In short
- Motivation often dips in early adolescence, partly because schools offer less autonomy just as young people want more of it.
- Half of 15-year-olds across OECD countries said they read only if they have to, and daily reading of books and magazines by US teenagers has fallen sharply.
- Middle-school pupils said time to read, teachers reading aloud and good, varied materials made them want to read.
- Teenage English learners need texts that are easy in language but not childish in content, plus choice, collaboration and a reason to read.
A sticker chart that delights a nine-year-old can embarrass a fourteen-year-old. Teachers who move between primary and secondary classes see the change quickly, but it helps to know what lies behind it. This article sets out what changes in adolescence, what large surveys found about teenagers' reading, and what teenagers themselves say makes them want to read. It then reports a classroom study with thirteen-year-olds and compares what tends to work at each age. The evidence on teenagers reading in a foreign language is thinner, and the article says where.
How is motivating teenagers to read different?
Teenagers want more control over what they read, content that fits how they see themselves, and reasons to read that matter to them. Their time is also contested by phones and screens far more than a young child's. What works best for them is real choice, good and varied materials, time to read in class, and reading that connects to other work. Rewards designed for young children often do little.
Two points of caution. Teenagers are not simply harder to motivate; many read a great deal. And most of the research below comes from first-language readers in the United States and other OECD countries. Where a finding is about English learners, the article says so.
What changes in adolescence
Eccles and colleagues (1993) asked why motivation and self-perceptions often decline in early adolescence. Their answer was stage-environment fit. They argued that some of the negative changes come from a mismatch between the needs of developing adolescents and the opportunities their schools and homes give them. They described how this mismatch develops in both settings, and how more fitting environments could be created.
For reading, the practical point is simple. As pupils get older, they need more say, not less. A class that moves from free choice in primary school to one set text for the whole year may lose readers for reasons that have little to do with reading.
Age also seems to change how rewards land. Deci, Koestner and Ryan (1999) pooled 128 experiments on rewards. Tangible rewards tended to be more harmful for children than for college students. Verbal rewards, such as praise, tended to be less helpful for children than for college students. Most of the children in those studies were preschool or elementary pupils, and only six studies used high school students. The picture for teenagers is incomplete. Do Reading Certificates Motivate Students? discusses what this means for rewards.
What surveys found about teenagers' reading
The largest picture comes from PISA, which tests 15-year-olds. OECD (2021) reports that in 2018, about half of students across OECD countries (49%) agreed that they read only if they have to. That was about 13 percentage points more than in 2000. More than a quarter (28%) agreed that reading is a waste of time, and about a third said they rarely or never read books.
Screens are part of the story. Twenge, Martin and Spitzberg (2019) analysed nationally representative surveys of over a million US pupils in grades 8, 10 and 12 from 1976 to 2016. By 2016, the average 12th grader spent about six hours a day online, texting and on social media. The share of 12th graders who read a book or magazine every day fell from 60% in the late 1970s to 16%.
| Survey | Who | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| OECD (2021), PISA 2018 | 15-year-olds across OECD countries | 49% agreed they read only if they have to, about 13 points more than in 2000 |
| OECD (2021), PISA 2018 | 15-year-olds across OECD countries | About a third rarely or never read books |
| Twenge, Martin and Spitzberg (2019) | US pupils in grades 8, 10 and 12, 1976 to 2016 | Daily reading of a book or magazine by 12th graders fell from 60% to 16% |
| Twenge, Martin and Spitzberg (2019) | US pupils in grades 8, 10 and 12, 1976 to 2016 | 12th graders spent about six hours a day online, texting and on social media by 2016 |
Read these numbers with care. They are self-reports, and the OECD warns that answers about enjoyment are influenced by culture and response style, so comparisons within a country are safer than between countries. Even so, the direction is clear. Reading for pleasure now competes with a great deal else in a teenager's day.
What teenagers say makes them want to read
Ivey and Broaddus (2001) asked pupils directly. They surveyed 1,765 sixth-grade students in 23 schools in the United States and interviewed 31 of them. Three findings stand out:
- Time to read and being read to. Pupils valued independent reading time and their teacher reading aloud as part of lessons.
- The reading itself. Asked what they liked most, pupils talked about reading and their personal reasons for it more than social aspects or activities around reading.
- Good, varied materials. Asked what made them want to read at school, pupils stressed the quality and range of reading materials more than the setting or other people.
The authors also found problems of access, and a lack of varied reading materials at school. This corrects a common assumption. Peer influence matters to teenagers, but these pupils did not say that social activities made them want to read. They pointed to time, the teacher's voice and the books themselves.
School reading and free reading may also feed each other. OECD (2021) reports that, in every participating country, students who had read fiction for school in the previous month were more likely to say they had read fiction because they wanted to. That is an association, not a proven cause.
What works with teenagers in the classroom
Guthrie and Klauda (2014) tested a set of supports with 615 seventh-grade pupils in four-week units of literacy and history. The supports gave pupils choice, showed why the reading mattered, built in collaboration and helped pupils succeed, alongside teaching for comprehension. Compared with traditional teaching, the program raised comprehension of informational texts. Pupils' perceptions of these supports were linked to gains in intrinsic motivation, valuing of reading, perceived competence and dedication, more markedly than in traditional teaching.
For teenagers learning English, level is a particular problem. Takase (2007) followed 219 female Japanese high school students through a year of extensive reading in English. The strongest influences on their English reading were intrinsic motivation for reading in Japanese and in English. Yet several keen readers of Japanese were not motivated to read in English, because the gap between what they could read in each language was too wide.
