Adolescents and Reading: Reasons Why they Dislike Reading

Page 1

RESEARCH PAPER Gisela Mendez & González Nomi, Nadina Written expression IV

Adolescents and Reading: Reasons Why they Dislike Reading During school years, adolescents should develop their reading habits, which will certainly last for the rest of their lives. It is at school where teenagers develop their own interests in reading and where they learn to read different types of texts. However, many people assume that Argentinian adolescents do not like reading. “I get bored when reading”. “I don’t understand what I read”. “The texts are very long” The previous statements seem to be the most common adolescents‟ reasons for avoiding reading. Not only do teenagers dislike reading in their mother tongue, but they also dislike reading in the foreign language they have to learn, which is English. But, why is this happening? The purpose of this paper is to identify Argentinian students‟ feelings about reading in English. An analysis of the answers, which students gave in a survey, will be the basis for recommendations for changes in teachers‟ techniques when dealing with reading in English. Common sense dictates that reading is important. However, there is a tendency to believe that adolescents prefer doing other activities rather than reading. According to a survey carried out by GFK group (2012), one of the leading market research companies in the world, Argentinean adolescents are more interested in leisure activities, entertainment and fun than in reading activities. The results of a survey which was carried out in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires, Argentina suggest that Argentinian adolescents face certain difficulties when reading in English, such as misunderstanding most of the words in a text, boredom and frustration. All this suggests that teachers of English must put into practice different ways of presenting pieces of writing, resulting as significant the following: 

The need of transparent words in the texts students deal with.

The need of motivating students when reading.

The importance of topics appealing to adolescents.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Adolescents and Reading: Reasons Why they Dislike Reading by Simud - Issuu