A Survey study on the Reading habits among English Major Students of Sherubtse College: Issues and Perspectives

Authors

  • Rinchen Dorji Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan, Bhutan

Abstract

The practice of reading both for academic purposes and pleasure is largely agreed to have diminished over the years mainly because of advancements in social media technology. This paper thus examined the reading habits in general among English major students at Sherubtse College, Royal University of Bhutan. For data collection, a questionnaire with nine items was designed and administered to 106 English major students with gender and the year of study as the moderating variables. The questionnaire investigated the students’ general attitudes towards reading, the reasons they read, the average time they spend on reading, the challenges they faced in reading, and the effects of social media on their reading habits. In addition, informal interviews were conducted to verify and triangulate the responses received from the participants. Both these quantitative and qualitative data revealed interesting insights into the reading habits of the students in question. The results are discussed and recommendations provided at the end.

References

Akabuike, I. G &Asika, I.E (2012). Reading Habits of Undergraduates and their Academic Performances:

Issues and Perspectives. African Research Review 6 (2): 246-257.

Alexander, J.E. & Filler, R.C. (1976). Attitudes and reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED126491.pdf

Anyira, I. E. & Udem, O. K (2020). "Effect of Social Media Addiction on Reading Culture: A Study of

Nigerian Students". Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 4170.

Arthur, B., Agyekum, B.O., Koji, D.B (2018). Exploring the Effects of Social Media on the Reading Culture of Students in Tamale Technical University. Journal of Education and Practice 9 (7): 47-56

Askov, E.N. & Fischbach, T.J. (1973). An investigation of primary pupils’ attitude towards reading. The

Journal of Experimental Education, 41(3): 1–7.

Baker, L., Scher, D., Mackler, K (1997). Home and family influences on motivations for reading. Educational Psychologist. 32 (2): 69-82

Blackwood, C, Flowers, S.S., Rogers, J.S., & Staik, I.M. (1991). Pleasure reading by college students: Fact or fiction? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association Conference, Lexington.

Brydolf. C (2007). Minding my Space: Balancing the Benefits and Risks of Students’ Online Social Networks. Education Digest. 73(2): 4-6.

Burchfield, C. M., & Sappington, J. (2000). Compliance with required reading assignments. Teaching of Psychology, 27 (1): 58–60.

Cabral, A.P. & Tavares, J. (2002). Practicing college reading strategies. The Reading Matrix 2(3): 1-16.

www.readingmatrix.com/articles/cabral_tavares/article.pdf

Celik, B. (2019). A Study on the Factors Affecting Reading and Reading Habits of Preschool Children. International Journal of English Linguistics. 10 (1): 111-114.

Cheah, Y.M. (1998). Nurturing the Singapore readers. Reading, 32 (1): 33-34

Chettri, K., & Rout S. K. (2013). Reading habits - An overview. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 14(6): 13-17.

Clump, M.A., Bauer, H., & Bradley, C. (2004). The extent to which psychology students read textbooks: A multiple class analysis of reading across the psychology curriculum. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 31 (3).

Coles, M. & Hall, C. (2002). Gendered readings: Learning from children’s reading choices. Journal of Research in Reading, 25(1): 96–108.

Devarajan, G. (1989). Reading interests of secondary school students. Users approach to information in libraries. New Delhi: Ess Ess.

Florence, F.O, Adesola, O.A, Hameed, B. A &Adewumi, O.M (2017). A Survey on the Reading Habits among

Colleges of Education Students in the Information Age. Journal of Education and Practice 8 (8).

Fusco, E. (1986). Reading interests and cognitive development. SIGNAL, 11(2): 1-3.

Gallik, J.D (1999). Do They Read for Pleasure? Recreational Reading Habits of College Students. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 42 (6): 480-488.

Greaney, B. (1986). Parental Influences on Reading. International Literacy Association and Wiley. 39 (8): 813-818

Green, P. (2002). Teacher’s intervention in children’s reading. Journal of Child Hood Education, 46 (3): 147-149

Gunasekara, P. W. (2002). Education in Sri Lanka. An Overview. Colombo. Deepani Printers.

Hoeft, M. E (2012). Why University Students Don't Read: What Professors Can Do To Increase Compliance. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 6 (2): 1-19.

