The relationship between extrinsic
motivation, home literacy, classroom
instructional practices, and reading proficiency
in second-grade Chinese children
Yin-kum Law The University of Hong Kong

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

eading proficiency is an important index of learning ability and is positively correlated with children’s academic achievement in elementary
schools (Chapman et al., 2000). Consequently, educators are interested in
investigating the various factors that promote early reading proficiency, and
various studies have shown that children’s reading motivation directly and
indirectly influences their reading comprehension (Schraw et al., 1998;
Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997a). Motivation can affect children’s commitment
to reading, their approaches to reading, as well as their engagement in
reading activities (Wang and Guthrie, 2004). For example, children will set
higher goals for themselves and select more difficult books to read if they
enjoy the subject of the books. Also, when readers are motivated to read,
the amount of time they spend on reading is increased, and consequently
their reading comprehension improves.
A considerable number of studies have shown that parents and teachers
play important roles in motivating and promoting early reading development (Baker, 2003; Wang and Guthrie, 2004). In the present study we
examined how younger children’s extrinsic motivation and home literacy
activities, parents’ participation in their children’s homework and teachers’
instructional practices were associated with children’s reading proficiency.

R

Extrinsic motivation
Extrinsic motivation refers to doing something for external rewards, demands
and recognition (Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997b). When children are extrinsically motivated to learn, they are primarily responsive to the external environment or to the social benefits (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Students engage
in an academic activity in the classroom because it may help them to get a
good grade, to satisfy their teachers’ requirements, or to obtain their peers’
recognition. Students may also be dependent on teacher guidance and assistance to solve their homework problems (Lepper et al., 2005).
It is arguable whether extrinsic motivation can contribute to learning
(Covington and Müller, 2001; Lepper et al., 2005). Students extrinsically
motivated to learn tend to adopt surface or achieving approaches to learn-

37

No. 80
Research in Education
38

ing. Students who want only to pass with minimal effort are more likely to
adopt a surface approach such as rote learning and reproducing materials.
Students who carry out classroom tasks because of high marks and Teacher’s
praise tend to use a variety of achieving strategies to maximise the chances
of success. A surface approach is usually considered to be associated with
poor academic performance, whereas an achieving approach is associated
with positive academic performance (Biggs, 1995). Nevertheless, Biggs
(1995) concluded that, if students are encouraged to earn extrinsically, they
will focus only on learning outcomes, and will not engage deeply in classroom learning.
The interpretation of these results was complicated by the likelihood of
there being several different sub-types of extrinsic motivation (Ryan and
Deci, 2000). Classroom learning involves intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations (Lepper et al., 2005). When extrinsic motivation is
accompanied by a degree of autonomy, for example, it is likely to result in
greater engagement and higher-quality learning, as it may be just part of a
continuum of motivation and may lead to other types of motivation, such
as intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation refers to participation in an
activity based on one’s inherent interest (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Ryan and
Deci (2000) pointed out that students may start learning for external reasons,
such as to obtain praise, good grades or some other rewards, but may subsequently accept and internalise the value and importance of learning as
their own. Covington and Müller (2001) also argued that extrinsic motives
may coexist with intrinsic motives. Students can be stimulated to learn
through extrinsic rewards and those rewards can drive children to sustain
a personal interest in learning.
According to Wigfield (1997), children’s reading motivation is multidimensional and extrinsic aspects of reading motivations include reading recognition, reading for grades, competition in reading, social reasons for
reading, reading compliance and reading as work avoidance. Those aspects
emphasised that external goals or reasons motivate children to read and
were supported in a series of studies by Guthrie and his colleagues (e.g.,
Guthrie and Ozgungor, 2002; Guthrie and Wigfield, 2000). These researchers also found that extrinsic motivation is related to children’s reading
frequency (Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997a). In one study, however, Wang
and Guthrie (2004) found that both American and Chinese fourth-grade
students’ extrinsic motivation was negatively associated with text comprehension: children with higher scores on extrinsic motivation had lower
scores on text comprehension.
Wang and Guthrie (2004) suggested that a combination of both extrinsic
and intrinsic motivation, rather than extrinsic motivation alone, is more
likely to contribute to effective learning. Wigfield (1997, p. 63) described
children’s intrinsic reading motivation as consisting of curiosity, i.e., the
desire to learn about a particular topic of personal interest; challenges, i.e.,
the satisfaction obtained from mastering complex or difficult ideas; and
involvement, i.e., the pleasure gained from being engaged in reading inter-