So a teenage English learner may face texts that are either too hard or too young. Graded readers written for teenagers and adults help here. Graded Readers vs Authentic Texts weighs the options.
Teenagers and young learners side by side
The table sums up what tends to differ with age. Where no study compares the two groups directly, the row says so.
| Aspect | Younger learners (about 8 to 11) | Teenagers (about 12 to 16) | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Say over reading | Choice within a small set chosen by the teacher | Choice matters more as the wish for autonomy grows | Teenagers: Eccles and colleagues (1993); Guthrie and Klauda (2014). Younger: practice |
| Rewards | Tangible rewards carry more risk of lowering interest | Few studies; praise and records of reading are safer than prizes | Deci, Koestner and Ryan (1999) |
| Content | Simple stories on familiar topics | Easy language but grown-up themes | Teenagers: Takase (2007), on the gap between L1 and L2 reading. Younger: practice |
| What draws them in | Not compared directly here | Time to read, read-alouds, varied materials | Ivey and Broaddus (2001), sixth grade |
| Competition | Not compared directly here | Team and school contests avoid exposing individuals | Practice; no direct study |
Practical steps for a teenage English class
These steps apply the findings above. They have not been tested as a package with English learners.
- Give real choice. Offer a range of levelled stories and let pupils swap a book they dislike.
- Protect reading time in class. Pupils in the sixth-grade survey valued it, and many teenagers will not read at home.
- Read aloud. Read the first chapter of a new book aloud to start pupils off.
- Show why it matters. Link stories to topics pupils study or care about.
- Let them talk about books. Short pair recommendations and team goals add collaboration.
- Retire the sticker chart. Use private feedback and a record of reading instead.
Classroom example: a Year 9 B1 class
A class of 26 pupils aged 14 starts each Monday with ten minutes of the teacher reading aloud from a new graded reader for older learners. Pupils then choose from five B1 stories for the week, on topics they voted for. Wednesday's lesson ends with pupils recommending their story to a partner in two sentences. The class competes as a team against the parallel class on stories finished and checked, and no individual ranking is shown.
Contests between classes or schools let teenagers compete without exposing one another. What Are the Benefits of Inter-School Reading Competition? sets out the case. For teenagers who avoid reading altogether, start with strategies for reluctant readers.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, students enrol themselves in the live session they can attend, and every story is levelled to the CEFR from A1 to C2. In the daily run, scores add up by school, and public leaderboards show school-level results only. A student sees their own standing privately inside the app. School packs run the same daily game inside one school, class against class.
The core principle: Give teenagers more say as they get older, not less. Choice, good materials, time to read and a reason to read matter more to them than prizes.
See it in iRead: In the daily run, students on the same global pack read the same levelled story each day. Scores add up by school, and public leaderboards never show individual students.
See the daily competitionKey takeaway
Teenagers read when they have a say, good materials, time and a reason. Adapt the texts and the rewards to their age, and keep comparisons between teams, not individuals.
Frequently asked questions
How do you get teenagers to read?
Give them real choice from a range of good, varied texts at their level, and protect time to read in class. Read the opening of a new book aloud and link reading to topics they care about. Sixth-grade pupils surveyed by Ivey and Broaddus (2001) valued exactly these things.
Why do teenagers stop reading for pleasure?
Several reasons combine. Schools often give less autonomy just as teenagers want more, according to Eccles and colleagues (1993). Screens take up much more time: by 2016, US 12th graders spent about six hours a day online, texting and on social media, and far fewer read every day.
Do reading rewards work for teenagers?
Few reward studies involved teenagers. In the pooled experiments, tangible rewards tended to harm interest more in children than in college students, so prizes may do less damage with age, but there is no evidence that they help. Private feedback and records of reading are safer.
What should teenage English learners read?
Texts that are easy in language but not childish in content. Takase (2007) found that some keen readers of Japanese were not motivated to read in English because of the gap between their reading levels. Graded readers written for older learners close that gap.
Should teenagers and younger children use the same reading program?
The same structure can serve both, but adjust the texts, the rewards and the comparisons. Teenagers need grown-up themes at an easy level, more choice, and team or school contests rather than individual charts. Younger learners can work with a smaller choice and simpler stories.
Sources
- Eccles, J. S., Midgley, C., Wigfield, A., Buchanan, C. M., Reuman, D., Flanagan, C., & Mac Iver, D. (1993). Development during adolescence: The impact of stage-environment fit on young adolescents' experiences in schools and in families. American Psychologist, 48(2), 90-101. doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.2.90
- OECD (2021). 21st-Century Readers: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World. PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris. doi.org/10.1787/a83d84cb-en
- Twenge, J. M., Martin, G. N., & Spitzberg, B. H. (2019). Trends in U.S. adolescents' media use, 1976-2016: The rise of digital media, the decline of TV, and the (near) demise of print. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(4), 329-345. doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000203
- Ivey, G., & Broaddus, K. (2001). "Just plain reading": A survey of what makes students want to read in middle school classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(4), 350-377. doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.36.4.2
- Guthrie, J. T., & Klauda, S. L. (2014). Effects of classroom practices on reading comprehension, engagement, and motivations for adolescents. Reading Research Quarterly, 49(4), 387-416. doi.org/10.1002/rrq.81
- Takase, A. (2007). Japanese high school students' motivation for extensive L2 reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 19(1), 1-18. doi.org/10.64152/10125/66622
- Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627-668. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627