Abstract

Reading motivation has a significant contribution to acquire the necessary reading skills, and it has an indisputable effect on continuing to read. When the importance of the role model effect of school teachers in acquiring reading skills is considered, it is expected that reading motivation of the students will be high whose teachers also have a high reading motivation. Considering these issues, this study aimed to determine the variables that affect the reading motivation of students studying at the Faculty of Education. For this purpose, Adult Reading Motivation Scale (ARMS) developed by Schutte and Malouff, and adapted into Turkish by Yıldız et al. was used as the data collection tool. This scale was used for 285 students studying at five different departments in Sinop University, Faculty of Education, in Turkey. For data analysis, relational screening model was used. From the analysis, it was noticed that the variables, gender, profession of father, economic status, frequency of buying newspapers, frequency of buying magazines, frequency of reading in electronic environment, and the reasons for unwillingness to read were efficient upon reading motivations of students whereas the variables such as department, educational level of father, educational level of mother, and profession of mother were not efficient.

Key words: Reading, reading motivation, reading interest.