Home literacy
Studies have shown that a home environment where literacy is encouraged
may foster both intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation in a child (Baker,
2003). Home literacy refers to a variety of complementary reading-related
activities, and is high when parents provide a supportive home environment
for their children which encourages reading (Griffin and Morrison, 1997),
for example by making reading materials such as books, newspapers and
magazines available; by enabling their children to use computers; by encouraging their children’s participation in a variety of literacy activities such as
library visits (Baker, 2003; Saracho, 2002; Stainthorp and Hughes, 2000);
and by bringing about parent–child interactions in reading (e.g., Chow and
McBride-Chang, 2003, regarding Chinese families, and, e.g., Sonnenschein
and Munsterman, 2002, regarding American families).
A number of studies have found that home literacy can improve Western
children’s reading motivation and ability (e.g., Baker, 2003; Griffin and
Morrison, 1997; Jordan et al., 2000; Saracho, 2002; Sonnenschein and
Munsterman, 2002; Stainthorp and Hughes, 2000). Children’s reading
motivation can be increased if family members are actively involved in
reading to them both inside and outside the home, engaging them in
writing activities, and listening to them when they read aloud. Home literacy that promotes intrinsic reading motivation is particularly relevant to
the early acquisition of literacy in kindergarten children (Baker and Scher,
2002). A recent report on 5-year-old American children’s literacy development indicated that home-based reading interactions were importantly
related to children’s reading frequency and motivation (Sonnenschein and
Munsterman, 2002). Jordan et al. (2000) also demonstrated that American
kindergarten children whose families engaged in home literacy activities
achieved higher language scores in reading comprehension. Similarly,
Saracho (2002) pointed out that parents of good readers use a variety of
methods and activities to help and encourage their children to read. Early
family literacy experience, such as exposure to books, helps children to
develop language skills which are directly related to subsequent reading
proficiency in elementary schools (Senechal and LeFevre, 2002; Speece
et al., 2004).

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

esting materials. Intrinsic motivation has been shown to be positively related
to reading activities and reading performance (Wang and Guthrie, 2004;
Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997a). For example, Wigfield and Guthrie’s (1997a)
study of reading motivation indicated that intrinsically highly motivated
children read more than less motivated students. Moreover, according to
Sweet et al. (1998), most teachers think that high achievers are more intrinsically motivated and require less extrinsic support, whereas low achievers
need more social support. A number of studies have shown that family
literacy environment and classroom instructional practices may enhance
students’ intrinsic motivation (Baker and Scher, 2002).

39

No. 80
Research in Education

However, despite the general consensus that there is a positive relationship between home literacy and early reading, several studies have indicated
that not all home literacy activities will enhance children’s reading skills
(Baker and Scher, 2002; Stainthorp and Hughes, 2000). Baker and Scher
(2002) reported that the extent of a beginning reader’s exposure to supposed skill-building story books was, in fact, negatively correlated with their
reading motivation. Moreover, it has been found that children’s engagement
in a considerable amount of home literacy activities is also not always sufficient to promote their reading ability (Stainthorp and Hughes, 2000). Hence
it is important to help parents build a home environment that nurtures
children’s reading motivation and literacy development by identifying
specific necessary and sufficient components (Baker, 2003).
Baker (2003) pointed out that, while some parents play a critical role in
literacy development, others may not know how to motivate their children
to read, and she suggested home–school collaboration as a way to enhance
parent–teacher communication and collaboration. This is where teachers
help parents to learn effective ways of interacting with their children during
home reading activities, or where parents provide information about existing home literacy environments upon which teachers may base their teaching strategies.
A number of studies have shown that parents who receive instruction on
how to interact with their children at home are better able to cultivate their
children’s reading motivation and ability than those parents who have
received no instruction (e.g., Bailey et al., 2004; Baker, 2003; Chow and
McBride-Chang, 2003; Jordan et al., 2000; Morrow and Young, 1997;
Saracho, 2002). In Morrow and Young’s (1997) study of American children
who received both home and school-based reading instruction, these children outperformed those in the control group who received only schoolbased instruction. Moreover, Jordan et al. (2000) found that American
children whose parents engaged in both home and school reading activities
achieved high scores for reading, and this was even the case with low-ability
children who had obtained low reading scores on an initial pre-test. Home
literacy support also enabled low-achieving children ultimately to gain more
reading skills than high-achieving children. Parents who receive instruction
from schools on how to support their children’s learning at home can
improve their children’s performance in both reading and writing (SaintLaurent and Giasson, 2005). All these studies have shown that home–school
collaboration can enhance children’s reading performance.
Instructional practices

