The relationship of students reading habits and attitudes to vocabulary performance in english

Abstract

This quantitative research aimed at finding the relationship of Students' Reading Habits and Attitudes towards reading to Vocabulary Performance in English. Using the correlation research design, the researcher gave the participants the reading habits and reading attitude questionnaires and vocabulary test which were administered to identify the level of vocabulary of the participants in every grade level. The reading attitude questionnaire was adapted from Adult Survey of Reading Attitude developed by Brooks (1996), while reading habit questionnaire was patterned from Extensive Reading Scheme made by Fong (2003) and the four researcher-made vocabulary tests were modified by the researcher and validated by the university reading experts. The descriptive statistics employed were the mean and standard deviation to measure the reading habit, student's attitude towards reading and vocabulary performance level of the students. To test the significant relationship between reading habits, attitude towards reading to the vocabulary performance of the students, Pearson's r was employed set at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that the students' reading habits are well-developed but not practiced. On the other hand, the students showed fairly positive attitude towards reading which shows minimal interest towards reading. The results revealed that regardless of the grade level, the students showed similar habits and practices towards reading. It can be surmised that the reading habits and attitudes towards reading prove to be a great determiner of their vocabulary learning. The findings demonstrate the importance of fostering reading habits and motivation to read among young readers and provide additional information on the need for vocabulary growth. It is strongly recommended that teachers must teach explicitly and provide leisure time for students to read and to love reading that involves the awareness of important aspects of learning in general, and reading in particular, through motivation, learners' attitudes and interests.