thang long universitys students reading habit

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<b>THANG LONG UNIVERSITY </b>

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<b>Acknowledgement </b>

From bottom of my heart I would like express my big thanks to my supervisor, Ms. Cao Thi To Hoai who has supported me and my team throughout the semester. I am extremely grateful for her guidance and advice. With her continuous encouragement throughout the process and her efforts in checking the preliminary version of papers, our assignments now seem feasible. Furthermore, I also wish to thank the team who have worked with me the entire semester. They are such a great source of support. Finally, to all the participants who took the time to reflect on their choices in terms of reading habits, thank you for expressing your thoughts so eloquently and your inspiration.

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<b>1.6.Comments on the data. ... 4</b>

<b>1.7.Design of the study ... 5</b>

<b>I.CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL </b>

<b>II.CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 10</b>

<b>2.1.Characteristics of research subjects ... 10</b>

2.1.1. Genders ... 10

2.1.2. School year ... 10

2.1.3. Major ... 11

<b>2.2.Data collection tool ... 11</b>

<b>2.3.Data collection process ... 12</b>

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<b>2.4.Research results ... 12</b>

2.4.1. Students’ genres preference ... 12

2.4.2. Average time spend on reading in a day ... 14

2.4.3. Reading sources ... 14

2.4.4. Purpose of reading ... 15

2.4.5. Effects of reading habit on academic performance ... 16

<b>III.CHAPTER 3: SOME SOLUTIONS PROPOSED TO ENCOURAGE THANG LONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TO READ ... 17</b>

<b>3.1.University’s solutions ... 17</b>

<b>3.1.Students’ solutions ... 17</b>

3.1.1. Improve reading skills. ... 18

3.1.2. Find ways to connect reading to the daily life ... 18

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List of tables, figures and charts (optional)

<b>Table 1. Genders of respondents ... 10</b>

<b>Table 2. School year of respondents ... 10</b>

<b>Chart 1. Major of respondents ... 11</b>

<b>Chart 2. Students’ genres preference – fiction ... 13</b>

<b>Chart 3. Students’ genres preference – non-fiction ... 13</b>

<b>Chart 4. Reading time of respondents ... 14</b>

<b>Chart 5. Reading sources ... 15</b>

<b>Chart 6. Purpose of reading ... 15</b>

<b>Chart 7. Effects of reading habit on academic performance ... 16</b>

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ABSTRACT

This project focuses on the actual situation of reading habits and its consequences on academic performance of students in some selected departments in Thang Long University. A questionnaire was used for the data collection. There are also reviews of types of materials, the genres, the amount of time that students read in a week, at the same time finding out the reason students read and the students’ preference in terms of reading materials and genres. Questionnaires which was the instrument used was given to the students by public on Facebook social networks by the team. The preliminary results of the research show that the different students from different majors probably have different reading habits and preference. The findings show that 78.3% of the respondents read less than 1 hour per day, 81% of the respondents read at school only while 80,8% of them thought they have been reading less these days. The study confirmed that reading habits has influenced on academic performance and there is a relationship between reading and academic performance. Finally, this project gives a liquid explanation of the reading habits in some specific departments of Thang Long University’s students and how to encourage the good reading habits among the students.

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INTRODUCTION

<b>1.1.Rationale </b>

Research have revealed that Vietnamese only read 4,2 books per year and there is at least 26 percent of Vietnamese not reading books, 44 percent read books occasionally and only 30 percent read books daily. (2016). Only 8-10 percent of the total population are regular readers at libraries. Furthermore, Vietnam has a high number of TV channels, which provide entertainment and news programs. The internet is also popular. Vietnamese people like going to social media to chat, read the news on websites or play games. Nearly all Vietnamese parents use high-tech devices. Many of them use more than one mobile device, including smartphones and tablets. In Vietnam, children aged two or three can use smartphones or iPads.

With the rise of the internet and video game culture in the decade, more and more students are addicted to playing online video games, chatting with friends, using social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter for hours and thus the interest among students in university to read had been going down recently. The various initiative has been done to improve the habit of reading among Vietnam, especially undergraduate students.

Studying in the same education environment, university students, however, often come from different walks of like with various levels of accomplishments. It all started with the way you improve your skills at the university.

Along with the very important skills of managing time and making effective notes at university is the task of reading. As you enter university, reading takes on a central role as part of your approach to learning. It is very important to read independently and effectively to learn significant portions of a course of study. Sadly, too many students read passively, failing to construct accurate comprehension with the guidance of a purpose or goal for reading. The result is that too many students begin to dislike their reading and come to view it as a necessary evil.

