On High School Students’ Reading Habits and Teaching Literature Courses

Abstract

The introductory part of the paper discusses the changed reading habits of children and young people, conditioned by various factors - the development of modern technologies, the use of the Internet, constant reading of various content from numerous screens, changed thought patterns, "accelerated" time, etc. Such a context leaves little room for reading books and other printed publications, especially the so-called fine literature (fiction). For this reason, our research focus is on the attitude of high school students towards books and reading within the framework of teaching literature, and beyond, in the sphere of private life. The aim is to examine their reading habits and attitudes about books and reading in order to - by comparing the obtained data with the results of the similar research - determine the nature of the changes that have occurred in the meantime, and that new knowledge can be used to create serious, fact-based, methodological strategies for improving the current analyzed situation. The central part of the paper offers the presentation of the research conducted on a sample of 1177 students from 13 high schools in the area of the cities of Niš and Novi Pazar, conducted in late 2018 and early 2019. An anonymous questionnaire was used to collect and then interpret the data on students' family and school habits related to books and reading, their attitude towards school compulsory reading lists, libraries, e-books and online literature, as well as creativity and literature studies.

Keywords

• : reading
• teaching literature
• reading habits
• assigned reading
• library.