40

Certain instructional practices can facilitate students’ intrinsic motivation
for reading and bring about better reading comprehension, and Pressley
et al. (2003) demonstrated how highly effective teachers utilised a variety
of such methods to motivate children to read. Several studies have highlighted specific instructional practices that can enhance children’s reading

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

motivation and ability; Guthrie and Ozgungor (2002), for example, suggested that effective instructional reading programmes provide students with
real-world interactions, autonomy support, collaboration and interesting
texts. Similarly, Topping and Ferguson (2005) have demonstrated that effective literacy programmes are those in which teachers use effective questioning techniques, scaffolding and modelling, and balance individual with
small-group and whole-class instruction.
Effective reading instructional practices involve stimulating students’ curiosity to read, allowing students more autonomy, and recognising students’
efforts in reading lessons. Effective teachers know how to promote students’
curiosity by guiding them to interact with text materials and by devising
engaging ways to help them solve comprehension problems (Guthrie and
Ozgungor, 2002). Teachers who offer students more opportunities to
control their learning in the classroom find that they typically increase the
reading motivation of their students (Guthrie et al., 2000). Research on
reading motivation also supports this belief and indicates that teachers
can play an important facilitating role in recognising effort and selfimprovement (Guthrie and Wigfield, 2000). In the present study, in order
to investigate second-grade classroom teaching practices that specifically
contribute to the development of students’ reading performance, parents’
and students’ perspectives on effective reading instructional practices were
measured and examined.
Overview of the study
On the basis of the above review, we conclude that a degree of extrinsic
motivation, home literacy, parents’ support for their children’s homework
and certain instructional practices may well motivate children to read and
may bring about earlier and better reading achievements. However, most
studies of reading motivation have investigated the influences of home literacy and classroom teaching separately, and few have examined how these
two factors interact in enhancing children’s reading proficiency. The general
goal of the present study was to investigate the relationships between extrinsic motivation, home literacy, parents’ support, instructional practices and
reading proficiency. It was expected that children would be more motivated
to read when parents provided effective literacy experiences at home and
teachers encouraged students’ curiosity, effort and autonomy in the classroom. It is not clear whether extrinsic motivation is associated with reading
proficiency. Accordingly, the specific research questions of the present study
were:
1 Is home literacy experience associated with second-graders’ extrinsic
motivation and reading proficiency?
2 Is parents’ support associated with second-graders’ extrinsic motivation
and reading proficiency?
3 Are teachers’ instructional practices associated with second-graders’
reading motivation and reading proficiency?

41

No. 80
Research in Education

4 What are the relationships between home literacy, instructional practices, extrinsic motivation and reading proficiency?
Method
Participants
The participants were 734 Chinese second-graders (48.2 per cent girls and
51.4 per cent boys) from twenty-two classes of seven primary schools in
Hong Kong, with a mean age of 7.5 years. All students and their parents
were invited to participate in this study, that is, participation was voluntary.
All the students were from middle and lower SES families.
Measures

42

Parents completed one questionnaire at home and students completed one
questionnaire and two comprehension tests at school. The parent questionnaire consisted of questions to examine home literacy, parents’ support for
children’s homework, and parents’ perceptions of the instructional practices
of their children’s reading lessons. The student questionnaire contained two
parts. The first addressed students’ extrinsic motivation, whereas the second
part addressed students’ perspectives of their reading teachers’ classroom
instructional practices.
Home literacy activities. It was adapted from the Home Background
questionnaire of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study
(PIRLS), 2001 (Gonzalez and Kennedy, 2003), which was previously used
to investigate fourth-graders’ home literacy. In the first part parents were
asked to indicate how often they participated in specific home literacy activities with their children. For example, regarding the statement ‘Go to the
library or bookstores with their children’, parents were asked to indicate
how often they carried out this activity based on a five-point Likert scale:
1 ‘almost never’, 2 ‘about once or twice every six months’, 3 ‘about once
or twice every month’, 4 ‘about once or twice every week’, and 5 ‘about
once or twice every day’. The frequency of home literacy activities ranged
from daily to six-monthly, and for this a five-point Likert scale was used.
The average scores of the eight items were used to indicate the level of
students’ home literacy. Parents with higher scores provided their children
with more literacy activities in their home environments than did parents
with lower scores. The Cronbach’s α of the total scale with eight items
was 0.83.
Parents’ support. In this part, parents were asked to indicate how often
they participated in specific activities that helped their children complete
school homework, such as dictation, reading and writing tasks. The parents
were asked to indicate how often they carried out these activities based on
a four-point Likert scale, 1 ‘almost never’, 2 ‘about once or twice every
month’, 3 ‘about once or twice every week’ and 4 ‘about once or twice every

