Abstract:

The purpose of our study is to investigate the influence of reading pattern and obtained education level of parents on students’ reading comprehension skills and to answer the research question about the relationship between parents’ education level and students’ reading comprehension achievement.

The survey was conducted among seventh-grade students living in Hungarian minority situation in Slovakia and attending minority schools. The survey of students’ reading comprehension level was conducted on a total of 313 seventh-grade respondents attending primary schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction in Slovakia. The research method was a self-administered sociological questionnaire and a reading comprehension test developed for the respective age group. Data analysis was carried out using statistical methods.

The results of the research show that there is a significant relationship between the educational level of parents and the reading comprehension performance of students. Parents’ education has a positive effect on students’ achievement. Students whose parents had tertiary education scored significantly higher on the reading comprehension test. We also examined the effect of whether parents’ education correlates with students’ reading frequency. The data obtained show that parents’ education correlates with students’ reading frequency and that both parents’ education and reading frequency lead to higher reading frequency among students.

The findings of the study indicate the influence of parental education pattern on students’ reading frequency and reading comprehension. This is because there is also a correlation between the level of reading comprehension and reading frequency. The research findings also draw attention to the fact that if a student does not receive adequate reading pattern at home, it can have a negative impact on reading achievement. The school is currently unable to adequately compensate for this shortfall.

Keywords:

Reading comprehension, reading habits, Hungarian in Slovakia, primary school.