Improving Reading Habits Among Primary School Children With Special Reference to Trincomalee District

Abstract

Title of the study is Improving Reading Habits Among Primary School Children. Reading habit should be cultivated from the childhood and it is important to adopt this habit through out one's life. Objectives of the research are to find out primary childrens' interests and attitudes towards reading, to investigate the factors affecting reading habits, to examine the contribution of school environment in promoting reading habit and to explore the support of parents in promoting reading habit. Survey method was used for the study. Four schools from Trincomalee district were selected. Students from grade two, three and four were selected by occupying stratified random sampling technique. Samples from each division were selected by systematic random sampling technique. Two hundred students, twenty four class teachers and forty parents were given questionnaires. Principals and school Librarians were interviewed with a schedule. The collected data have been presented in the forms of tables and charts. The data were analyzed by using Spss and Excel packages. Parents have an important contribution to both the development of reading skills and encouragement of leisure reading habit. Family reading is a way to help the children with reading and is especially useful for parents to share reading at home with their children. Children have positive attitude for leisure reading.