Polish and French Secondary School Students in Search of a Guide around the World of Books

Abstract

Reading is an personalised skill, specific to every person. The experiences shaped during the reading process build one’s intellectual and emotional system of values and influence one’s behaviour. Reading broadens our knowledge about the world, develops our imagination, shapes our hierarchy of values and sensitizes us to other people’s experiences and feelings. Thus, it is crucial who recommends a good book.

The results of research regarding reading interests presented in this article were conducted in the 2005-2008 school year among first and final grade high school students in three groups from the Radom region (the countryside, a small and a big city), among first and final grade Students in two groups from the Ile-de-France region (a small and a big city). Four hundred and fifty-five Polish students and two hundred and thirty-six French students were surveyed using a diagnostic group administered questionnaire. The article presents the respondent’s answers to one of the open-ended questions included in the questionnaire: How do you learn about books that are worth reading? The question was directed to all respondents and was connected with reading different books. In both types of research, Polish and French, these matters were treated in the same way. The answers of secondary school students were compared in two separate types of research which depict reading interests of contemporary teenagers in united Europe.