Musical mediation and reading promotion agents that influence adolescent reading habits

Abstract

This work is part of two research projects of the Plan Propio de Investigacion of the University of Cadiz and aims to analyze the relationship between reading habits and music in Secondary Education. This general aim is divided into two specific objectives that arise from the hypotheses which were set out, according to the two phases of analysis that we have defined. Firstly, we propose to analyze the reading progression of the adolescent in the transition between primary and secondary education, since it is based on the widespread idea of the change in reading habits in this educational period. Secondly, we propose to determine if students prefer to read with music and to specify which genres they listen to while reading, as we consider that this is becoming a popular practice and that there are genres and types of music that are shared in the musical universe of the adolescent. The methodology we have followed for this research is divided into two levels: on the one hand, according to the first phase of analysis, we will focus on participants from Cadiz (N = 666); other places in Andalusia (Granada and Almeria) (N = 78); and areas of the rest of Spain (Aragon, Catalonia, Castile-La Mancha and Castile and Leon) (N = 114). On the other hand, in the last phase, we will take into account international participants: Braga, Portugal (N = 95); Lodz, Poland (N = 67); and Valparaiso, Chile (N = 60), to contrast both the national and international results under the umbrella of Cadiz data. The main findings have led us to consider teacher formation in methodologies that combine, from an intertextual and interdisciplinary perspective, music and literature for the creation of permanent reading habits and a further impact on the formation of literary readers.