MALACCA MATRICULATION

COLLEGE
READING HABITS AMONG MMC STUDENTS
GROUP MEMBERS
SYAHIRAH AFIFAH BINTI AHMAD AINI
THEVIYAAH A/P THIAGARAJAN
RAJAYAASHINI A/P RAJASEGARAN
MUHD KIFLAIN BIN ZULKIFLI
LECTURER: MS. KALYMANI

1.0 INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
According to Atan Long (1982), Malaysians only read an
average of two books a year and an average Malaysian
reads for information rather than to seek knowledge
In Ambigapathy's (1993) study on "English Aliteracy
among University Students in Malaysia", the data
showed that 80% of university students are aliterates
(reluctant readers)
Dr Patricia Greenfield, Professor of psychology and
director of the UCLA, Children's Digital Media reports
that reading habit among young people have declined in
recent decades

 Reading transfers experiences to the individual so that

the reader may expand ones horizons, identify, extend
and intensify his or her interest and gain deeper
understanding of the world (Green, 2002)
In depth, it is an effective process of conscious learning
that influences the accuracy of information, attitudes,
morals, beliefs,judgments and action of readers
(Panigrahib & Panda, 1996; Eyre, 2005)
Reading is regarded as one of the most important
components in learning language and it is an essential
tool for lifelong learning for all learners (Pandian, 1997;
Mokatsi, 2005).

 This view supported Krashen (1993), who states that

through reading, readers develop a good writing style, an
adequate vocabulary and advanced grammar and
becomes excellent spellers.
This improves the language proficiency and makes the
reader to a better speaker. In their study with adult
readers, Kirsch and Guthrie (1984) found that reading
contributes significantly to job success, career
development, and ability to respond to change
reading was meant to interpret visual information of any
given codes or systems (Lone,2011). However, after that,
reading became more complex and involved the
understanding process of a whole text composed of
written signs (Fisher, 2004)

Smith and Robinson (1980) define reading as a process

for reader to understand a writers message.
Furthermore, Williams (1984) defines reading as a
process in which a reader looks at a text and
understands what has been written.He further states that
reading does not mean a person needs to understand
everything he reads because people read for different
reasons and purposes
Thus, reading can define as ability to recognize, examine
the meaning of written or printed characters, words or
sentences and understand the information within

Reading habits
Reading habit refers to the behaviour, which expresses
the likeness of reading and tastes of reading (Sangkaeo,
1999)
Shen (2006) identifies reading habits, as how often, how
much, and what the readers read
these researchers have discovered that reading habits
are correlated with gender, age, educational background,
academic performance and professional growth

Reading Attitude
Attitudes toward reading are defined as an individuals
feeling about reading
It causes learners to adopt or avoid a reading situation
(Alexander & Filler, 1976)
Reading attitude is defined by McKenna, Kear and
Ellsworth (1996) as a system of feelings related to
reading which causes the learner to approach or avoid a
reading situation.
Thus, it can be said that reading is indeed an important
habit that we should practice more in our daily lives.
As we mentioned earlier, there is a serious decline in
reading habit among youths nowdays.
Thus, we are carrying out this research to investigate the
reading habits among Malacca Matriculation College
students to test our theory.

OBJECTIVES
To find the percentage of students who prefer reading
To find the reasons why students have lack of interest in
reading
To investigate the percentage of students in MMC who
prefer fiction books as compared to non-fiction books.
To investigate whether female or male students read
more in MMC.

HYPOTHESIS
We believe that students in MMC have poor reading
habit because of their hectic lifestyle
MMC students prefer reading fiction books compared to
non-fiction
A low percentage of students in MMC take up reading as
their hobby because it improves their knowledge.
We believe that there are more female readers
compared to male readers in MMC.

2.0 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Respondent
Malacca Matriculation College students as our
respondents (students from both genders aged between
19 - 20)
30 sheets of question paper were distributed
respondent comprises both Science and Arts stream
students
Science stream students were from all the three science
modules of one year and two years programme
3 dominant races of our motherland that is Malay, Indian
and Chinese

2.2 Instrument
Questionnaire was used to view the stastic of reading
habit among Malacca Matricultaion College
it was very easy and convenient way to gain information
regarding our research
A total of 30 questionnaire were prepared by us (each
questionnaire consist of 15 questions)
The type of questions that was prepared was multiple
choice question and one open end question
respondent were given about 10 minutes to answer all
the prepared questions.

2.3 Procedures
respondent chosen were Malacca Matriculation College
students and the questionnaire were distributed equally
to 15 males and 15 females
All the respondent were given about ten minutes to
answer all the questions.
As soon as we get the questionnaire we immediately
analysed it without any further delay.

Fistly,the questionnaire was formed

to be given to respondents from the
topic chosen.

Secondly,questions were given to

the public and they had to answer
the questionnaire in a couple of
minutes.

Lastly, the data was analysed to

conclude the topic chosen

Thirdly,each one of the

questionnaire was collected
back for researching.