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

day’. The frequency of parent support ranged from daily to monthly, and
for this a four-point Likert scale was used. The average scores of the nine
items were used to indicate parents’ participation in children’s assignments.
Parents with higher scores provided more support to their children than did
parents with lower scores. The Cronbach’s α of the total scale with nine
items was 0.88.
Parents’ perceptions of the instructional practices of their children’s reading
lessons. Parents were asked to indicate whether they agreed that the instructional practices could enhance their children’s intrinsic motivation. To
exemplify, in response to the statement ‘Students can learn autonomy in
reading lessons’ and the statement ‘Students can express their ideas freely’,
parents indicated the extent to which they agreed that these statements
described that their children could be intrinsically motivated to read. This
part consisted of eight items presented on a six-point rating scale, with
responses ranging from 1, ‘strongly disagree’, to 6, ‘strongly agree’. A sixpoint Likert scale was used in this part to ascertain parents’ perceptions of
the instructional practices, with parents having to indicate their agreement
or disagreement on this scale. The Cronbach’s α of the total scale with eight
items was 0.83.
Extrinsic motivation. The questionnaire was adapted from the Motivation
for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) (Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997b) and used
to assess students’ extrinsic motivation. It consisted of six items and targeted
recognition, grades, competition in reading and social reasons for reading.
Students were asked to indicate their agreement with these statements on a
four-point Likert scale from 1, ‘strongly disagree’, to 4, ‘strongly agree’. A
four-point Likert scale was used in this questionnaire, as children are likely
to find it easier to indicate their responses on a scale with fewer choices.
The Cronbach’s α of the extrinsic motivation scale was 0.73.
Students’ perceptions of the instructional practices of their reading lessons.
The questionnaire was adapted from the Motivating Instructional Contexts
Inventory (MICI) developed by Lam et al. (2007). The questionnaire was
used to determine students’ perceptions of their teachers’ instructional practices and to ascertain whether their teachers used various teaching strategies
and approaches to motivate them to learn in the reading lessons. The original questionnaire consists of twenty-four items to measure the extent to
which students perceive that their teachers arrange challenging tasks for
them to learn, integrate real life experience with their learning, arouse their
interest and curiosity, grant them autonomy, recognise their effort and give
them useful feedback for their improvement. In this study for younger students, the questionnaire was reduced from twenty-four items to nine. The
questionnaire was also reworded to match the second-graders’ literacy level.
The students’ extrinsic motivation was probed using a four-point Likert
scale. In the questionnaire, students were asked to indicate how much they
agreed that the nine statements accurately described their teachers’ instructional practices during reading lessons. For example, to the statement ‘Our
teacher lets us select tasks based on our interests’ the students indicated the

43

No. 80
Research in Education

extent to which they agreed that it described their teacher’s teaching practices on a four-point Likert scale, with 1 for ‘strongly disagree’ and 4 for
‘strongly agree’. The purpose of using this questionnaire was to capture
students’ general perceptions of their teachers’ performance. All the items
on the questionnaire were considered as a whole unit for further analysis.
Students with high scores indicated that they agreed that their teachers’
instructional practices motivated them to learn in the classroom context,
whereas students with low scores disagreed. The average scores of the nine
items were used to indicate the students’ views of their teachers’ instructional practices. Students with high scores agreed that their teachers’ instructional practices were motivating whereas students with low scores disagreed.
The Cronbach’s α internal consistency reliability of the scales was 0.68 for
this sample.
Reading proficiency. The students were asked to complete two sets of
reading comprehension tests. One is part of the Hong Kong Attainment Test
(HKAT) (Chinese) (Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau, 2002),
which is a standardised test developed by the Hong Kong Education Department for assessing the Chinese-language literacy of Hong Kong primary and
junior secondary school students. It was used widely in Hong Kong schools
as an index of students’ language proficiency in Chinese, and consists of
three main parts: basic language (vocabulary, syntax, punctuation and language mechanics), reading comprehension and written composition. Currently, the Hong Kong Attainment Test was replaced by another language
test. The HKAT reading comprehension test assesses basic reading comprehension ability, such as filling in the blanks of short paragraphs, selecting
appropriate words to complete sentences, and answering short and simple
questions about two articles. The other set of reading comprehension measures used in this study was developed to assess students’ inferential comprehension and higher-order reading ability. All the items in this reading
comprehension assessment had been pilot-tested several times in three different schools, and items with low corrected-item total correlations (less
than 0.3) were amended or deleted. Children were asked to read two text
passages ranging from approximately 600 to 800 words, and then to answer
seventeen multiple-choice questions designed to assess their inferential comprehension. The Cronbach’s α for the reading comprehension test was 0.68
for this sample. The total scores of two tests were converted to 100 for each
test and the two scores were combined as one score for further analysis.
Procedures

