THE INFLUENCE OF ENGLISH READING HABIT ON THE STUDENTS' ACIllEVEMENTIN LITERARY RELATED SUBJECTS: A RESEARCH REPORT' Heny Hartono2, Marini PaulP and Antonius Suratno" Abstract: This article is a rnearch report abolll Ihe inJll1(1l~:/.'Y>f, English I"('ading IUlbil on Ihe stlldl'IIIS' achiel'emelll illlilera . I.h~ ... ~'··. ,IiI! sllbjects: ProSt' I, Prose 2, Dral1la I, Drama 2, al/d Poel,.... I~!. Thae aI"(' 11\'0 \'{/ria/J!es ill lI,is resl'arch: Ihl' Ellglish re,~din 0.339. II is founclthal detamillalll coefficit'llf is 0.161 I 67. II'hich mealls tht' injll1l'lIet' ofElIglish readillg hahil 011 lilt' .Huc/nlls' achiel'elllelll is 16.12C?c. II indicates Ihat Ellglish rcadillg I/ll/Jil is 1101 the 11I0.l't dOll/illl/llt factor II'IIieil illj7I1ell(,('s .I'1IIdl'III.1'· lIchiC'I'C'mcl/l ill thosc .wiJjcct.l'. III olha words. Ihe iIlCIW/Sl' (~r stile/ellis' lIchiC'\'('l1Iem is 1101 ollly delt'mlillcr/ by Iheir readillg 'Ull} it. hili lIl.w il~/II1C'II('C'd hy mhe I' It/ClOt'S. slIch (/S ill1elligellcC'. (/plillll/I'. II/olil'(/fioll. school (/Iu/jtllllily l'II\'i''OlIll/I'III, {('(/chC'rs. lIlId titcilitin il/d"dillg hooks (/1It! lihmrin. Key worcls: iIl11"I'II('(', E.llglish relldillg III/hit, .I/"t/ellf.1 . (/c/ri('\'('II/(,lIt This artidt: is a devdopment of an S I the~i~ that wa~ dekndt:d in 2005. Hen), Hartono, S.S., MPd. is a It:ctulw at Faculty of Leiters, Soegijapnlll'lIa Catholic University. Scmarang. Marini Pauli, S.S. is an alumnae of the Faculty of Lellt:rs. Soegijapranata Catholic University. Semarang. Drs. Antonius Suratno, M.A. is a lecturer at Faculty of Leiters. Soegijapranata Catholic University. Semarang. 156 Celt. Volume 5, Number 2, December 2005 : 155 - 164 BACKGROUND As stated by Brown (2000: I ), learning a second language is a long and complex undertaking. Every person has different reasons and purposes in learning a second language but mainly he or she wants to be proficient in it. Apart from individual different purposes, during the second language learning process, each learner must be exposed to both the spoken and written forms of the target language. It means in certain level, each learner will not only deal with oral verbal activity but he or she will also deal a lot with reading activity. Grabe and Stoller (2002:2) state that many people in multilingual settings need to read in a second language at reasonably high levels of proficiency, especially to achieve personal, occupational, and professional goals. Meanwhi Ie, there are several reasons why reading activity itself is important for second language learners. More specifically, for students of Faculty of Letters who regard English as a foreign language, reading in English is important for some reasons. Mikulecky (1998:iv) writes about the reasons why reading is important for students: Reading in English helps students learn to think in English. Reading in English helps students build your English vocabulary. Reading in English makes students more comfonable with writing in English. Reading in English can help if students plan to study in an English speaking country. Overall, reading in English is one way to get exposure to English because Indonesian students live in a country where English is regarded as a foreign language. Within a foreign language setting. exposure to English is quite limited Students will only have opportunities to deal with English when they are in class. To get more exposure towards the target language, students need to do self-study. which can be done through reading. Therefore, reading is assumed to be one factor. which may influence the students' proficiency. Based on the facts presented above. the writers are encouraged to conduct a research on students' reading habit. The writers are interested in investigating how English reading habit influence students' achievement in English classes. The classes observed are literary related subject classes in English Department, Faculty of Letters, Soegijapranata catholic University which include drama, prose, and poetry analysis classes. Those classes are chosen since those literary related subjects involve a lot of reading activities. H. HartOlIO, M. Pauli and A. Suratno, The Innuence of English Reading 157 READING HABIT AND THE ADVANTAGES OF READING THROUGH READING HABIT According Hornby (1995:968) "Reading means action of person who reads." whereas habit is a thing that