The year 2010 is the National Year of Reading (NYR), and reading through lives has gathered attention.  Reading should be various in fields and contents, and different printed media are available  recently including newspapers, books, the internet and electronic books. 

 Associate Professor Naomi Koda at Graduate School of Art, Tohoku University recently spoke at the International Reading Association 23rd World Congress on Reading, held July 12-15 in Auckland, New Zealand. The title of the presentation was Reading comprehension, text organization, and thinking styles: A five-country survey.  According to this research, willingness to solve problems helps Japanese understanding, while understanding procedure in a whole sentence is a key to solve problems for Chinese people.  This shows that there are differences among nationalities about what can overcome difficulty of understanding.   Such study will help promote reading as an important way to expand one’s own world from a young age through a late mature stage. 

 The International Reading Association is a community of nearly 70,000 reading professionals in 100 countries united by the mission to promote higher levels of literacy and communication by advancing the quality of reading instruction and research worldwide. The association has provided a bridge between classrooms and researches by taking actions such as helping to increase literacy and fostering educators in the world.

[Contact]
Associate Professor Naomi Koda
Graduate School of Art, Tohoku University recently
Address: 27-1 Kawauchi Aoba-ku Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8576, Japan
TEL: +81-22-795-5988, FAX: +81-22-795-5986
E-mail: nkoda*sal.tohoku.ac.jp (Replace * with @)