44

At the end of their school term, teachers sent parents the questionnaire to
be filled out at home and returned by the children to school. Students completed the questionnaire, which dealt with their extrinsic reading motivation
and perceptions of their teachers’ instructional practices in their classrooms.
In a separate testing session, students were required to complete the reading
inferential comprehension test within one hour. Students’ test scores on the

Results

Correlation among extrinsic motivation, home literacy, instructional practices and
reading comprehension
The results were analysed in two sequential procedures, with the correlation
among the variables examined first, followed by a hierarchical multiple
regression analysis. The mean scores and standard deviations are shown in
Table 1, and the Pearson zero-order correlation coefficients for extrinsic
motivation, home literacy, parents’ support, parents’ and children’s perspectives of instructional practices and reading comprehension in Table 2.

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

standardised test, the Hong Kong Attainment Test (HKAT), were collected
from participating schools after the school term. Parents were also asked to
fill out the parent questionnaire and to return the questionnaire to their
students’ second-grade teacher in a sealed envelope.

1 Home literacy had a significant positive correlation with students’ extrinsic motivation (r = 12, p < 0.01), parents’ support (r = 67, p < 0.001)
and reading comprehension (r = 0.08, p < 0.05).

Table 1 Mean scores and standard deviations of all variables
Variable

Mean

Std dev.

Extrinsic motivation
Home literacy
Parents’ support
Parents’ perceptions of instructional practices
Children’s perceptions of instructional practices
Reading comprehension

2.47
2.91
2.62
4.70
3.29
55.13

0.57
0.80
0.66
0.68
0.48
16.74

Table 2 Pearson zero-order correlations among the variables
Variable
1
2
3
4

Extrinsic motivation
Home literacy
Parents’ support
Parents’ perceptions of
instructional practices
5 Children’s perceptions of
instructional practices
6 Reading comprehension

1

2

0.12**
0.13**

0.67***

0.18***

0.11**

0.49***
−0.02

0.03
0.08*

Note * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.01.

3

4

5

0.27***
0.18***

0.13**

0.12**
0.05
−0.05

45

No. 80
Research in Education

2 Parents’ perspectives of instructional practices and children’s perspectives of instructional practices are significantly correlated (r = 27,
p < 0.001).
3 Both parents’ and children’s perspectives of instructional practices had
a positive correlation with extrinsic motivation (parents’ perspectives:
r = 18, p < 0.001; children’s perspectives: r = 49, p < 0.001).
4 Extrinsic motivation and parents’ support did not correlate with reading
comprehension.
Hierarchical multiple regression
To further examine whether extrinsic motivation, home literacy, parents’
support, and parents’ and children’s perspectives of instructional practices
would predict students’ reading comprehension, a hierarchical multiple
regression analysis was conducted, with students’ extrinsic motivation scores
entered first, after which the scores for home literacy and parents’ support
were added. The results of the analysis are presented in Table 3.
Extrinsic motivation scores did not contribute significantly to the prediction of reading proficiency. When home literacy and parents’ support scores
were entered, R2 changed from 0.0 to 0.2, and when parents’ and children’s
perspectives of instructional practices were added, R2 changed from 0.2 to
0.8, adding an additional 6 per cent variance at significant levels. The results
showed that extrinsic motivation did not predict students’ reading comprehension. While home literacy could predict students’ reading comprehension, parents’ support negatively predicted students’ reading comprehension.

Table 3 Unstandardised and standardised regression coefficients for hierarchical
regression analysis predicting reading proficiency
B

SE B

b

Model 1
Extrinsic motivation

−0.35

0.40

−0.04

Model 2
Extrinsic motivation
Home literacy
Parents’ support

−0.35
3.66
−4.34

0.40
1.13
1.35

−0.04
0.18**
−0.18**

Model 3
Extrinsic motivation
Home literacy
Parents’ support
Parents’ perceptions of instructional practices
Children’s perceptions of instructional practices

−1.20
3.71
−4.77
3.90
4.03

0.45
1.12
1.32
1.03
1.62

−0.12**
0.18**
−0.19***
0.16***
0.12*

Variable

46

Note *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01; R2 = 0.00 for Model 1 (p > 0.01); R2 = 0.02 for
Model 2 (p < 0.01); R2 = 0.08 for Model 3 (p < 0.001).