a person does often and almost without thinking. especially something that is hard to stop doing." Based on the definition which has been given by Hornby. Reading habit can be defined as the frequency of how often the person does an activity to read books including literature books. stories. magazines. newspapers etc. Reading through reading habit brings some advantages for us. First. good habit is assumed to be able to improve individual's characteristic as a better person. As stated by Gie ( 1984) university students need to have and build good habits in order to be able to finish their study with the highest score and to face a new life. Moreover. Subyakto (1993: 113) says. "Reading is one way for language learning. to increase our knowledge and to increase our ability in using the language and to increase the students' mastery of vocabularies."lt means that someone who wants to read well needs to build a strong vocabulary. Meanwhile. to build a strong vocabulary. he or she needs to read well. USING LITERATURE TO BUILD READING HABIT Literature is used in ESL and EFL classes because the literary texts of literature can contribute and help the students in language learning. especially in reading. Having literature in ESL and EFL classes will give some benefits in motivating students to achieve successful reading program. Yopand Yop( 1991: 132 as cited in Day and Bamford. 1998:96) state "Providing students with motivating materials and involving them in a variety of interesting activities are critical to a successful reading program." Basically. the main purpose of lIsing literature in the reading program is to encourage and develop skills of literary analysis and language. Literature is lIseful for the language enrichment. Collie and Slater ( 1987:4) says. "Language enrichment is one benefit often sought through literature." It means that using literature will help the students to be able to broaden and enrich their own writing skills. It is because literature provides a rich context where lexical or syntactical items are made more memorable. 158 Celt, Volume 5, Number 2, December 2005: 155 - 164 ACHIEVEMENT Hornby (1995: I 0) says that achievement is a thing done successfully, especially with effort and skill. English reading habit is one of many factors that can help us to the increase of achievement. As it has been widely known, books arc the source of everything. It is the source of information, knowledge, inspiration, and many more. As stated by Salam (2004: 48, 49, 52): membaca bl/kll merupak{lIl kebias{ulII yang baik yang bergllna IIl/IlIk menambah pengelllllllall, melllll/jang kemampllan berpiki,. krilis. mClIIlIllJllhkan sara/-sara! bam eli olak dan dapar mcnyc'lIClIlgkal/ I/{/ri. (Translation: reading books is a good habit to enrich knowledge, critical thinking and fun) Moreover, English reading habit makes us directly or indirectly increase our vocabulary. It can be seen that someone who reads encyclopedia will get a lot of general knowledge, whereas those who read novels. short stories. poetry and other sources related to literature will get a lot of knowledge in literature, especially in building new words. Day and Bamford ( 1998:4) state that gelling achievement. however. is also supported by high motivation. In this case, the motivation will make the students read more and more. Murcia (200 I: 199) says. "There is. however, a significant body of research that argues that motivation has an important impact on reading development." She also says that motivation makes a real difference in student's reading development. Moreover. VemOli (1971: I 06 as cited in Downing and Leong J 982:251) states that "It is gcnemlly considercd that reading achievemcnt is increased by strong achievement motivation." Since there is a motivation to increase the knowledge in order to get a good mark in class. there must be a will to develop and build the reading habit. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENGLISH READING HAIHT AND STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT According to Jassin (1983:4) "karya sastra akall sclalu mel/(/rik perlwriall karella mellgrmgkapkan pCllglw.vatall mal/usia yang paling dalam. Ylliru pelja/llllall Mdupnya di segala tempat di dunia illi" {Translation: literary works will always be interesting because it reveals man's H. Harlono, M. Pauli and A. Suratno, The Influence of English Reading 159 understanding of his life journey all over the place in the world). Based on the fact that through literature (stories) we can also explore this life, it can be said that the more readers read, the more they get from it. It increases their knowledge that finally brings them to the increase of intelligence. Furthermore. the higher the increase of intelligence, the higher the achievement they get. