Children's Motivation for Reading: Domain Specificity and Instructional Influences

Abstract

The authors discuss the nature and domain specificity of reading motivation and present initial results that examined how 2 reading instructional programs, Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) and multiple Strategy Instruction (SI), influenced 3rd-grade children's intrinsic motivation to read and reading self-efficacy. Each reading program occurred during the fall of the school year and lasted 12 weeks. Approximately 150 3rd-grade children participated in CORI; 200 3rd-grade children participated in SI. Results of pre- and posttest analyses of children's responses to a reading motivation questionnaire showed that children's intrinsic motivation to read and reading self-efficacy increased only in the CORI group.