READING INTERESTS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study that examined the interest and influence of gender of students studying in International schools in Sri Lanka on reading. The objectives of this study was to find the nature of reading interest of the primary school children and to examine whether it differ by gender. The sample was selected from three International schools in Colombo district. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed with Chi-square test. Findings indicated that, boys preferred comic books and the girls opted to picture books. Reading Newspapers and web pages are not popular among students, despite computer was much preferred in the past. This could indicate that children prefer to read a book. Where genres are concerned, Mystery & Adventure and Fantasy are the selection of the majority. Both these fall into the fiction category which was confirmed by previous researches. Since a vast majority of the sample showed preference for series books as well as comic books, it can be concluded that books from the Wimpy Kid and the Geronimo Stilton series can be used in order to encourage and motivate young readers by making reading an enjoyable activity.