Abstract
Effective reading is essential for success in acquiring a foreign language (Mikulecky 2008). Students have to read a wide range of textbooks and related materials at the tertiary level. Lack of adequate reading habit is, therefore, bound to impede students’ progress towards mastery of a foreign language. This study investigated reading habits and attitudes on reading of the undergraduate students attending ESL courses at a public university in Malaysia. For data collection, a 35 item questionnaire based on the Adult Survey of Reading Attitude (ASRA) from the work of Smith (1991) were designed and administered on around 314 students. The questionnaire investigated the students’ general habit, preferences, and attitude towards reading. This study was based on the following research questions: What are the reading habits of these undergraduate students? What are the attitudes of these students to reading as a useful language learning skill? What are the reading preferences of these undergraduate students? The research findings through qualitative analysis revealed that the undergraduate students had an overall positive attitude towards reading in spite of their minimal enjoyment of it and the resulting anxieties and difficulties they face. Based on the findings, few recommendations were made to improve reading among those undergraduates.
Highlights
Tindale (2003) defines reading as a complex cognitive task, seen variously as being dependent on either: i. information processing/decoding skills; ii. background knowledge; iii. an interaction between bottom-up and top- down skills or; iv. a complex mix of top- down and bottom-up skills combined with social experiences.Reading plays a significant role in second/foreign language acquisition
This study investigated reading habits and attitudes on reading of the undergraduate students attending ESL courses at a public university in Malaysia
This study was based on the following research questions: What are the reading habits of these undergraduate students? What are the attitudes of these students to reading as a useful language learning skill? What are the reading preferences of these undergraduate students? The research findings through qualitative analysis revealed that the undergraduate students had an overall positive attitude towards reading in spite of their minimal enjoyment of it and the resulting anxieties and difficulties they face
Summary
Tindale (2003) defines reading as a complex cognitive task, seen variously as being dependent on either: i. information processing/decoding skills (bottom-up skills); ii. background knowledge (top- down skills); iii. an interaction between bottom-up and top- down skills or; iv. a complex mix of top- down and bottom-up skills combined with social experiences (new literary approaches).Reading plays a significant role in second/foreign language acquisition. English came into being in Malaysia during the seventeenth century when the British came and colonized the country Their presence gave the English language pre-eminence in the government, business and social arenas (Ahmed, 2015). According to the 1982 National Literacy Survey carried out by the National Library (cited in Inderjit, 2014), Malaysians only read an average of one to two pages a year. Another survey by the same institute in 1996 showed the reading habits among Malaysians have improved to two books per year. A recent survey in 2006 by Malaysian National Library showed that the literacy rate has slightly decreased to 92% from 93% in 1996
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