Reading Attitudes of South East Asian Countries

Abstract

South East Asian states as developing countries, except Singapore, are underperform in most studies of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), especially in Reading subject. Therefore, this paper aims to examine reading attitude which is assumed has correlation with South East Asian students’ achievement in reading. It refers to PISA 2009 questionnaire results and reading score. In PISA 2009, four South East Asian countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand participated in the study. In comparison, Australian and Korean students’ achievement in PISA 2009 is counted for in order to compare reading attitude and reading achievement score. Reading attitudes are one of important factors determining students’ performance in reading. As PISA 2009 results show, there are positive reading attitudes in South East Asian countries. However, these positive attitudes have insignificant impact on reading achievement as the students have lower OECD average score in PISA 2009 reading test (except for Singapore). Therefore, this paper aims to have another insight about related factors that have contribution to PISA reading score in relation with reading attitudes. In the paper, theory of planned behavior provides a useful framework for examining reading attitudes in South East Asian countries.