Swedish upper secondary pupils' reading habits and reading comprehension in English in the digital age

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate if the levels of attainment in national reading comprehension tests in English reflect the types of reading texts which pupils encounter inside and outside the classroom. A further aim is to find out if there is a gender distinction between boys’ and girls’ levels of reading comprehension which can be related to existing reading habits. A questionnaire was completed by upper secondary school pupils of Englishin order to investigate the threeresearch questions. The questionnaire involved 10 questions about the pupils’ reading habits. Furthermore, two reading comprehension tests that were created by The Swedish National Agency for Education were also used and distributed to the pupils to complete. The pupils’ results from the reading comprehension test were used by the author to answer the three research questions thatthis study is based on. The results of this study showthat the types of texts the pupils encounter inside and outside the classroom affect their results on the reading comprehension tests. Regarding the second question that this study investigates, there is no gender distinction between boys’ and girls’ levels of reading comprehension, whichcan be related to existing reading habits. Concerning the third research question in this study, the results show that both girls and boys spend more time on social media than reading English fiction. These results might indicate the fact that technology such as the Internet and social media are very popular and important in the pupils’lives. Moreover, technology and theuse of social mediamightas well affect the pupils’ reading habits and reading comprehension.