Discussion
The present study investigated the relationships between children’s extrinsic
motivation, home literacy, parents’ support for children’s homework and
assignments, instructional practices in lessons of reading, and children’s
reading proficiency. The results of the study suggest that home literacy
was found to be slightly associated with the second-graders’ reading proficiency, and instructional practices had significant effects on the children’s
reading proficiency. The children’s extrinsic motivation and parents’ support
for their children’s homework were negatively associated with reading
proficiency.
In line with previous research (e.g., Lepper et al., 2005; Wang and
Guthrie, 2004), the present study found that extrinsic motivation was
slightly negatively associated with young children’s reading achievement.
Children who reported reading more for extrinsic benefits, such as receiving
rewards and praise from teachers, outperforming their classmates or peer
recognition, had a worse performance in reading comprehension. As Ryan
and Deci (2000) indicated, students may start to learn because of extrinsic
rewards and then internalise the importance of reading. In the present study,
students’ extrinsic motivation was significantly correlated with instructional
practices (r = 49). It is suggested that classroom instructional practices that
arouse both students’ extrinsic and students’ intrinsic motivation is more
likely to enhance students’ effective learning (Wang and Guthrie, 2004).
The results suggest that supportive home environments have an effect on
children’s reading proficiency. This supports previous research results, which
showed that children who engage in home literacy activities do not necessarily demonstrate motivation and ability (Baker and Scher, 2002; Stainthorp
and Hughes, 2000). In Hong Kong second-grade students are usually
required to finish their language assignment at home, such as reading a text
aloud, coping with new words, making sentences and preparing for dictation. Most Chinese parents in Hong Kong consider students should put
effort into finishing their homework, and will help them to prepare for tests
and examinations. Unlike in home literacy activities that focus on reading,
parents’ support activities emphasise meeting the requirements of school
homework and assignments. The findings of this study show that the more
support parents provide for their children’s homework the worse is their
children’s reading performance. As Bailey et al. (2004) suggested, collaboration between schools and parents may help parents learn more about how
to develop children’s reading proficiency in a richer and more efficient
literacy environment.

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

Finally, parents’ and children’s perspectives of instructional practices had
predictive power over and above home literacy. Although the additional
variance explained was small, these findings indicate that instructional practices contributed to text comprehension over and above the effects of home
literacy.

47

No. 80
Research in Education
48

The present study indicates that instructional practices are the most
important factor linked with students’ reading proficiency. While most
studies have used observations or interviews to capture teachers’ good
practice in elementary classrooms directly (e.g., Biddulph and Adey, 2004;
Pressley et al., 2003; Topping and Ferguson, 2005), or have measured students’ reading motivation to examine the effects of classroom instruction
indirectly (e.g., Wang and Guthrie, 2004), the present study used questionnaires to capture young children’s perspectives of instructional practices. A
few studies have demonstrated how to use questionnaires to measure young
children’s motivation (e.g., Wilson and Trainin, 2007). To ascertain children’s perspectives of instructional practices, MICI was used to capture
younger children’s views of their teachers’ instructional practices. In order
to avoid them misunderstanding the items, the questionnaire was read aloud
and explained to the children.
The findings of the present study indicated that both parents’ and children’ perspectives of teachers’ instructional practices were related to children’s reading comprehension scores. When teachers adopt various teaching
approaches to arouse the children’s interest and curiosity, children’s reading
proficiency is improved. The findings also showed that younger children can
also be motivated to read by teachers who stimulate their curiosity, encourage their decision making and acknowledge their efforts. The results are
consistent with previous research that teachers’ good practices can both
intrinsically and extrinsically motivate students to read (Pressley et al.,
2003). This study confirms that even young children become highly engaged
in reading lessons when teachers use various activities to foster their motivation. Moreover, when children are motivated to read, their reading proficiency is enhanced as a consequence.
The present study has several limitations. First, since the present study
did not collect data from observers in the classrooms, as do most studies of
teaching behaviour (e.g., Li and Rao, 2005; Pressley et al., 2003; Topping
and Ferguson, 2005), there were not enough data to explain and interpret
how teachers’ good practices were linked with the students’ reading motivation and to their reading proficiency. The author is conducting follow-up
studies examining teachers’ good practices in second-graders’ classrooms,
using the theoretical framework of MICI. Second, the findings of the present
study indicate that teachers’ good practices motivate children to read.
However, children can also be motivated with learning activities if they have
a good relationship with their teacher (Furrer and Skinner, 2003; Lam and
Law, 2007), and investigating affective support from teachers could prove
very interesting. It would be helpful to examine more deeply how teachers’
affective support related to students’ learning how to read. Finally, the
present study has not examined cultural influences on the home literacy,
reading motivation and instructional practices of Chinese children. Research
has indicated that parents from different cultural backgrounds employ different literacy practices at home in order to develop children’s reading
ability (Huntsinger et al., 2000). Biggs (1996), for example, analysed the

