The reading habits of students preferring English language and literature and English language teaching departments

Abstract

Reading is an indispensable part of personal development and a civilized society. It is of vital importance not only for increasing our world knowledge but also for developing our cognitive and academic skills. Consequently, developing good reading habits should be a main priority for any educational system and it is particularly important for teacher education as they are the ones who will educate future generations. Having good reading habits is probably more important for English language teachers because in addition to the benefits of reading aforementioned, it is also the basis of foreign language learning. There are two main sources for the recruitment of English teachers in Turkey, namely English Language and Literature departments (DELL) and English Language Teaching (ELT) departments; however, to the best of the author's knowledge, despite the vast body of literature on reading habits, there is no study in Turkey investigating the reading habits of these two groups comparatively. Accordingly, this study is an effort to fill the gap in this field and it aims to investigate the reading habits and attitudes of students who preferred either DELL or ELT departments as their first choices in the university entrance exam comparatively. The study used a mixed method research design: life history method was used in the qualitative section of the study and a questionnaire was used in the quantitative section as the data-gathering instruments. The sample in the qualitative and the quantitative sections of the study consisted of 298 and 294 participants respectively, from the prep classes of DELL and ELT departments of Trabzon University, Karadeniz Technical University and Atatürk University. The findings of the study yielded very similar results for both groups. Although both groups' attitudes towards reading were predominantly positive, less than half of them read one book a month on average and there was no statistically significant difference in terms of the amount of reading or the time allocated for reading by the two groups. The types of text or literary genres read were also similar and novel was found to be by far the most commonly read genre. The findings of the quantitative section indicated that the pleasure of reading, broadening one's horizon and gaining different perspectives were the major reasons for reading whereas the findings in the qualitative section suggested that learning new things, the pleasure of reading and personal development were the major reasons. As for the factors hindering reading, the internet and cellphones, the university entrance exam and the intensity of the studies came to the fore. There were only three statistically significant items in the study: the DELL group enjoyed reading more, they were more interested in literature and reading was more instrumental in their departmental preferences.