READING ACHIEVEMENT 2

Reading Achievement

1. How engagement affects Reading Achievement 
   Reading is a complex process. It can take many years for a student to fully become
   proficient at reading in a given language (Guthrie & Klauda, 2015). It is also at the core of
   learning because students primarily acquire information through reading. Thus, reading
   achievement is perhaps the best indicator of a students academic success in future (Guthrie &
   Klauda, 2015).
   In spite of this importance and the great efforts that students, teachers, and parents often
   make to ensure that a student achieves reading proficiency as early as possible, many students
   remain with reading difficulties many years after they begin being taught formally (Guthrie &
   Klauda, 2015). Such students show just how difficult it is to become a proficient reader.
   Various studies have looked into factors that contribute to reading achievement. Of the
   factors looked at such as cultural background, parental involvement in a students’ studies and
   others, the most important one has been reading engagement. Reading engagement generally
   involves reading for pleasure. An engaged reader has very high motivation for reading. They also
   use various reading techniques and a large number of their social interactions are centred around
   reading (Guthrie & Klauda, 2015).
   Reading is a skill and like any other skill, the more time one spends at it and enjoys the
   better they become at the skills. That is how reading engagement leads to reading achievement.
   With reading engagement a student spends a lot of their time reading because they find the
   activity pleasurable and fun (Guthrie & Klauda, 2015). They, therefore, become proficient
   readers within a short time.

READING ACHIEVEMENT 3
It is, however, important to note that reading engagement is a continuum and not
dichotomous. A student is not either disengaged or engaged but the engagement varies. The task
of teachers and parents is to make sure that students maintain high levels of reading engagement.
There are various ways in which such levels of engagement can be achieved. For instance, it has
been found that reading engagement is high when students choose the books that they like to
read. Positive classroom and home environments have also been found to foster reading
engagement (Guthrie & Klauda, 2015).

2. How Language Barrier is affecting reading achievement in the classroom?
   Language is the primary tool that students use not only for learning but also for socially
   negotiating their way at school. Thus, when a student has language difficulties, their learning as
   well as social relations at school are greatly affected. In the context of learning, language barrier
   occurs when a child has difficulties understanding the language that is used for learning
   instruction by their teachers (Holder et al., 2017). Such difficulties greatly limit the child’s ability
   to become proficient at reading.
   There are many factors that cause language barriers in students. One of them is lack of
   oral proficiency in the language used by their teachers (Holder et al., 2017). This is particularly
   the case with bilingual children. For instance, in the U.S. Latino students who primarily speak
   Spanish at home may not be proficient in English, which is the language that is used for teaching
   at school. Apart from speaking a different language at home, children who speak a non-standard
   language of the official teaching language may also have difficulties becoming good readers. An
   example is an African-American child who uses non-standard English at home. Children born
   with cognitive, language, and hearing impairment also have problems with reading (Clemens et
   al., 2016).

READING ACHIEVEMENT 4
Studies have shown that before a student achieves reading proficiency in a given
language they have to achieve oral proficiency in the language. For students who speak a
different language at home or a non-standard version of the teaching language or have
cognitive/hearing impairment that affects their ability to achieve oral proficiency in the language
of instruction at school, it is very hard for them to achieve reading proficiency. Before they
become good at reading they have to become good speakers of the teaching language (Clemens
et al., 2016).

READING ACHIEVEMENT 5

References

Clemens, N. H., Ragan, K., & Widales-Benitez, O. (2016). Reading difficulties in young
children: beyond basic early literacy skills. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 3(2), 177-184.
Guthrie, J. T., & Klauda, S. L. (2015). Engagement and motivational processes in
reading. Handbook of individual differences in reading: Reader, text and context, 41-53.
Holder, A., Wilson-Jones, L., Phillips, B., Jones, P., & Jones, J. D. (2017). Elementary
Administrators’ Exploring the Factors that Promote or Inhibit Reading
Achievement. Journal of Research Initiatives, 3(1), 16.