Abstract
The academic literature on reading is largely of a technical nature, most of it having to do with learning.
The degree and type of reading that are done, however, and the motivations and purposes that underpin actual usage, remain less studied.
Yet it could be argued that, once some basic fluency has been established, these factors – which we could put under the general rubric of the social psychology of reading – assume central importance. This chapter summarizes some of the relevant work in the field. Some is narrowly empirical but most involves medium- to large-scale survey approaches.
The chapter concludes by suggesting some fruitful lines for future research.
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Notes
- 1.
Both the “professionalization” of literature and arguments against it have quite a long history. The teaching of English literature, for example, was generally resisted by the academy until the mid-nineteenth century (later still in Oxford and Cambridge) – on the grounds that it was of insufficient depth but also because of apprehensions about the baleful influence of “experts.” On the other hand, as early as 1927, Forster heaved a regretful sigh that “the novel tells a story … I wish that it was not so.” The story “runs like a backbone – or may I say a tapeworm” supporting other “finer growths” (p. 45). Here we have the disdain for the obvious – and the obviously appealing – that has so distressed the “common reader” ever since; see also the Leavis influence, later.
- 2.
We might consider following the lead of Hall and Coles (1999) a little more closely. They asked children how they accounted for gender differences in reading. Girls, it was reported, are more mature and sensitive than boys, they are not as physically active, and they have more patience; boys see reading as “sissy” or “square,” they can’t sit still long enough to read, reading is neither “cool” nor “tough,” and so on. In effect, these children were constructing a theory that related socialization in general to reading in particular.
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Edwards, J. (2017). Reading Attitudes, Interests, and Practices. In: Street, B., May, S. (eds) Literacies and Language Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02252-9_7
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