Abstract:

The aim of the article is to map the reading habits of Hungarian primary school pupils in Slovakia and to answer the question of how much the reading habits of different age groups differ, and what indicators (family background, home language use, self-assessment of reading skills) they correlate with.

The results of the research are based on a nationwide sample, with a total of 655 participants. There were 352 pupils from the fourth grade and 303 pupils from the seventh grade of primary school. The research results were processed based on statistical calculations. Questionnaires were used as an examination method of pupils’ reading habits. They were composed of 23 questions.

The response analysis shows that only a fraction of both age groups read in their free time and reading occupies one of the last places of favourite leisure time activities. In contrast, most pupils subjectively state that they have no problem reading and understanding the texts. According to the pupils’ subjective opinion, neither foreign words nor long sentences cause them problems.

It can be concluded that these statements are highly controversial, as they contradict the results of international surveys, according to which Slovak pupils perform below the OECD average year after year. The potential use of these results may help to understand reading habits and to improve reading comprehension skills of Hungarian pupils in Slovakia.

Keywords:

Reading habits, Hungarian minority, fourth-grade pupils, seventh-grade pupils, reading comprehension.