Judging Books by their Covers and More: Components of Interest in

Graded Readers

The First Extensive Reading World CongressSeptember 3-6, 2011Kyoto Sangyo University John Eidswick, Greg Rouault, and Max Praver johneidswick@hotmail.com

What is Interest?

• A psychological state• A motivational variable• Has affective and cognitive components • Requires social support• Effortless concentration• Interest is characterized by an urge to engage

with, or a disposition to reengage with, a specific category of activity, event, thing or idea (“an object”)

What is Interest?

Interest has a positive relationship with…

• Attention, engagement & persistence

• Recall and comprehension

• Positive affect• Learning• Growth of Expertise• Academic Success

Categories of Interest

Individual Interesta stable and enduring inclination to engage with activities or

objects

Situational Interest an emotional state aroused by features of environmental or

textual stimuli

Topic Interest Interest evaluated in terms of a person’s individual and/or

situational interest in a certain topic

Four-phase Model of Interest Development

Hidi and Renninger (2006)

• Triggered situational interest

• Maintained situational interest

• Emerging individual interest

• Well-developed individual interest

Each phase marked by varying affect and required social support.

Situational

Interest

What makes texts

interesting?

What makes texts interesting?(compiled by Silvia, 2006)

• Surprise• Prior knowledge• Themes of death• Suspense • Sexual themes• Vividness• Author voice• Meaningfulness• Imagery • Personal relevance

•Importance•Character identification•Power themes•Familiarity•Unexpectedness•Coherence•Simple vocabulary•Emotiveness•Concreteness•Ease of understanding

Situational InterestTexts, or parts of texts, that are

ExcitingUnpredictable

MysteriousHeartwarming

RomanticHumorous

StrangeScary

Easy to understand

tend to trigger interest in readers.

Research Questions• What components of interest (or lack of interest)

do students associate with specific graded readers before reading them?

• What components of interest (or lack of interest) do students associate with specific graded readers after reading them?

• Do students’ overall ratings of interest differ before and after reading?

Book Selection Considerations Variety (Not just the popular titles!)

Student age, gender, and preferences

Books that would elicit a range of responses

Level appropriateness -- 95~98%

(Five level 2 readers and one level 3 reader)

Time (6 books over a 14 week semester)

Our ‘generous’ formula: 3 minutes per page

10 minutes per day

40 pages = 2 hours over 2 weeks

The 6 Titles

Survey Design

Pre-reading• Beginning of semester • 5~10 minutes with each book• Survey (3 sections)

A) 6-point Likert scale on anticipated interest

B) 9 components of interest

C) Open comments on anticipated lack of interest

Survey Design

Post-reading surveyAdministered every 2 weeksPre-reading survey with space to provide

examples of interest components

Post-reading circle surveyAdministered every 2 weeks5 questions on attitudes to Reading Circles6-point Likert scale

Research Question 1

What components of interest (or lack of interest) do students associate with specific graded readers before reading them?

Components of Interest (pre)

050

100150200250300

Excitin

g

Unpre

dict

able

Roman

tic

Heartw

arm

ing

Mys

terio

us

Strang

e

Humor

ous

Easy

to u

nder

stan

dSca

ry

Oth

er

Sharing

Anne

Children

Murders

Notting Hill

Pirates

Components of Interest (pre)

Pirates Notting Hill Murders

Children

Anne Sharing

Exciting 66 8 24 28 3 26Unpredictable 33 21 64 52 25 47Romantic 15 72 0 0 8 1Heartwarming 4 41 0 20 49 17Mysterious 14 3 57 13 9 24Strange 14 9 0 0 9 1Humorous 22 20 0 0 13 0Easy to understand 28 21 2 13 23 11Scary 3 0 40 17 1 11Other 13 6 4 5 7 4

Total = 1041 212 201 191 148 147 142

Anticipated Lack of Interest

Components of Pre-reading Lack of Interest

Components of Pre-reading Lack of Interest

Genre (16) “Don’t like…” historical, horror, love stories, animal stories “It seems like a girl story.”

Pictures, cover, synopsis, character (22) “No pictures” “I don’t like the pictures.”

General interest (22) “Doesn’t catch my interest.” “Boring development of content.” “Didn’t seem appealing.”

Components of Pre-reading Lack of Interest

Mood (22)Scary, dark, sad, pitiful

Difficulty (16)“Difficult to understand”“I don’t think I’ll understand.”

