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Correlation between Students' Reading Habit and Their Cross Cultural

Understanding

Article · May 2020

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 Correlation between Students’ Reading Habit and Their Cross Cultural
Understanding
Agustina Lestary, Ninuk Krismanti, Imam Hendra Saputra
English Department, STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin
[email protected]

This study is conducted to describe the correlation between reading habit and cross cultural understanding.
The subject of this study is students of English Department of STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin. The data are
obtained through questionnaire, to find out students’ reading habit, and test, to measure students’ intercultural
knowledge. SPSS is used to analyze the correlations between these two variables. The result of the test
shows that most students make mistakes in answering the questions related to cultural knowledge. However,
the reading habit is not the determinant factor of the test’s result. This means that there is no significant
correlation between students’ reading habit and the cross cultural knowledge.
Keywords: reading habit, intercultural knowledge, cross cultural understanding
Introduction American or British culture should not be the only
focus of English language learning, but it should be
As language and culture are intertwined, it is then
more about helping students on being an open
only natural to say that learning the culture of the
minded speaker and building their cultural
target language is as important as learning the
difference awareness. The language teaching
language itself. Language is the projection of the
should emphasize on understanding different
culture where the language is spoken. The values
culture and not judging or comparing one culture to
hold by a society is reflected by the language used.
another. It is essential to prepare the students to
The teaching of a language should not only be
not only ready to use the language but also to build
limited to the transfer of tangible knowledge, such
a communication across culture without any
as the pronunciation, vocabularies, sentence
prejudice. Knowing that cross cultural
structures or the expressions. The teaching
understanding is important in a language learning,
process should include the exploration of the
including English, this research is conducted to
values hold by the language native speakers, such
describe the students’ knowledge about other
as words or expressions that should not be said in
cultures.
certain situations. Thus, teachers are encouraged
to introduce the target language culture in On the other hand, students should develop
language classroom. reading habit as reading is the gate to acquire
many information. Through reading, language
English, as a lingua franca, is not only used by the
learner might learn different culture as well as
native speakers or in countries where the it is the
understand different values hold by different
first language. English has been used to
communities. A language learner who likes
communicate by speakers from countries across
reading might have better understanding about
the globe. English enable people to access
different culture and be more open minded.
information from different sources and to build a
Therefore, his research is conducted to describe
network without any boundaries. This means that
the correlation between students’ reading habit
English learners will face people with many
and their cross cultural understanding.
different cultural background.
It has been a recent debate topic in EFL
community on which culture should be taught in Theoretical Framework
English classrooms. Knowing that English is not Culture and Cross-Cultural Understanding
only spoken by English native speakers and within
the boundary of certain countries only, it is, then, Language conveys the speaker’s message as well
understandable that many English teachers and as the cultural value the speaker holds. It is part of
experts expand the culture introduced in EFL culture as well as the tool through which culture is
classrooms. Instead of introducing a particular introduced and transferred from one generation to
culture, the teachers are expected to integrate another, from one community to another. Since
cultural difference awareness among the students. language is an integral part of culture, it is quite
impossible for a learner to learn a language without
understanding the culture. The use of a language
itself, on the other hand, is tied to the culture where by the end of the day will help them to broaden their
the language origins. Whether a word is regarded perspective towards different issues (McShane,
as a taboo word or whether an expression is 2005).
appropriate or not heavily depends on the culture
Therefore, it is clear that reading habit is one of the
of the speakers involve in the conversations.
key factors that shape a community. Reading habit
Some experts identify intercultural understanding can be defined as the behavior that shows
as the fifth skills of learning a language after someone’s interest in texts. In addition, reading
listening, speaking, reading and writing. Hence, habit is also related to how often and how long
intercultural understanding should also be part of someone read (Lestari, Sofendi, & Petrus2018).
language learning process (Zhou, 2017). In
Some studies have been conducted related to
addition, Tanaka (2006) also stated that cultural
reading habit. Janthong & Sripetpun (2010) tried to
awareness is important in English, as well as other
improve students’ reading comprehension by
languages, learning and teaching. By acquiring
improving their reading habit. Different study is
this fifth skill, a language learner is expected to be
also conducted to find out if there is any correlation
more open minded when it comes to intercultural
between students’ reading habit and their writing
communication. This skill will also help learner to
ability and intelligence (Lestari, Sofendi, &
avoid having any prejudice towards certain races
Petrus2018). Some studies suggested that reading
or cultures. Consequently, cultural
habit can help people improving their intelligence,
misunderstanding could be mitigated.
including the language ability.
Furthermore, some experts have pointed out how
Further, it is also safe to assume that reading habit
it is important to introduce some different cultural
will not only help learners in improving their
values, norms and belief to language learners in
language skills but also their intercultural
the classroom (See: Choudhury, 2014; Ratnasari,
understanding. Reading can be the medium to
2018, Hsin,2008). Understanding that people may
learn other cultures. Thus, good reading habit can
behave and response differently based on the
help people in acquiring information related other
cultural values they hold is one of the keys to build
cultures, which eventually will lead to cross culture
successful communication. Thus, some studies on
awareness.
how language teachers can infuse the cultural
awareness in the language classrooms have been
conducted. Method
Pratama (2017) explored the strategies that can be This research is a mix-method study. The study is
used in Cross Cultural Understanding course. The identified as a quantitative since the data was
course itself is usually offered by English tested and analyze by using Statistical Product and
Language Teaching Department. However, the Service Solution (SPSS). Qualitative method was
strategy offered in the study could be implemented also applied as the objective of this research is
in any language classroom with some adjustment. describing the correlation between two variables –
Pratama described how active learning strategy cross cultural awareness and reading habit.
could be an alternative in raising students’ cultural
awareness. Further, the implementation of The subject of the study is the students of English
intercultural understanding in EFL classroom in Department of STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin. The data
high school level is described by Budiarti in her were obtained through questionnaire by using
article. These two studies show us that cultural Likert scale. The indicators of the first variable,
awareness could be introduced in one specific reading habit, were adapted from Janthong and
course, such as Cross Cultural Understanding, or Sripetpun (2010) with some adjustment. The
it could be an integral part of the language teaching questionnaire covered the questions related to
itself. students’ reading habit and their reading
frequency.
The second variable was the students’ perception
Reading Habit towards different customs and cultures. The data
Theoretically, the sole purpose of reading is not were obtained through test given to the students.
only about entertainment. Beyond that, reading The result of the questionnaire and the test was
can shape or change one’s perspective. Sethy tested and analyze by using Statistical Product and
(2018) stated that reading can influence the Service Solution (SPSS). The result of this analysis
reader’s affective, perception, and cognitive was further used to discuss if the reading habit was
system. In addition, both reading and writing take indeed influence students’ intercultural awareness.
certain role in learning process. Reading allows
people to obtain information and knowledge which
Result and Discussion The table shows if there is any significant
correlation between Reading Habit (X) and
The questionnaire and the test were given to
Intercultural knowledge of the students (Y). Based
English Department students. The questionnaire
on the output of the test, it can be seen that F is
was adapted from Janthong and Sripetpun (2010)
0.246 with significance of 0,623 > 0,05. This
to find out students’ reading habit and frequency.
means that the regression model can be used to
In addition, the test was given to measure students’
predict the Intercultural variable.
knowledge related to other cultures’ values, habits,
and beliefs.

