial in increasing the reading motivation of high school students, but different types of interventions are needed to increase students’ self-concept as a reader or value of reading. Future research can examine the implementation of various interventions to determine ways to further enhance various aspects of reading motivation for high school students.