Jose, G.R & Raja, B.W.D (2011). Teachers' Role in Fostering Reading Skill: Effective and Successful Reading. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 1 (4): 1-10.

Kalpidon, M., Cosin, D & Morris, J (2011). The Relationship Between Facebook and the well-being of Undergraduate College Student Cyber Psychology Behaviour and social networking 14(4): 183- 18.

Kirschner, P. A., & Karpinski, A. C. (2010). Facebook® and academic performance. Computers in human behavior, 26(6): 1237-1245.

Kush, J.C. & Watkins, M.W. (1996). Long-term stability of children’s attitudes towards reading. The Journal of Educational Research, 89(5): 315–319.

Le, T.T.H., Tran, T., Trinh, T.P.T., Nguyen, C.T., Nguyen, T.P.T., Vuong, T.T.,… Vuong, Q.H. (2019). Reading Habits, Socioeconomic Conditions, Occupational Aspiration and Academic Achievement in Vietnamese Junior High School Students. Sustainability. file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/sustainability-11-05113.pdf

Loan, F. A. (2009). Impact of New Technology on Reading Habits: A Glimpse on the World Literature. http://eprints.rclis.org/20084/1/NCERT.pdf

Loan, F.A. (2012). Reading habits of rural and urban College students in the 21st century. Journal of Library Philosophy and Practice: Libraries at University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Loving M. & Ochoa, M (2010). Facebook as a Classroom Solution. New Library World. 112 (3 & 4): 121- 130.

Manohar, L (2016). Impact of Reading Behaviour on Teacher Efficacy among Arts and Science College Teachers – A Predictive Model. IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education (IOSR-JRME), 6 (1): 13-20

McCreath, E.E. (1975). An investigation of reading habits, reading interests, and their relationship to reading improvement of students at an urban open door junior college. In G. McNinch & W. Miller (Eds.), Reading: Convention and inquiry (pp. 100-106). Clemson, SC: National Reading Conference

McKenna, M.C., Kear, D.J. & Ellsworth, R.A. (1995). Children’s attitudes toward reading: A national survey.

Reading Research Quarterly, 30(4): 934–956.

Noor, N. M. (2011). Reading Habits and Preferences of EFL Post Graduates: A Case Study. Indonesian

Journal of Applied Linguistics, I (1).

http://balaibahasa.upi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/01_Noorizah-Reading_habit-edited.

Oseman, S. (1977) Factors Associated with international Students ‘Academic Achievement. Journal of instructional Psychology. 24 (1): 133.

Paul, J., Baker, V., Cochran, J. (2012). Effect of Online Social Networking on Student Academic Performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(6): 2117-2127.

Philip, A. (2009). The Reading Habit: A Missing Link between Literacy and Libraries. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.559.5636&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Sainsbury, M. & Schagen, I. (2004). Attitudes to reading at ages nine and eleven. Journal of Research in

Reading, 27(4): 373–386.

Scales, A.M. & Rhee, O. (2001). Adult reading habits and patterns. Reading Psychology, 22: 175-203.

Smith, M.C. (1990). A longitudinal investigation of reading attitude development from childhood to adulthood. The Journal of Educational Research, 83: 215–219.

Stenberg, C. (2001). Reading research in Sweden - a short survey. 67th IFLA Council and General Conference August 16-25, 2001 Boston. http://archive.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/papers/181-113e.pdf

Synder, G.V. (1981). Some patterns in reading habits of intermediate grade children. Reading-Canada- Lecture, 1: 65-72.

Thompson, B. G. (1975). Sex differences in reading attainment. Educational Researcher 18: 16–23

Tobgay, T. (2016). The State of the Nation. 7th session of the second parliament of Bhutan. Thimphu

Wagner, S. (2002). The reading habits of teams. Journal of Reading Today, 46: 3-4.

Wang, Q., Chen, W., & Liang, Y. (2011). The effects of social media on college students. https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/mba_student/5

Witty, P. (1961). A study of pupil's interest, grades 9, 10, 11, 12. Education, 82: 100-110

Yusof, N.M (2010). Influence of family factors on reading habits and interest among level 2 pupils in national primary schools in Malaysia. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 5: 1160–1165

Downloads

Published

2020-12-23

Issue

Section

Articles