The value of Constant (a) in column B is 49.864

while the score of Reading Habit (b) is 0.084.
Thus, the equation is presented as below:
𝑌 = 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑋
The table shows the entered and removed
variables and the method used. In this study, the 𝑌 = 49,864 + 0,084𝑋
variable entered is the score of the Reading Habit
(TOTAL-RH) as the predictor and the method used The b coefficient is the coefficient of direction
is Enter method. Meanwhile, the dependent which signifies the average changing of Y for
variable is the intercultural knowledge of the each changing of X. This changing is an increase
students. The code is Intercultural. The Reading if b is positive and a decrease if b is negative.
Habit score is obtained through questionnaire with Thus, the equation can be described as follow:
Likert scale while the intercultural knowledge score 1. The value of constant is 49.864. This
is gained through test with the score interval of 0- means that if there is no Reading Habit
100 value, then the Intercultural value is
49.864.
2. The regression coefficient of X is 0.084.
This means that for every 1 Reading Habit
score, there will an increasing of 0.084 of
the Intercultural score.
In addition, the equation of this output also
indicates the significance test of t-test. The result
of the test signifies the correlation between two
variables of Reading Habit (X) and Intercultural
(Y). There are two hypotheses underlying this
The table above shows the correlational score (R)
study:
of 0.0092. It also shows the correlation between
the dependent and independent variables or the H0 : Reading Habit (X) does
determinant coefficient in percentage which is not influence the Intercultural
adjusted R square. The output is the determinant variable (Y)
coefficient (R2) of 0.008. This means that the
Intercultural knowledge of students is influenced H1 : Reading Habit (X)
by Reading Habit by 0.8%, and there are other influences the Intercultural (Y)
variables that influence the students intercultural Some studies investigating reading habit have
knowledge. suggested that reading would improve students’
cognitive abilities (Sethy, 2018; Janthong &
Sripetpun 2010; Lestari, Sofendi, & Petrus, 2018).
However, encouraging reading culture to students
is not easy task as well as there are those who are
not fond of reading. Iftanti (2012) stated that many
EFL students do not have good reading habit.
Reading is only done for the sake of doing
assignments instead of gaining new information September 3rd: Heriot-Watt University,
and knowledge. Edinburgh
The result of the questionnaire shows that most Iftanti, E. (2012). A Survey of the English Reading
students do not do extensive reading. This means Habits of EFL Students in Indonesia.
that they read only when they need to do some TEFLIN Journal, Volume 23, Number 2,
assignments. In addition, the result of the test
July 2012
shows that most students makes many mistakes in
answering the questions related to some cultural Janthong, J., & Sripetpun, W. (2010). English
values and norms. reading comprehension and reading habit
This study is conducted under the assumption that improvement: Use of questioning
reading habit might influence one’s intercultural technique. The 2nd International
knowledge. The more someone read, the more Conference on Humanities and Social
they are exposed to the outside world. However, Sciences April 10th. Thailand: Faculty of
the t-test value is 0.496 with significance 0.623 > Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University
0.05. Thus, H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected. This
means that there is no significant influence of Lestari, A., Sofendi, & Petrus, I. (2018). The
Reading Habit (X) towards Intercultural variable Correlations among Undergraduate EFL
(Y). It is believed that there are other variables Students’ Reading Habit, Multiple
influencing students’ intercultural knowledge. Intelligences, and Writing Mastery.
Conclusion Indonesian Journal of English Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 2(2).
This study focuses on students’ reading habit and
their intercultural knowledge. Questionnaire with McShane, S. (2005). Applying research in reading
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shows that the students have low frequency of Department of Health and Human
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