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Student and text characteristics as predictors of reading persistence Cheng, Michele P.

Abstract

Reading persistence is the act of continuing to read during an uninterrupted period of time. It is an understudied aspect of reading with high potential for reading improvements. Reading persistence affects the amount of time a student engages in reading (Bridgett et al., 2013), which in turn is a predictor of reading achievement (Stutz et al., 2016). There is some support to suggest that certain factors, including text difficulty, motivation to read, reading skills, and topic interest influence a student’s persistence in reading. Although researchers have invested time and resources into exploring these predictive factors of reading achievement (Froiland & Oros, 2014), research into their effects on persistence in reading remains low. An experimental study was completed to determine how these predictive factors, and their interactions, affect a student’s persistence in the act of reading. Ninety-two Grade 4 and 5 students were asked to read four passages in a 2x2 interest-based text preference (high vs. low) by text difficulty (high vs. low) experiment. Participant reading skills and motivation to read were assessed. They were also asked about the types of books they prefer to read in order to generate passages that varied in interest and difficulty. Participants were asked to read sections of each passage. To measure their persistence, they were then asked if they would like to keep reading the passage (yes or no). A generalized linear mixed model analysis was complete to better understand the effects of each predictive factor and their interactions. Results from the analysis suggest that for this study’s sample, only topic interest significantly affected reading persistence, suggesting that participants chose to continue reading passages that were interesting to them, despite their initial reading skills and motivation to read. There was also a tendency for participants to discontinue difficult passages, as well. Results support a transactional approach to reading, wherein engagement and persistence are dependent on a student’s interaction with a passage in a given moment in time. Further implications of the findings are discussed.

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