Predictability (12 +7)Expectation = predictablePrevious experience = saw the movie, read

Research Question 2

What components of interest (or lack of interest) do students associate with specific graded readers after reading them?

Components of Interest (post)

0

50

100

150

200

250

Excitin

g

Unpre

dict

able

Roman

tic

Heartw

arm

ing

Mys

terio

us

Strang

e

Humor

ous

Easy

to u

nder

stan

dSca

ry

Oth

er

Sharing

Anne

Children

Murders

Notting Hill

Pirates

Components of Interest (pre and post)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Exci

ting

pre

Exci

ting

post

Unp

redi

ctab

leU

npre

dict

able

Rom

antic

pre

Rom

antic

Hea

rtw

arm

ing

Hea

rtw

arm

ing

Mys

terio

usM

yste

rious

Stra

nge

pre

stra

nge

post

Hum

orou

s pre

Hum

orou

sEa

sy to

Easy

toSc

ary

pre

Scar

y po

stO

ther

pre

Sharing

Anne

ChildrenMurders

Notting Hill

Pirates

Grader Reader titles

Pirates Notting Hill Murders

Components of interest

Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post

Exciting 66 66 8 13 24 21

Unpredictable 33 30 21 20 64 69

Romantic 15 16 72 74 0 0

Heartwarming 4 11 41 45 0 0

Mysterious 14 8 3 2 57 ↓44

Strange 14 10 9 6 0 2

Humorous 22 24 20 23 0 1

Easy to understand

28 32 21 19 2 10

Scary 3 8 0 1 40 ↑84

Other 13 ↓2 6 1 4 0

Totala 212 207 201 204 191 231

Grader Reader titles

Children Anne Sharing

Components of interest

Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post

Exciting 28 ↓17 3 1 26 21

Unpredictable 52 ↓25 25 ↓9 47 43

Romantic 0 ↑15 8 13 1 2

Heartwarming 20 ↑50 49 ↑70 17 ↑32

Mysterious 13 ↓ 2 9 2 24 28

Strange 0 1 9 8 1 3

Humorous 0 1 13 16 0 2

Easy to understand

13 ↑22 23 ↑44 11 14

Scary 17 ↓6 1 2 11 18

Other 5 8 7 1 4 6

Totala 148 147 147 166 142 169

Post-reading Lack of Interest

711

18 2015

252419

40

29

20

41

Pirates NottingHill

Murders Children Anne Sharing

Components of Pre- and Post-reading Lack of Interest

1815

6 7 6

13

18

12

1720

40

Comments on Post-reading Lack of Interest

• “I watched that movie once before, so, I could predict the line of the story.”

• “Easy to expect what happens next.”• “I couldn’t understand this story well. All of this

was not interesting.” • “The book is too easy. And detail is not written

down. So I feel the book is little bit boring.”• “This story was monotonous and there aren’t

ups and downs.”• Not realistic/believable, ordinary, dull, plain, slow

not detailed, no changes, no surprises, ‘ending’

Research Question 3

Do students’ overall ratings of interest differ before and after reading?

Overall Interest Ratings

• Kolmogrov-Smirnov testdata not normally distributed

• Wilcoxon signed-rank test (2-tailed) pre- and post-reading interest ratings

• Significance found for two books: The Year of Sharing (r = .30) The Children of the New Forest (r = .43)

Implications and Future Directions• For Teachers: Support of class-specific/student-specific

interests related to graded readers likely will support recall and learning. Attention should be paid for gender-related balance of reading materials.

• For Teachers: Student interests might be checked through needs analyses or surveys, and connected directly to lesson plans. More work, but with substantial rewards.

• For Researchers: More research needed to investigate the relationship between interest, learning, and graded readers (and other learning materials).

References• Ainley, M. D., Hidi, S., & Berndorff, D. (2002). Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship. Journal of

Educational Psychology, 94, 1–17.• Brantmeier, C. (2006). Toward a multicomponent model of interest and L2 reading: Sources of interest, perceived situational interest, and

comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language, 18, 89-115. Retrieved from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/October2006/brantmeier/brantmeier.pdf• Carrell, P. L., & Wise, T. E. (1998). The relationship between prior knowledge and topic interest in second language reading. Studies in Second

Language Acquisition, 20, 285-309.• Day, R., & Bamford, J. (1998). Extensive reading in the second language. New York: CUP.• Eidswick, J. (2009). The influence of interest on reading comprehension in EFL students. Kwansei Gakuin University Annual Research Report of the

