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UK teenagers have average reading age of 10-11

Dhaal_Chawal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20346204
Why do you think this is?

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Reply 1

desdemonata

Because people genuinely ask "like, why do you even, like, read? It's so boring!"

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 2

pol pot noodles

That's rather embarrassing.
Although of course it must be stressed that just because someone can't read for **** doesn't mean that they can't comprehend, understand and express themselves intelligently.

yh....not surprised

People have problems reading their exam papers?! Sounds a bit exaggerated to me. I mean they might have reading ages of 11, but come on im sure an 11 year old can read something like "tom bought 50 apples..." etc

Reply 5

gagaslilmonsteruk

My reading age has always been 3 years ahead, meaning I have the reading ability of a 23 year old :/

Reply 6

desdemonata

Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk

My reading age has always been 3 years ahead, meaning I have the reading ability of a 23 year old :/

My reading age has always been quite a bit higher, too.

Reply 7

Futility

It pretty much says why it is in the article; because pupils do not read enough during their secondary school education and so their reading ability regresses as a result. This is probably something to do with the fact that reading has fallen out of favour as a form of entertainment amongst young people and is even seen as unfashionable. Text message abbreviations and colloquialisms probably don't help matters either.

Reply 8

ipoop

I'm not that surprised, although, thankfully it's not representative of every teenager.

Original post by desdemonata

My reading age has always been quite a bit higher, too.

Girls are known to be the better readers. :sigh:

Reply 9

internetguru

Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk

My reading age has always been 3 years ahead, meaning I have the reading ability of a 23 year old :/

How would you even know that? How do you find out your reading age?

Reply 10

gagaslilmonsteruk

Original post by internetguru

How would you even know that? How do you find out your reading age?

Got told when I was at school.

Reply 11

internetguru

Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk

Got told when I was at school.

You are at school whilst 20 years old?

Reply 12

TimmonaPortella

I would've put it closer to 5/6.

Reply 13

User1014865

Kids haven't taken advantage of technology and the knowledge and wonders it provides. They'd rather spend meaningless hours on social networking sites, the Daily Mail Website, forums (expect TSR because we're cool) and YouTube. Texting and bbming has become their new past-time. It's sad because the internet has an unlimited supply of info but we use it to 'like', 're-tweet' and 'poke'. People now have to prove they're smart by copying and pasting 'intelligent' quotes from a person who died 50 years ago. We have all this awesome stuff around us but 99% of us don't know how it's made. Technology had consumed people's lives that reading a book is no longer the norm or dare I say cool.

I really hope evolution doesn't reverse itself.

Will kids in a 100 years time be able to download oxygen, green grass and sunshine from the internet?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 14

Kolya

What does 'reading age' even mean? I've found some formulas for calculating it, but I'm still none the wiser why the formula yields an 'age'. If it doesn't relate to the average performance of someone that age, then what does it do? I suspect the BBC journalist who wrote the article doesn't know either.

Reply 15

username1002982

Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk

My reading age has always been 3 years ahead, meaning I have the reading ability of a 23 year old :/

Same. I was about 5 years ahead back in primary school, and I'm 2 years ahead now.

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Reply 16

s24a

Original post by gagaslilmonsteruk

My reading age has always been 3 years ahead, meaning I have the reading ability of a 23 year old :/

same. i think when i was about 13 i had the reading age of a 20 year old. i dont even know how they worked that out

Reply 17

username1002982

Original post by Kolya

I always thought it was the expected level for that age? As in, if you can read slowly with phonics you have reading age x, if you can read a picture book with a little bit of help, rating age y,, etc. If there are formulas,I guess I had the wrong idea?

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