Let us begin this conversation by looking back at times in your life when you read books or any printed medium, for that matter, simply because you wanted to. It was not because of some reward, nor was it because you wanted to avoid some kind of negative consequence by not reading. What was it like then?

Chances are, you enjoyed the experience so much that you probably did not notice the time. You felt you had all the time in the world to immerse yourself in the words of the book. Most probably, the experience was so vivid in your memory that you could still remember the stories, the authors, the book series, even characters’ names, and more.

Would you say that those moments were meaningful? Rewarding, even?

If so, then why do we have to reward learners of English when they read? When by doing so, it has been said (Krashen in Bangkok, September 20, 2008), we send out the notion that reading is NOT an enjoyable activity?

I subbed for another teacher once and her reading program involved giving students stickers everytime they finish reading a story. For those students who were really keen on the stickers, they mostly chose books that didn’t have many words in it, and to them, reading was like a race. They would sit down on the rug in class, read through the pages as fast as they could, and then came to me for the stickers. I thought it was a very sad affair.

The children, on the other hand, who did not pay so much attention to the stickers would take time to read each page. They would be looking at the pictures, talking to their friends about what’s happening in the story, and laughing here and there when they see something funny. And when you start asking them questions about the story, they could tell you a lot of details about it, and would even have an opinion or two about what they are reading. They also like the stickers, but to them, it didn’t seem like a consequence of them reading. They simply enjoyed reading more than getting the stickers.

From a teacher’s point of view, there is no doubt in my mind that the second group of learners will develop into lifelong readers, and would improve in their language skills so much faster than the first group.

And so while it is great to reward effort in reading, care should be taken to ensure that learners derive pleasure from reading itself, but not do it to get a reward. The enjoyment they get from their reading, is in itself, THE reward.

Hedda has been living and teaching in Thailand the last twelve years. She has taught in a Thai private school, several language institutes, a government school and currently, is teaching in an international school in Bangkok. Beside a degree in Nursing, she holds a Master of Arts degree in English Language Teaching. Visit http://www.heddatan.com for more Teaching English Literacy articles