DEBBY VERONIKA. E 2021, Students’ Attitude Toward Reading : A Case Study of Two Fourth Semester English Education Department Students in Academic Year 2019/2020. S1 Thesis. English Education Department. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Mulawarman University. Samarinda. Advisor: (1) Dr. Yuni Utami Asih, M. Pd
Reading attitude has always been associated with the readers’ feeling towards reading. Students who doesn’t show positive attitudes toward reading are more likely doesn’t enjoy and fails the activity, and may have no interest on doing it in the future (Seitz ,2010). Reading attitude is considered as the key factor that influence students’ motivation to read and determine future reading achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate two fourth semester students’ attitudes toward reading, and why do they percieved reading in their current manner. The researcher used a qualitative research method to explore in detail and thoroughly looking into the attitude of research subjects (RS1 and RS2).
From the findings, RS2 showed appreciation by acknowlaging the benefits of reading books, enjoyed the activity as it helped to build her imagination. This reflected RS2’s positive attitude toward reading in both cognitive (utlity and individual development), and affective (enjoyment) aspects. RS2 also showed positive attitude toward conative (behavior) aspect as she would attempt to read when she had nothing to do, which implied to a positive behaviors. Meanwhile, RS1’s lack of interest in reading showed negative attitude toward cognitive (individual development) and conative aspects, as she would not read in her free time unless there was a book she found interesting. The reason RS1 percieved reading in a negative attitude was because reading was not mandatory and that reading was less interesting compared to other activities. While RS2 viewed reading positively was because reading helped her in school, practicing, and helped fostering her imagination.