This study aimed to investigate the relationship between reading habits (in English, in L1 and overall) and English reading performance among Sindhi and Urdu students at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan, and also to explore the factors that might have influenced these aspects. The main motivation for the selection of this study was the participants’ poor English reading proficiency. An explanatory sequential mixed methods research design was adopted, which allowed collecting and analysing quantitative data first to gain a general understanding of the phenomenon followed by an in-depth qualitative interview with a smaller sample to further explore and explain the phenomena in question. After a pilot study, firstly the quantitative study was conducted with 220 students from Sindhi speaking (n=133) and Urdu speaking (n=87) groups using a reading habits questionnaire and an English reading test. The data was analysed in detail. Following analysis, six students, three from each Sindhi and Urdu group were selected for in-depth interviews and the data was analysed using Thematic Analysis. Finally, both quantitative and qualitative findings were synthesised to reach the outcome of the study. The findings of this study suggested that there was a lack of leisure reading habit among the participants other than textbook reading, and their reading frequency of academic articles was relatively low (Sindhi and Urdu as one group). The participants showed similar reading habits in English and in L1 and there were no significant differences between Sindhi and Urdu students’ reading habits in English, in L1 and overall. However, Urdu students scored significantly (p=.000) higher than Sindhi students on English reading performance. There was very little, if any, correlation between reading habits (in English, in L1 and overall) and English reading performance of all students (as one group) and between Sindhi and Urdu students respectively. However, this study strongly suggested that home background, educational background, English language learning environment in the past, and socio-cultural background greatly influence reading habits and English reading performance of Sindhi and Urdu students in the Pakistani university context. Additionally, this study suggested that Urdu students come from backgrounds that are more supportive of reading, which may be a probable cause of their English reading performance being higher than Sindhi students in this study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:669052 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Ansari, Sanaullah |
| Publisher | University of Bedfordshire |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10547/581885 |
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