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Otherwise, as mentioned above, there has been an exponential growth of information and entertainment content in the digital format in recent years. Furthermore, these resources are gaining growing attention notably among the younger generation in Vietnam, namely the university students. Such a phenomenon might change the perception of people about reading and how the utilization of printed materials facilitates reading.

Those are the reasons why the team choose to res rch the reading habit of ea Thang Long university’s students recently.

This thesis strives first to explore, later provide a piece of baseline information about the habits and attitudes among the Thang Long University Undergraduates towards reading, thus make some recommendations and solutions to engage the students in reading.

Due to limited knowledge, research time and human resources, the deficiencies in the study are inevitable. The team decided to do this survey because it does not only help the members of the research group, but it also helps Thang Long University’s students have a clearer view of their own reading habit and thus, recognize how important the reading habit will form your future lately.

<b>1.2. Objective of the study. </b>

dy can be stated as follow: The objective of the stu

- Finding out the general reading attitude of Thang Long University’s students; - Discussing the type of materials, the genres, the amount of time that students read in a week, why students read and the students preference on digital media ’

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<b>1.3. Research questions.</b>

In order to achieve the above objectives, the following research questions are addressed:

- For what reason the students read? - How long do the students read per week? - What type of materials do the students read?

- Which type of material format does the student read on? - What are solutions which can motivate students to love reading?

<b>1.4. Scope of the study. </b>

This study will be limited to the analysis of the English and Tourism Faculty students among Thang Long University students.

<b>1.5. Methodology. </b>

The study is conducted with a combination of quantitative, qualitative methods.

The data for the study will be obtained via a questionnaire survey for 120 students at Thang Long University. The participants were 120 undergraduate students from Thang Long University. They were from three different faculties; English, Tourism, Marketing.

<b>1.6. Comments on the data. </b>

- Primary data : a questionnaire survey for 120 students at Thang Long University.

- Secondary data: books, websites, articles, reports, etc.

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<b>1.7. Design of the study </b>

The study consists of three chapters, where each chapter explains different matters with the topic being discussed.

<b>Chapter I : Provides a review of the related literature, consists of </b>

theoretical study, previous study and theoretical framework

<b>Chapter II : Presents methods of collecting data, analyzing data and give </b>

the results of the survey which shows the current situation of Thang Long University’s students reading behavior.

<b>Chapter III : Solutions to motivate Thang Long University’s students to </b>

love reading.

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I. CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

<b>1.1.Review of related literature </b>

1.1.1. Research on reading

Reading is one aspect that has received increasing attention in research studies in recent years. Reading studies that were summarized and reviewed in the Journal of Educational Research (1962, 1965 to 1967) and in the Encyclopedia of Educational Research (1969) cover various aspects of reading including, sociological, psychological, physiological and pedagogical.

One of the earliest comprehensive studies on the reading habit was the one done by Jenkinson (1940). This classic survey noted that there was a difference in reading interests and tastes between the genders. Other studies carried out on gender preferences were by Fendrick (1941), Wall (1948), Pafford (1959) and Yarlott and Harpin (1971). Sharon (1974) did a study on non-book reading habits and found that the most common non-book material read among adults in the United States was the newspaper. Sharon stated that an average of 35 minutes was spent on looking at a newspaper on a typical day. According to Lau (1981), readers of higher socioeconomic status read more than those of lower status, and book reading decreases when readers get older (Sharon, 1974).

As for studies done on the purpose and motivation of reading and the attitude towards reading, various dominating motives were given. For example, information-getting, recreational, aesthetic and critical understanding of the book (Butler, 1940) and the desire to know, to be curious, to be well informed and to understand rather than to be ignorant (Gates and Jennings, 1961) were some of the motives.

The study conducted by Marcus Credé and Nathan R. Kuncel (2008) at the University of Albany reveals that reading habit, skill, and attitude inventories and constructs were found to rival standardized tests and previous grades as predictors of academic performance, yielding substantial incremental validity in predicting

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academic performance. The meta-analysis examined the construct validity and predictive validity of 10 reading habit constructs for college students. They found that reading habit inventories and constructs are largely independent of both high school grades and scores on standardized admissions tests but moderately related to various personality constructs; these results were inconsistent with previous theories. Study motivation and reading habits exhibit the strongest relationships with both grade point average and grades in individual classes. They also said that Academic specific anxiety was found to be an important negative predictor of performance. In addition, significant variation in the validity of specific inventories is shown. Scores on traditional reading habit and attitude inventories are the most predictive of performance, whereas scores on inventories based on the popular depth-of-processing perspective are shown to be least predictive of the examined criteria. Overall, reading habit and skill measures improve prediction of academic performance more than any other non-cognitive individual difference variable examined to date and should be regarded as the third pillar of academic success.

