Uncovering print and digital literacies: what matters to undergraduates / Zuriani Yaacob... [et al.]

Reading has always been considered a crucial contributing factor in human advancement which is at
the same time affecting one’s intellectual and emotional growth. However in Malaysia, reading culture has
seemingly not significantly changed as it was observed in the study of Pandian (2000) that only 20% are
‘regular readers’ and the rest of Malaysian populations are ‘reluctant readers’. It was also found that when they
were preparing for examinations, only then they spent time reading various materials. Nevertheless, with rapid
development in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) taking place, it has impacted education
system centred particularly on reading exercise. This is established by Hooper & Herath (2014) that reading
habit has been affected by the technology which has changed the pattern of brain absorption of information.
However, adolescents are reported devoting much more time reading digital resources and spending extra time
to skim, download and browse information on the Internet (Liu, 2005). Therefore, current study aimed
primarily at comparing reading habit percentage between print and screen-based of the respondents as well as
investigating relationship between numbers and types of print-based materials. Quantitative data were collected
and a questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. A total of 61 diploma students from Universiti Teknologi
MARA (UiTM) Pahang Branch, Raub Campus, Malaysia were chosen and Spearman’s Rank Correlation
Coefficient was employed to analyse their views. The results revealed students’ preferences in using traditional
paper materials and how ICT has presented possibilities in encouraging students’ reading habits to develop. It is
anticipated that future researches in the area will benefit from the findings and suggestions provided in this
study.