Promoting reading 1
leisure activities. Researchers have pointed out
that the cultural sector and education sector are covered by different cultural concepts. The cultural sector, with its aesthetic philosophy and theory, is autotelic, while the education sector, with its vocabulary of pedagogical and didactic concepts is instrumental. Consequently, the school is dominated by an instrumental approach to reading literature while reading literature as part of reading promotion activities within public libraries, for example, is more likely to be perceived as something you do for its own sake. At the same time, reading promotion efforts are often justified by falling literacy standards, which ultimately tend to give reading an instrumental legitimacy even there. This knowledge overview stresses that reading can be declared “useful”, without thereby being reduced to only a matter of usefulness. But the fact that reading has many instrumental ‘benefits’ does not rule out that it has value in itself. At first sight, a division between autotelic and instrumental culture may appear to be elucidating. But such a division is also liable to overshadow the fact that cultural activities often have both an intrinsic value and an instrumental value. Thus, there is nothing contradictory about viewing the reading of literature as an activity with intrinsic value, while simultaneously giving it further legitimacy by referring to the positive educational and social effects of reading. Furthermore, a useful effect of reading literature in the form of improved reading skills, is in turn an instrument and a prerequisite for being able to benefit from the intrinsic value of literature in the first place. The fact that free voluntary reading can have positive effects on language development is well known. In the other chapters in this knowledge review, research is described that has demonstrated the positive effects of voluntary reading, such as extended vocabulary, improved writing skills, better results on reading tests, and more positive attitudes to reading in general, as well as a positive correlation between reading enjoyment and reading ability. Studies that have charted the link between the frequency of reading and reading skills have also been noted. Meta-analyses of large numbers of studies confirm a well-known positive spiral regarding reading: children who read a lot improve their reading ability, and children with good reading ability read more, which further improves their reading ability. Several international research reports exude high hopes for the potential of voluntary reading to, for example, combat exclusion and raise educational levels. Researchers have pointed out the effects of voluntary reading such as improved reading and writing ability, improved comprehension, grammar and vocabulary, a better attitude to reading, increased self-confidence as a reader, greater inclination towards voluntary reading later in life and increased general knowledge – but also better understanding of other cultures, increased participation in society, and greater insight into human decision-making. Sociological studies have shown that affluent people read more, and a number of studies show that children from less privileged social circumstances generally read less for enjoyment than children from more privileged classes. In Sweden, for example, it was found that the highly educated are twice as likely to read books at least once each week compared with the less educated. At the same time, there are a number of studies that give support to the potential of voluntary reading to generate social mobility. A comprehensive study that examined the cognitive effects of reading for pleasure over time points to reading for pleasure in leisure time as more important to children’s learning 100