References
Bailey, L. B., Silvern, S. B., Brabham, E., and Ross, M. (2004), ‘The effects of interactive reading homework and parent involvement on children’s inference
responses’, Early Childhood Education Journal 32 (3), 173–8.
Baker, L. (2003), ‘The role of parents in motivating struggling readers’, Reading and
Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties 19 (1), 87–106.
Baker, L., and Scher, D. (2002), ‘Beginning readers’ motivation for reading in relation to parental beliefs and home reading experiences’, Reading Psychology 23 (4),
239–69.
Biddulph, M., and Adey, K. (2004), ‘Pupil perceptions of effective teaching and
subject relevance in history and geography at Key Stage 3’, Research in Education
71, 1–8.
Biggs, J. B. (1995), ‘Learning in the classroom’, in J. B. Biggs and D. Watkins (eds),
Classroom Learning, Singapore: Prentice-Hall, pp. 147–67.
—— (1996), ‘Western misperceptions of the Confucian-heritage learning culture’, in
D. A. Watkins and J. B. Biggs (eds), The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological
and Contextual Influences, Melbourne: CERC and ACER, pp. 45–67.
Chapman, J. W., Tunmer, W. E., and Prochnow, J. E. (2000), ‘Early reading-related
skills and performance, reading self-concept, and the development of academic
self-concept: a longitudinal study’, Journal of Educational Psychology 92 (4),
703–8.
Chow, B. W. Y., and McBride-Chang, C. (2003), ‘Promoting language and literacy
development through parent–child reading in Hong Kong pre-schoolers’, Early
Education and Development 14 (2), 233–48.
Covington, M. V., and Müller, K. J. (2001), ‘Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation:
an approach/avoidance reformulation’, Educational Psychology Review 13 (2),
157–76.
Furrer, C., and Skinner, E. (2003), ‘Sense of relatedness as a factor in children’s
academic engagement and performance’, Journal of Educational Psychology 95,
148–62.
Gonzalez, E. J., and Kennedy, A. M. (2003), PIRLS 2001 User Guide for the International Database, Chestnut Hill MA: Boston College.
Griffin, E. A., and Morrison, F. J. (1997), ‘The unique contribution of home literacy
environment to differences in early literacy skills’, Early Child Development and
Care 127–8, 233–43.
Guthrie, J. T., and Ozgungor, S. (2002), ‘Instructional contexts for reading engagement’, in C. C. Block and M. Pressley (eds), Comprehension Instruction: Researchbased Best Practices, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 275–88.
Guthrie, J. T., and Wigfield, A. (2000), ‘Engagement and motivation in reading’, in
M. L. Kamil and P. B. Mosenthal (eds), Handbook of Reading Research III,
Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 403–22.
Guthrie, J. T., Cox, K. E., Knowles, K. T., Buehl, M., Mazzoni, S. A., and Fasulo, L.
(2000), ‘Building toward coherent instruction’, in L. Baker, M. J. Dreher, and

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

particular characteristics of Confucian-heritage culture classrooms. He
found that these classrooms provided good teaching environments that
emphasised student activities and a warm learning climate, thus generating
high cognitive level outcomes. Tse et al. (2006) also indicated that the political and social changes in Hong Kong after 1997 may have influenced students’ reading attitudes and attainments. It would be worth while to examine
the effects of culture on the development of students’ motivation and
reading performance.

