MALACCA MATRICULATION COLLEGEREADING HABITS AMONG MMC STUDENTSGROUP MEMBERSSYAHIRAH AFIFAH BINTI AHMAD AINITHEVIYAAH A/P THIAGARAJANRAJAYAASHINI A/P RAJASEGARANMUHD KIFLAIN BIN ZULKIFLI

LECTURER: MS. KALYMANI

1.0 INTRODUCTIONOVERVIEWAccording 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 knowledgeIn 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 changereading 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 purposesThus, reading can define as ability to recognize, examine the meaning of written or printed characters, words or sentences and understand the information within

Reading habitsReading 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 readthese researchers have discovered that reading habits are correlated with gender, age, educational background, academic performance and professional growth

Reading AttitudeAttitudes toward reading are defined as an individuals feeling about readingIt 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.

OBJECTIVESTo 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.

HYPOTHESISWe 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 METHODOLOGY2.1 RespondentMalacca Matriculation College students as our respondents (students from both genders aged between 19 - 20)30 sheets of question paper were distributedrespondent comprises both Science and Arts stream studentsScience stream students were from all the three science modules of one year and two years programme3 dominant races of our motherland that is Malay, Indian and Chinese

2.2 InstrumentQuestionnaire was used to view the stastic of reading habit among Malacca Matricultaion Collegeit was very easy and convenient way to gain information regarding our researchA 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 questionrespondent were given about 10 minutes to answer all the prepared questions.

2.3 Proceduresrespondent chosen were Malacca Matriculation College students and the questionnaire were distributed equally to 15 males and 15 femalesAll 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.

Thirdly,each one of the questionnaire was collected back for researching.

Lastly, the data was analysed to conclude the topic chosen