THE FACTORS INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS READING AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

Students’ reading attitudes contributes to their school performance. The students’ attitudes towards reading is a real struggle for educators.    Anderson, et al.(1985) the Commission on Reading reported that “ 50% of the children read books for an average of four minutes per day or less, … and fully 100% never reported reading any book on any day. (p.77) To  have a better understanding of the factors influencing the problems would enable the teachers to help the students and to work together with their parents for the improvements of the students’ learning. The purposes of this study were to investigate students’ attitudes toward reading and whether  the factors that influence their attitudes has a relationship with their environment, friends, family background and the invention of the new technology. The study used a descriptive quantitative method in which sample was taken randomly from students between the ages of 13-15 year olds boys and girls, in a pilot study stage. A 40-item survey adapted from Wigfield and Guthrie (1995) was administered  to find out the reading attitudes of the students at an Adventist school in Sabah Malaysia. The results show that there was a strong positive correlation between the variables Preference and Social. This suggest that students are more likely to read because of social influence through friends by using the media.