Language Center, 12, 25-38.• Eidswick, J., Praver, M., & Rouault, G. (2009). Anticipated interest and graded readers. Manuscript in preparation.• Eidswick, J., Rouault. G., & Praver, M. (2011). Judging books by the covers and more: Components of interest in graded readers. The Language

Teacher, 35(3), 11-19.• Elley, W. B. (1991). Acquiring literacy in a second language: The effect of book-based programs. Language Learning, 41, 375-411.• Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. New York: CUP.• Hidi, S. (1990). Interest and its contribution as a mental resource for learning. Review of Educational Research, 60, 549–571.• Hidi, S. (2000). An interest researcher’s perspective on the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on motivation. In C. Sansone & J. M. Harackiewicz

(Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimum motivation and performance (pp. 309-339). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.• Hidi, S. (2001). Interest, reading, and learning: Theoretical and practical considerations. Educational Psychology Review, 13, 191-209.• Hidi, S., & Baird, W. (1986). Interestingness—A neglected variable in discourse processing. Cognitive Science, 10, 179–194.• Hidi, S., & Renninger, K. A. (2006). The four-phase model of interest development. Educational Psychologist, 41, 111-127.• Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. New York: CUP.• Praver, M., Rouault, G., & Eidswick, J. (2010). Attitudes and affect toward peer evaluation in EFL reading circles. Manuscript in preparation.• Renninger, K. A. (2000). Individual interest and its implications for understanding intrinsic motivation. In C. Sansone & J. M. Harackiewicz (Eds.),

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimum motivation and performance (pp. 373-404). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.• Rouault, G. (2009) Introduction of graded reading into an integrated skills course. Kwansei Gakuin University Language Center Annual Research

Report, 12, 53-89.• Schiefele, U. (1996). Topic interest, text representation, and quality of experience. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21, 3-18.• Schiefele, U. (1999). Interest and learning from text. Scientific Studies of Reading, 3, 257-279.• Schiefele, U., Krapp, A., & Winteler, A. (1992). Interest as a predictor of academic achievement: A meta-analysis of research. In K. A. Renninger, S.

Hidi, & A. Krapp (Eds.), The role of interest in learning and development (pp. 183-212). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Schraw, G., Dennison, R. S., & Svoboda, C. (1995). Sources of situational interest. Journal of Reading Behavior, 27, 1-17.

• Waring, R., & Takahashi, S. (2000). The ‘why’ and ‘how’ of using graded readers. Tokyo: OUP.

• Slides used to print grayscale Handouts follow…

Components of Interest (pre)Pirates

Notting Hill Murders Children

Anne

SharingExciting 66 8 24 28 3 26Unpredictable 33 21 64 52 25 47Romantic 15 72 0 0 8 1Heartwarming 4 41 0 20 49 17Mysterious 14 3 57 13 9 24Strange 14 9 0 0 9 1Humorous 22 20 0 0 13 0Easy to understand 28 21 2 13 23 11Scary 3 0 40 17 1 11Other 13 6 4 5 7 4

Total = 1041 212 201 191 148 147 142

Components of Pre-reading Lack of Interest

Components of Interest (pre and post)

Grader reader titles

Pirates Notting H Murders Children Anne Sharing Components of interest Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post

Exciting 66 66 8 13 24 21 28 ↓17 3 1 26 21

Unpredictable 33 30 21 20 64 69 52 ↓25 25 ↓ 9 47 43

Romantic 15 16 72 74 0 0 0 ↑15 8 13 1 2

Heartwarming 4 11 41 45 0 0 20 ↑50 49 ↑70 17 ↑32

Mysterious 14 8 3 2 57 ↓44 13 ↓ 2 9 2 24 28

Strange 14 10 9 6 0 2 0 1 9 8 1 3

Humorous 22 24 20 23 0 1 0 1 13 16 0 2

Easy to understand 28 32 21 19 2 10 13 ↑22 23 ↑44 11 14

Scary 3 8 0 1 40 ↑84 17 ↓ 6 1 2 11 18

Other 13 ↓ 2 6 1 4 0 5 8 7 1 4 6

Totala 212 207 201 204 191 231 148 147 147 166 142 169

a Pre-reading total = 1041, Post-reading total = 1124

Components of Post-reading Lack of Interest

15

6 7 6

1318

1217

20

40

Components of Pre- and Post-reading Lack of Interest

15

6 7 6

13

18

12

1720

40