Successful Literacy Development of At-Risk Youth-Motivational Aspects

Literacy competences are the basis of participation in social discourse & development in private & professional areas. The PISA studies have proven the existence of a substantial group of adolescents in Switzerland who have not acquired sufficient reading competences at the end of their formal education. A large part of this group comes from backgrounds alien to literacy activities. The research project on which this article is based investigates adolescents from such groups who, in spite of a risk background, have managed to develop successfully in reading and/or writing. The results presented demonstrate that these resilient pupils differ from nonsuccessful adolescents among other things in their motivation structure. They view reading & writing as easy fun activities with a high degree of emotional gratification. Their nonsuccessful mates on the other hand tend to associate reading & writing mainly with strenuous effort & norms difficult to achieve. The conclusion could therefore be drawn that for adolescents from backgrounds alien to literacy it is important to experience reading & writing not only as a hard & difficult subject but also as activities associated with meaning for the individual. Little is known, however, as to how school, the formal instance of literacy socialization, can stimulate positive literacy motivations without neglecting the normative aspect of reading & writing. Adapted from the source document