FROM BOOK REPORTS TO READING FOR PLEASURE

This paper explores how book reports can contribute to major changes in low-intermediate students’ leisure reading habits. The study discusses (1) how to change aliteracy attitudes and (2) how to foster students’ interest in reading for pleasure starting from graded class activities. A number of 32 low-intermediate EFL students of both genders were surveyed in an effort to understand how their attitudes towards reading for pleasure change after having to write two different book reports for grades. Comparative data showed that there is an intrinsic connection between how the book reports were organized as graded class activity and the number of students who started borrowing fiction books from the library after the book reports were graded. The study also revealed that a lack of reading habits at home or in their previous educational background was identified as the main cause of aliteracy in the study group.