The English reading habits of year 6 students in Sekolah Rendah Islam Hidayah Johor

Abstract

The introduction of English literature in Malaysia’s primary school English syllabus is hoped to foster reading habit that has been reported as declining among Malaysian children. Therefore, this research was conducted to examine the students’ readiness to accept this syllabus by exploring the current state of their reading habit or more specifically, the state of English reading habits of year 6 students in Sekolah Rendah Islam Hidayah, as well as to identify the factors that influence their decision to read in an attempt to help develop a syllabus that is tailored to solve related problems. Their level of awareness on the benefits of extensive reading was also studied. The research employed the explanatory mixed method design where quantitative data were collected first in the form of questionnaires and are more heavily weighted than qualitative data from the interview. The results showed that the majority of the respondents were average readers and only 22 percent of them were avid readers. However, the respondents did not have any problem related to reading and were highly aware of the benefits of extensive reading. Furthermore, all of the factors investigated in this study did have impact on their reading habit.