PIRLS 2001 in Brief

Reading Literacy Defined

PIRLS 2001 measures reading abilities at a time in students' schooling when most have learned how to read and are now using reading to learn.

PIRLS 2001 defines reading literacy as the following: The ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Young readers can construct meaning from a variety of texts. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers, and for enjoyment (Campbell et al., 2001, p.3).

In PIRLS 2001, purposes of reading refers to the two types of reading that account for most of the reading young students do, both in and out of school: (1) reading for literary experience, and (2) reading to acquire and use information. In the assessment, narrative fiction is used to assess students' ability to read for literary experience, while a variety of informational texts are used to assess students' ability to acquire and use information while reading. The PIRLS 2001 assessment contains an equal proportion of text assessing each purpose.

Processes of comprehension refer to ways in which readers construct meaning from the text. Readers focus on and retrieve specific ideas, make inferences, interpret and integrate ideas and information, and examine or evaluate text features.

Purposes of reading and processes of comprehension are the foundations of the assessment. Figure 2 portrays the interaction of the two: Each process is assessed within each purpose of reading.