10 - Motivation for Reading

Summary

Chapter 10: Motivation for Reading. This chapter explains the critical role of learner motivation for reading development. Research shows that positive motivation improves comprehension both directly and indirectly through greater amounts of extended reading, more effective uses of reading strategies, and greater engagement with reading comprehension processes. Motivation has an important role to play in reading development, and teachers and classroom contexts can have a major impact on student motivation. The chapter reviews the major theories of reading motivation and then focuses more specifically on the research of Guthrie and colleagues, and Schiefele and colleagues. Over the course of decades these researchers have developed key ways to measure motivation and relate motivation specifically to reading development. One consistent major finding is that intrinsic motivation supports amount of reading done by learners, and amount of reading is a major support for reading development. The chapter closes with implications for instruction.