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deal with the demands of today’s world” (Krashen 2004: x). The important benefits of
reading engagement should be taken into serious account by schools and educators:
These benefits of engaged reading for achievement are real and cannot be
explained away as an artefact of another factor. A range of predictive studies
documents that engaged reading increases achievement when such factors as
intelligence, home income, ethnicity, and school grades are statistically
controlled. In other words, if teachers can enable students to become ‘self-
starters’ as readers, they increase the children’s chances of success in immediate
and distant futures, and this benefit accrues for a wide range of students. (Baker
et al, 2000: 9)
Schools, teachers and librarians who promote reading effectively
Most contemporary texts seem to convert about the characteristics of successful
reading promotion. Regardless of the methodology they use, most scholars seem to
arrive in the same, or quite similar, conclusions. Miller argues that what needs to be
done to achieve successful reading promotion should be “common sense” for
experienced readers: “Anyone who calls herself or himself a reader can tell you that it
starts with encountering great books, heartfelt recommendations, and a community of
readers who share this passion” (Miller,2009: 4).
It may sound as common sense, but in practice the overarching majority of schools and
their staff place much more emphasis on other aspects of reading, such as testable and
measurable reading skills. Miller comments: “When did reading become such a
technocratic process that we lost the books and the children in the debate? I am
convinced that if we show students how to embrace reading as a lifelong pursuit and not
just a collection of skills for school performance, we will be doing what I believe we have
