The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001 (PIRLS) were reported in 2003. In addition to data about the reading achievements of 10-year-olds in 35 countries, the study also collected questionnaire information from children, their teachers, headteachers and parents. One aspect of the data that attracted comment in the media was the fact that, despite high achievement on the reading tests, children in England were reported as having relatively poor attitudes to reading, compared to children in many other countries. A review of the results of selected surveys over the past 30 years suggests that there may be some evidence of attitudes to reading in primary schools becoming less positive. Preliminary analysis of the attitude and achievement data from PIRLS suggests a more complex picture than that presented in the summary index published in 2003.When the results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) were published in (Mullis et al., 2003, the media identified two key findings of the study: that 10-year-olds in England had performed well in relation to their peers in most of the other 34 participating countries and that the attitudes to reading held by children in England (and also in Scotland) tended to be poorer than those in most other countries.'Better but bored: The teachers, children and policy-makers of England have done well to raise 10-year-olds' reading achievement . . . But we still have an attitude problem. ' (Ward, 2003) '10-year-olds ''are best and worst'' at reading: England's 10-year-olds are among the top and bottom in the world at reading, an international study reported . . . Despite their high average score, 10-year-olds in England had a poorer attitude towards reading, and read less often for fun, than pupils in other countries.' (Clare, 2003) Concern about children's attitudes to reading in the light of the PIRLS results needs to be put into context: are children in England expressing more negative attitudes to reading than they have in the past or do the PIRLS results reflect long-standing attitudes in this country?In the past, work on children's reading that has not been focused on reading development or competence has tended to divide into two main approaches -
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