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES .#~¥.f~ This study .is conducted to achiev~ the follo~ing goals: . . ~£'(dt~)\i I. To ftnd out whether there IS or there IS not any relatlonshlp~~~n:~) English reading habit and students' achievement in literarx.~re1~l subjects (prose analysis I. prose analysis 2. drama analysis i;l-dliiffiil":' analysis 2. and poetry analysis). ") To see how far the English reading habit influence students' achievement in those subjects. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The instruments used in this study arc: questionnaire. documentation (students' transcript). and interview. The participants of this research are S I students of Faculty of Letters Soegijapran'lta Catholic University Semarang from academic year 2001. There are 34 students involved in this study. The questionnaire is used to gain data about students' reading habits while the interview is used to support the results of the questionnaire. Whereas doculllentation is a tool to obtain data about students' marks in literature rdated subjects. The data from the qucstionnaire and students' marks arc proccssed using the Product-Moment correlation to scc the correlation between the variahles. The formula is presented bdow: rxy N.L XY - (LX) (LY) Meaning of symbols: rxy = coefficient of correlation between English reading habit and students achievement. LX Y = sum of scores of X (reading habit) times Y (student's' achievement) LX = sum of scores of reading habit 160 Celt. Volume 5. Number 2. December 2005 : 155 - 164 L Y = sum of scores of student's achievement LX 2 = sum of squares of English reading habit LY2 = sum of squares of student's achievement N = number of subjects that is observed DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION A. Result of Questionnaire St.answ QI Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 V.often I I 0 0 3 3 2 Often 7 7 3 8 11 9 10 Q.often 16 7 5 9 10 11 13 seldom 7 14 14 14 8 8 7 A.never 3 5 12 3 2 3 2 Table I: Ovcnall rcsult Question I Q8 I 16 9 7 I Q9 QIO QII 2 7 5 10 11 9 11 8 10 8 5 7 3 3 3 The data shows that the students have enough interest in reading short stories even though they do not do the activity frequently or very frequently. Question 2 It means that most students are not interested in reading simplified novels. Question 3 Similar with lIuestion number 2. the result of this questionnaire indicates that the students rarely read complete novels. Question 4 Most students choose the option seldom. It means that they also I'al'dy read English poetry. Question 5 Based un the tabk. we can sec that the students have good English reading habit. The text they read arc English stories in newspaper. magazine. bulletin. etc. Question 6 The highest number of students' answer is quire (~frell. This result leads us to the conclusion that the students have quite good reading habit. In this case to read synopsis on the internet. H. Hartono, M. Pauli alld A. Suratllo, The Influence of English Readi ng 161 Question 7 More than half of the students choose the option oftell and quite often. It proves that the habit of students in reading English literature is good enough. Question 8 Through the question number 8. the students admit that they usually read literature from English sources when they get assignment from their teachers! lecturers. Question 9 The response of the students through this question indicates that the difficulties in English realling do not make them give up continuing their reading. even they still continue their reading. Question 10 The result shows that most of the students read literature based on their free will. Question 11 The differences in options among the respondents 'ojin! and quite (~fiell' indicate that half of the students have a good habit in reading literature. B. The relationship between English reading habit and students' achievement in literary related subjects In calculating the correlation Product-Moment. X is the