How to Encourage Teenagers to ReadEssay Preview: How to Encourage Teenagers to ReadReport this essayHow can we encourage teenagers to read?When I was eight years old, I suddenly found myself in an English only third grade class without knowing a word of the language. I remember well the children and the teacher trying to communicate with me, but I did not understand a thing. I do not recall the process of acquisition I went through, but within six months I could speak and understand fairly well. In fourth grade, I discovered the library, and I began to read avidly. I took a book home almost every day, and I could not stop reading until I finished it, even if it was late at night. The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and Encyclopedia Brown were my favorites, also I read Little House on the Prairie and many other adventures books. Reading for me was a pleasure and I never thought of doing it to improve my English considering I was not a native speaker. However, now I realize that reading the way I did, helped me become competent in English very quickly, and it was probably the reason why within a year I was exceeding academically. During that time, I never received instruction so that is why I say my language skills were acquired, and definitely, books played a major role.
This exemplifies Krashens Pleasure Hypothesis that states that “What is good for language development and literacy development is perceived to be pleasant by the acquirer and the teacher ” (Krashen, Pleasure Reading, 2007). Furthermore, he holds that there is evidence that shows that students prefer free reading to traditional language instruction, and that this is also true with learners of a second language. It seems that many studies “consistently show that those who read more show more literacy development”, and that there is a positive relationship between the amount of reading and second language competence (Krashen, Pleasure Reading, 2007).
According to Krashen, research says that Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) is effective in increasing and improving reading and results in superior general knowledge. It also improves spelling, writing and grammar, thus increasing the score on tests. Students show better reading comprehension, vocabulary and become better thinkers.
Regarding vocabulary, the studies show that it is best developed over time and in small doses and through real encounters with the words in context. As for spelling, they prove that more reading results in better spelling. This notion is supported by psycholinguistic research in reading that deals with how the memory keeps images of the words that have been read several times. Cuetos (1994) refers to it as a visual lexicon that contains representations of all the words the reader knows. As a matter of fact, there is evidence that children can spell a number of words they havent been directly taught. Therefore, FVR seems to be as effective or more than teaching vocabulary and spelling (Krashen, The Power of Reading, 2004). The reason for this is that “if you read a lot, your knowledge of the conventions or writing, your knowledge of vocabulary, grammar is acquired, not learned; it is subconsciously absorbed; it is stored deep in your central nervous system, and it becomes part of you”(Krashen, The Power of Reading , 2012).
When you give kids interesting things to read, they will read them, no question.One positive reading experience can make you into a reader.In order to obtain the benefits listed above, Krashen strongly recommends Sustained Silent Reading in schools, meaning a few minutes out of school time to read whatever students want. Studies show overwhelming results over SSR sustained silent reading, few minute out of school time to read whatever they want. He also proposes replacing spelling practice and instruction with free reading and providing greater access to books (Krashen, The Power of Reading, 2004).
Contextualizing this information in our country we find that unfortunately, a survey for 2010-2011 showed that 51% of the population had not read a book in the previous and that only 20% read for pleasure. However, 98 % of the interviewees can read. This information made The Ministry of Youth and Culture feel that “we were taught how to read, but not to love reading” (own translation, Ulloa, 2012). In the case of children and teenagers, many prefer chatting online than reading a book and some of them only read the books that are part of the school curriculum. For this reason MEP started working on projects to motivate reading among elementary and high school students, for example, with book donations
More about MEP and how to become a MEP:
Cultural and personal motivation:
Understanding of the cultural factors that contribute to motivation, a focus on individualism & personalization in school, with emphasis on personal growth and career development, also is good to start
What is it about young people that motivates them or enriches their outlook on life, like being alone for a long time? Is it the fact that people often don\u2019t like writing, reading, or reading about children or teenagers to be their favorite hobbies and to have their time spent online, which is a big part of what makes them feel like a child to many, while they were having all their self-control problems?
… More about MEP and the reasons why we should make it easier to be a MEP:
This was the only part of MEP that was a good foundation for us to get started, but you are starting to get more and more excited. Many parents, especially from abroad in this country, think about how it is best to have children in your home. I am starting to understand why some of them do not want sons, and I think about why others do not want daughters. We need to start thinking about how to educate our children about the importance of learning, so that their best future may lie in our homes and activities that they love and in making their home stronger, more supportive, and connected.
What about social responsibility and empowerment? And what role do social and family responsibilities play in motivating young people to take up social work?
We need to create the conditions that enable us to be social. This is what we learned in our high school and university courses, or the best social work training courses and activities, and in our workshops and classrooms, but you are already getting more and more positive responses. Our focus is on social responsibility as we have done in education, social welfare, and family law.
… More about MEP and the reasons why we need to make it easier to be a MEP: — This is the basic question. I am not speaking about how you should define “social responsibility”:
In your job description I said: “I support social responsibility and take steps to address that responsibility,” but I do not actually understand why the words support social responsibility and take action where practical. On the contrary, social responsibility is actually a way to help our children to work out their own priorities and to find the time to take initiative and action, because the time spent is important for a good life. Let’s say our children choose these two