Reading Difficulties in Primary Schools

PROBLEMS
OF EDUCATION
IN THE 21st CENTURY
Volume 6, 2008

71

FACTORS INFLUENCINg
READINg LITERACy
AT THE PRImARy SCHOOL LEVEL andrejs Geske, antra ozola
University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
E-mail: [e-mail], [e-mail] abstract The objective of this paper is to find out the reasons behind the low level of reading literacy among primary school students. The data from IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement)
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 are analyzed. And the main conclusions are drawn that the socioeconomic situation of the family has a great impact on students reading literacy as well as parents’ education and reading aloud to a child at the preschool age. Students high achieving in reading literacy usually like reading for their own enjoyment and come from families where parents spend a lot of time on reading.
Keywords: reading literacy, factors, PIRLS, achievement level, primary school.

Introduction
As reading literacy is a skill, which is the ground of almost all processes of learning and is necessary for students not only to acquire languages and study literature, but also to learn other subjects, the authors of the paper focused on the problem related to low achievements of students’ reading literacy.
If student’s reading literacy level is low, in most cases it automatically implies difficulties in the acquisition of several other subjects, consequently obtaining education in general. Since the 4th grade is approximately the time when a student turns from learning to read to reading to learn, the authors of the paper set the aim to ascertain the reasons for low reading literacy among primary school students in Latvia. The purpose of this study is to find out the reasons behind the low level of reading literacy among primary school students. The research object is reading at primary school. The data of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PILRS) of International

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