total slim of English reading habits. and Y is the total sum of students' achievement. The table of X and Y is presented below: Nr X ! y X: ..... : I Xl' i I I ! I 35 II 1225 I 121 385 2 ~ 16 1156 2)() 544 3 35 18 1225 324 630 4 18 12 324 144 216 5 38 II 1444 121 4H~ 6 47 17 22CJJ 289 7g:) 162 Celt. Volume 5. Number 2. December 2005 : 155 - 164 Nr X Y X~ y~ XY 7 '57 9 1369 81 333 8 17 7 289 49 119 9 29 10 841 100 290 10 33 12 1089 144 396 II 40 15 1(00 225 (ill 12 24 13 576 100 312 13 38 12 1444 144 456 14 38 12 1444 144 456 15 34 12 1156 144 408 16 32 II 1024 121 352 17 26 19 676 361 494 18 Xl 7 400 49 140 19 19 II 361 121 200 Xl 25 9 625 81 225 21 31 13 961 100 403 22 32 9 1024 81 288 23 34 II 1156 121 374 24 29 13.5 841 182,25 391.5 25 37 9 1369 81 333 26 47 12 2200 144 564 27 32 15 1024 225 480 2H 29 12 841 144 348 29 44 3) 1936 400 880 30 30 10 t..XX) 1m 300 31 39 12 1521 144 4(1X 32 2'5 10 62'5 J(X) 250 33 34 15 1156 225 510 34 32 17 1024 289 544 Sum 1094 422.5 37~ 5593.25 13915.5 Table 2: Preparation calculation on Product Moment H. Harlono, M. Pauli and A. Suratno, The Influence of English Reading 163 The calculation of Product Moment is as follows: r=~==N=(U~Y=)-#(U==X=~Y=)==~ ~{Nr.x 2 - (u 2 ){my 2 - (~Y f }} 34.13915,5 - 1094.422,5 - ~{34.37064 - 1094 2 R34.5593,25 - 422,5 2 } 473127-462215 - ~{1260176-1196836RI90170.5-178506,25} 10912 = -;:;::=====::::;r ~{63340.11664,25} 10912 = '~=73=8=81=3=59=5 10912 =---- 27181,126 = 0,401455 The result of calculation shows that the score of Product-Moment (R) is higher than score of r-table. that is 00401455> 0.339. Furthermore. it is found that determinant coefficient is 0040 I 455: = O. I () I I () 7. It means that the influence of English rending habits on students' nchievement is 16. I 2%. while the other 83.8817c is influenced by other factors. WHAT ARE THE rACTORS? EXPLAIN. The result of interview indicates that the other factors come from hoth internal and external flleto!' sHeh as intelligence. aptitude. motivation. interest. self-study. school environment, family cl1\ironment. facilities including books. lind tcacher ... CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION The results of this study show that there is a significant correlation between English reading habit and students' achievement in literary related subjects. The result indicates that English reading habit contributes about 16, I 2% to the students' achievement. while the rest factors are influenced by intelligence, aptitude. motivation. interest. self-study, environment, facilities 164 Celt, Volume 5. Number 2. December 2005 : 155 - 164 including books. and teachers. Although reading habit is not the most dominant factor that influence students' achievement, it has a significant correlation with it, so English teachers should motivate the students to read as many English books as possible. Moreover, this study can be a reference to English learners to increase English reading habit and for further research it is suggested to involve broader respondents in order to get a more valid correlation. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown. H. D. Principles of ulII!:lIage Learnill!: alld Teachillg. 4'h ed. New York: Longman. 2000. Collie. J. and S. Slater. 1987. Literatllre ill the ulIIgllage Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1987. Day. R. R. and J.Bamford. ExtellSiI'l' Rellding ill the Secol/d ulIIRllage Class/'()om. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1998. Downing. J. and C. K. Leong. Psychology of ReaC/illg. USA: Macmilan Publishing. 1982. Gie, T. L. Kemajllall Stlldi. No 3. Yogyakarta: Yayasan Studi IImu dan Tekhnologi. 1984. Grabe. W. and F. Stoller. Teachillg lIlIll Researchillg ReaC/illg. England: Pearson education. 2002. Hornby. A S. Oxford Ad\'{/Ilced Leame,. 's Dictiol/al'Y. 5'h ed. Ox ford: Ox ford Un i versi I v Press. 1995. Jasin. H.G 7ifa Pellya;r c/all Daem/lllya. Jakarta: Gunung Agung. 1965. Mikulecky. B. and L. Jeffries. Read;lIg Power 2,,·1 c'cI. New York: Longman Inc. 1998. Murcia. M. C. Teachillg EIIRli.~" a.l' Secolld amI Foreigll [..III/gl/age 3'./ Eel. USA: Heinle & Heinle. 200 I. Salam. B.Cara Bdajal' yallg SIIk-H'.\' tli Pel:~I1""llll 7illggi. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta. 2(X)4. Subyaklo. S.U.N. Metoc/ologi Pellgajal'CllI Bahasa. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Puslaka. 1993. logo: