Ludo Verhoeven - Literacy and Motivation: Reading Engagement in individuals and Groups

Cover

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Reading Engagement in Individuals and Groups

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LITERACY AND MOTIVATION

Reading Engagement in Individuals and Groups

Edited by

Ludo Verhoeven
Nijimegen University

Catherine E. Snow
Harvard University

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Copyright 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, New Jersey 07430

Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Verhoeven, Ludo Th.

Literacy and motivation : reading engagement in individuals and groups / edited by Ludo Verhoeven, Catherine E. Snow.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8058-3193-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8058-3194-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. ReadingSocial aspects. 2. Group reading. 3. Literacy. I. Snow, Catherine E. II. Title.

LB 1050.2 . V47 2001
302.2244dc21

00-051393

Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.

Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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The purpose of this volume is to open new perspectives in the study of reading engagement by bringing together research findings from psychology, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and education. The initiative for this volume was supported by the Stichting Lezen (Dutch Platform for Reading Promotion), the Expertisecentrum Nederlands (National Language Education Center) at the University of Nijmegen, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The editors would like to thank the Stichting Lezen, the Netherlands Ministry of Education and Sciences, and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Nijmegen for their financial support. They also wish to thank all contributors to this volume for their cooperation.

Ludo Verhoeven

Catherine E. Snow

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Ludo Verhoeven
Nijmegen University

Catherine E Snow
Harvard University

There is an increasing societal concern about the development of literacy. The notion that a literacy crisis exists is fairly generally subscribed to, but the specific definition of the crisis being referred to varies enormously, as a function of the discourse community where the crisis is being discussed. For those concerned primarily with the developing world, the term literacy crisis invokes the crucial role of literacy in economic development combined with restricted literacy skills in the population, limited access to schooling, and the challenges of implementing universal schooling and adult literacy programs simultaneously. In countries with generally high literacy rates, including those in North America and Europe, the term literacy crisis refers to severe inequities in the distribution of literacy skillsto the fact that members of immigrant and minority groups and children attending the schools that serve these groups are at enormously higher risk of failure than the population as a whole. In yet other developed nations with close to universal literacy,