MASTER IN EDUCATION (TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE)

GGGB6063 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

ASSIGNMENT 1

CRITICAL REVIEW (30%)

PREPARED BY

STUDENT NAME MATRIC NO. IC NO.

THASHALINI SANJILATHEEBAN P125097 001011-02-0782

LECTURER: PROF DR AZLIN NORHAINI MANSOR

In the Malaysian Education system, the English language teaching and learning focuses on the
four language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. However, more emphasis is given
to reading and writing skills. The reading skill is taught to students by emphasizing on their
ability to read and understand. Therefore, most times, reading only happens within the four walls
of the classroom. Consequently, reading avidness among students is difficult to cultivate and
there is a need to study on development and sustainability of reading habits among students. On
that account, an article published entitled “Developing and Sustaining Reading Habit Among
Teenagers” authored by Azlin Norhaini Mansor, Bee Lian Koh Mohd Sattar Rasul and Rose
Amnah Abd Rauf will be critically reviewed.

The article was written with the aim(s) of identifying factors that first led to teenagers’ interest in
reading and then to continue sustaining their interest in reading. The article introduced the
problem in the Malaysian context: low level of reading avidness among Malaysians and further
elaborates on related literature reviews as per past studies on factors that develop and sustain the
reading habit. The cited literature contained a broader view of the topic as it included studies
conducted in other countries: Taiwan. Moving on, the readers were given a comprehensive
background to a past study by Pandian (2000) where his Explanatory Model of reading behavior
was adapted for the current study. Moving on, to conceptualize the current study, the researchers
shone light towards a practice in Malaysian government school: NILAM that served as a basis in
selecting the study participants.

To gain an in-depth idea and collect a plethora of information, a case study approach with
qualitative data collection tools namely via interviews, observations, and document analyses
were employed. The participants of the study were seven 15-year-old (Form 3) students,
whereby three of them were selected based on the number of NILAM entries recorded.
Additionally, based on the researcher’s observations and the snowball method, they picked out
the rest of the four participants who were all then interviewed to collect the necessary data.

The study achieved what it set out to investigate, which was to gain insights on how students
developed and are sustaining the reading habit. The findings showed that one major factor that
drew students towards developing reading habits was the influence of home and early childhood
education. Home, to be specific, pointed towards the mothers, as five of the participants recalled
building the reading habit with help and encouragement from their mothers. Meanwhile, as per
the findings of the study, sustaining the reading habit could be attributed to factors such as:
students’ intrinsic motivation- from their interest in reading, their perception on reading
improving language skills, students’ extrinsic motivation- having support (from parents and
peers alike) to fuel reading habit, having rewards in the form of NILAM awards. The study’s
takeaway is its key finding on peers’ being a sustaining force of students’ reading habit and one
that should be delved into deeper for understanding and to fuel many other students to do the
same.

One of the main strengths of this article is the Discussion section, as I believe I could properly
understand the essence of this article namely, what the researchers were able to discover, what
did the current study lack, and what further research can be conducted pertaining to the topic.
The organization of paragraphs in this section of the paper is neat and connects well to each
other. The ideas discussed in this section are thoroughly elaborated and clearly described for
easier understanding. Besides, the researchers have put in a lot of sound thought into the ideas
presented in this section. This is because from the data collected and presented by them in this
paper, these researchers were able to also bring to attention and raise questions on the certain
problems that should be addressed namely: participants having no mention of teachers for
avidness in reading, lack of resources for underprivileged children to pick up the reading habit.
In addition, there is plenty of room for further research that has been clearly stated by the
researchers as well. As a novice in the field, this would prove to be useful for me, as not only
have the issues been presented by the authors, but also certain areas that could be researched on
to provide solutions to these issues.

However, while the entire article did provide an informative read, I was left with a few questions
on the Methodology and Findings section of the article. I personally feel that the methodology
was elaborated for readers to understand, but only to a certain extent. However, when it came to
the data collection tools, there was a mention of an interview with the parents of participants as
one of the following tools. However, there is no such information or elaboration under the
findings to entail information provided by them that may have helped with the study. This
creates a ‘loose end’ in the study not knowing whether interviews were conducted with parents
or whether the data collected under findings is also inclusive of the interview with parents. In
addition, under the research methodology, there is no mention of any ‘document’ that parents
filled up which is nonetheless brought up under findings repeatedly. Therefore, as a reader, I am
confused as to the purpose of the document filled up by parents, and the information it entailed.
This is because it is not clearly stated whether these documents contributed towards the findings
and assisted the researchers to understand the topic better. In my opinion, the methodology
should have more clearly defined the data collection tools for us readers, especially with no
background knowledge to fully grasp this topic.

The plethora of information gives the readers a detailed insight into the study that was
conducted. In terms of content, the findings were delivered rigorously in terms of helping the
readers understand extensively on students’ views towards the reading habit. Besides, as a novice
researcher myself, I was able to note how extensively a qualitative study employing a case study
approach should be conducted. The details and excerpts from interviews with the students were
used to support the findings. However, in my humble opinion, in terms of organization of points,
the findings that are discussed seem to be all over the place. I needed to re-read the Findings a
few times before I could group the findings according to the themes or codes it may have
appeared under. I personally would have understood the findings section better if it were broken
down and differentiated into subsections- considering the questions and multiple responses
received. For example, under the section of sustaining reading habits- the paragraphs could have
been further broken down into- intrinsic motivation: - (a) reading being fun and interesting, (b)
reading assisting to improve language skills where the findings are then elaborated on. Similarly,
the extrinsic motivation which also led to the sustainability of reading habit could be elaborated
the same way. This is because it would give us, the readers, a clearer view on the themes and
codes developed from the interview and coding process.

Overall, this article presents us with an in-depth case study on factors leading towards
development and sustainability of reading habits among teenagers. This article would have been
able to fill in the knowledge and literature gap on this aspect of reading. I was personally able to
clearly understand the purpose of the study being conducted and found that this paper presented
what it was aimed at, for the readers. It also left me with questions to ponder on with regards to
promoting reading among young people coming from various backgrounds. This study could
serve as a stepping stone for other researchers to then carry out further research on an extension
of the said topic.

REFERENCES

Mansor, A. N., Rasul, M. S., Rauf, R. A. A., & Koh, B. L. (2013). Developing and sustaining
reading habit among teenagers. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 22, 357-365.