Studies on reading attitudes have not featured very prominently in reading research literature and this could be an important area of research in the sociology of reading. One study by Englander (1960) stressed the importance of attitude as an important factor in encouraging reading and he found that an improved attitude in conjunction with improved reading skill would make an individual a more effective reader.

1.1.2. Hypotheses

Generally, the research findings in the above review implied that reading is accepted as an important activity practiced for different reasons by individuals from various backgrounds. There were specific reading preferences, patterns of reading and attitudes towards reading among the individuals and these were found related to certain aspects such as gender, race and educational background.

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The following hypotheses have been formulated with the aim of examining functional relationships between selected variables concerning the habit of reading and to examine the validity of the research findings at this point of time.

Hypothesis One:

The habit of reading is significantly related to or different majors, educational background and family status and have a great effect on academic performance.

Hypothesis Two:

Reading preference (types and titles of reading materials, subject matter) is significantly related to or different from gender, race and majors.

Hypothesis Three:

The attitudes towards reading are significantly related to or different from gender, race and majors.

<b>1.2. Theoretical framework </b>

1.2.1. Reading definition

Reading is a mental process. Reading is when someone looks into a written text and starts to absorb the information from the written linguistic message. (1)

However, the reading process is not simple in its nature. It does not merely involve recognizing a single character and pronouncing it correctly or to recognize and pronounce a few characters that are arranged in a particular manner, but more importantly it is the ability to understand the meaning of these arrangements. Here, the reader is required to engage in critical and creative thinking in order to relate what he reads to what he already knows. In short, reading is a complex process that requires the mental capacity, perception and experience of an individual who is conditioned by his or her own distinct cultural environment.

1.2.2. Importance of reading

Reading has come to hold the most significant place in education as a means of communication in a highly literate society. Mann, in his study (1971), stressed that the book is still very much part of people's lives in our modern society and in spite of

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the invention of the latest audio-visual materials, the book in its ordinary conventional form is still the most important means of communication ever invented. Mann further stressed that reading is important for acquiring knowledge and information. The enrichment in knowledge would, in turn, enable one to present oneself more confidently.

There is no substitute for reading when it comes to gathering information or keeping abreast of development. Information may appear in different media but the point is that one still has to read. The great advantage of having good reading habits is that there is much more material written in all forms than that on tape and video that one would listen to, and the perception of the ear to respond to critical information is not as effective as that to the eye.

Reading contributes not only to an individual's well-being, self-development and progress but also to the whole nation and the world. As for now, reading helps gain experience from other people. Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes. Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader. It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps readers to decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations. The habit can become a healthy addiction and adds to the information available on various topics. It helps us to stay in-touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days of yore and makes us sensitive to global issues.

In summary, good readers can extract from the writing what is important for the particular task they are employed in. Educational researchers have also found a strong correlation between reading and vocabulary knowledge. In other words, students who have a large vocabulary are usually good readers. This is not very surprising, since the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read extensively, and if you read extensively you are likely to be or become a good reader.

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II. CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

<b>2.1. Characteristics of research subjects </b>

We conducted a survey of over 120 students, including 41 male students (accounting for 34.2%) and 79 female students (accounting for 65.8%). The percentage of female students surveyed accounting for most of the total number of

In 120 students, there were 14 K32 students (11.7%), 28 K31 students (accounting for 23.3%), 43 K30 students (accounting for 35.8%) and 35 K29 students (accounting for 29.2%).

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2.1.3. Major

35% of the respondents come from English department which reading is a must. By reading more fiction books, students are able to read and write more efficiently in English as a second language. Most of the respondents are in Business Administration (accounting for 32%) major which is required to read several books per semester in order to achieve a better academic result. As there a lot of sub-materials in which provide immense knowledge that may not appear in the course. Other students come from Accounting, Tourism and Marketing departments which required less reading than they do in English and Business Administration.

Chart 1. Major of respondents

<b>2.2. Data collection tool </b>

The research team reviewed the rationale, research objective and questionnaire. We've gathered individual respondents about the circumstance, the factors that affect and the choice of reading habits for students at Thang Long University. The description of the questionnaire shall include:

Part 1: Personal information of survey respondents includes: gender, major

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