49

No. 80
Research in Education
50

J. T. Guthrie (eds), Engaging Young Readers: Promoting Achievement and Motivation, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 209–36.
Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau (2002), Hong Kong Attainment Test
for Chinese (Grade 2), Hong Kong: Research and Testing Group, Hong Kong
Education Department.
Huntsinger, C. S., Jose, P. E., Larson, S. L., Krieg, D. B., and Shaligram, C. (2000),
‘Mathematics, vocabulary, and reading development in Chinese American and
European American children over the primary school years’, Journal of Educational Psychology 92 (4), 745–60.
Jordan, G. E., Snow, C. E., and Porche, M. V. (2000), ‘Project EASE: the effect of
a family literacy project on kindergarten students’ early literacy skills’, Reading
Research Quarterly 35 (4), 524–46.
Lam, S-f., and Law, Y-k. (2007), ‘The roles of instructional practices and motivation
in writing performance’, Journal of Experimental Education 75 (2), 145–64.
Lam, S-f., Pak, T. S., and Ma, W. Y. K. (2007), ‘Motivating Instructional Contexts
Inventory’, in P. R. Zelick (ed.), Issues in the Psychology of Motivation, Hauppauge
NJ: Nova Science, pp. 119–36.
Lepper, M. R., Corpus, J. H., and Iyengar, S. S. (2005), ‘Intrinsic and extrinsic
motivational orientations in the classroom: age differences and academic correlates’, Journal of Educational Psychology 97 (2), 184–96.
Li, H., and Rao, N. (2005), ‘Curricular and instructional influences on early literacy
attainment: evidence from Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore’, International
Journal of Early Years Education 13 (3), 235–53.
Morrow, L. M., and Young, J. (1997), ‘A family literacy program connecting school
and home: effects on attitude, motivation, and literacy achievement’, Journal of
Educational Psychology 89 (4), 736–42.
Pressley, M., Dolezal, S. E., Raphael, L. M., Mohan, L., Roehrig, A. D., and Bogner,
K. (2003), Motivating Primary-grade Students, New York: Guilford Press.
Ryan, R. M., and Deci, E. L. (2000), ‘Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions’, Contemporary Educational Psychology 25 (1), 54–67.
Saint-Laurent, L., and Giasson, J. (2005), ‘Effects of a family literacy program adapting parental intervention to first graders’ evolution of reading and writing abilities’, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 5 (3), 253–78.
Saracho, O. N. (2002), ‘Family literacy: exploring family practices’, Early Child
Development and Care 172 (2), 113–22.
Schraw, G., Flowerday, T., and Reisetter, M. F. (1998), ‘The role of choice in reader
engagement’, Journal of Educational Psychology 90 (4), 705–14.
Senechal, M., and LeFevre, J. A. (2002), ‘Parental involvement in the development
of children’s reading skill: a five-year longitudinal study’, Child Development, 73
(2), 445–60.
Sonnenschein, S., and Munsterman, K. (2002), ‘The influence of home-based reading
interactions on five-year-olds’ reading motivations and early literacy development’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly 17 (3), 318–37.
Speece, D. L., Ritchey, K. D., Cooper, D. H., Roth, F. P., and Schatschneider, C.
(2004), ‘Growth in early reading skills from kindergarten to third grade’, Contemporary Educational Psychology 29 (3), 312–32.
Stainthorp, R., and Hughes, D. (2000), ‘Family literacy activities in the homes of
successful young readers’, Journal of Research in Reading 23 (1), 41–54.
Sweet, A. P., Guthrie, J. T., and Ng, M. M. (1998), ‘Teacher perceptions and student
reading motivation’, Journal of Educational Psychology 90 (2), 210–23.
Topping, K., and Ferguson, N. (2005), ‘Effective literacy teaching behaviours’,
Journal of Research in Reading 28 (2), 125–43.
Tse, S. K., Lam, R. Y. J., Lam, J. W. I., Chan, Y. M., and Loh, E. K. Y. (2006),
‘Attitudes and attainment: a comparison of Hong Kong, Singaporean and English
students’ reading’, Research in Education 76, 74–87.

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Hong Kong Quality Education Fund, 2003/0626,
the Hong Kong Shengben Education Research Society, and the Faculty of Education
at the University of Hong Kong. I owe my gratitude to Wai-Yip Chan and Kate
Kwok. I am also grateful to the principals, teachers and students who gave their time
to participate in the study.

Motivation, home literacy, instructional practices, and reading

Wang, J. H.Y., and Guthrie, J. T. (2004), ‘Modelling the effects of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amount of reading, and past reading achievement on
text comprehension between US and Chinese students’, Reading Research Quarterly 39 (2), 162–86.
Wigfield, A. (1997), ‘Reading motivation: a domain-specific approach to motivation’, Educational Psychologist 32 (2), special issue Motivation for Reading: Individual, Home, Textual, and Classroom Perspectives, 59–68.
Wigfield, A., and Guthrie, J. T. (1997a), ‘Relations of children’s motivation for
reading to the amount and breadth of their reading’, Journal of Educational Psychology 89, 420–32.
—— (1997b), ‘Motivation for reading: an overview’, Educational Psychologist 32,
57–8.
Wilson, K. M., and Trainin, G. (2007), ‘First-grade students’ motivation and achievement for reading, writing, and spelling’, Reading Psychology 28 (3), 257–82.

Address for correspondence
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.
E-mail yklaw@hkucc.hku.hk

51