A survey on students’ perception on leisure reading in English among form one students in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan La Salle, Klang / Aliya Han Ira Hamirudin

This study intends to find out Form One students’ perception on leisure reading in English. In addition, the study was designed to investigate the students’ involvement in reading in general and leisure reading, and to determine whether the students read English materials and the genres that the students read. The tool in gathering the data was questionnaire. The research questions are: Do the students read English written texts?, Are the students involved in reading activity?, Are the students involved in leisure reading activity?, Why are the students involved in leisure reading activity?, Where do the students read?, What are the kinds of books that the students read?. The questionnaire was distributed among 36 Form 1 E students of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan La Salle, Klang. The study indicated that 92 % of the students read non-English materials and English materials a minimum of 30 minutes per week. 59 % read English materials more than 4 hours per week. A large number (83 %) of the students indicated that they are involved in leisure reading activity. In term of the places where the students often spend time on reading, 75 % of the students like to read at home. In addition, the findings indicate that ‘Mystery’ is ranked as the top genre among the students as 56% of them chose this genre. J.K. Rowling and Enid Blyton are ranked as the top two in the students favourite writers’ list. 33% of the students chose J.K. Rowling, while 19% chose Enid Blyton. Aside from books, the students read a lot of magazines and newspapers. The favoured magazines among the students are ‘Galaxie’ and ‘Reader’s Digest’; 31 % read ‘Galaxie’ and 28 % read ‘Reader’s Digest’. It was found that some of the students read more than one newspaper. The most favoured newspaper is ‘The Star’ (92 % read this newspaper) and followed by New Straits Times, The Sun and Malay Mail. Most (70 %) of the students obtained English books through buying from the bookstores. Half (50 %) of the students indicated that their purpose in reading in English is to improve English. It also seems that parents play a significant role in motivating students to read as 61 % said that they were motivated by their parents. The findings show that the students’ perception towards leisure reading in English is generally positive. Although most (78 %) of the students regard reading in English as a method to improve their grade in English subject, one-third (33 %)of them genuinely love to read in English. 70 % of the students indicated that their problem in reading in English is understanding difficult words. Two students stated that they have no problem in reading as they always have dictionary in hand. The students’ common solution (75 %) to overcome their problems in reading is through utilizing dictionary. It is hoped that
the outcomes of the study will be beneficial to the teachers in assisting their students to overcome reading problems.