Reading Preferences across Genders of Undergraduate EFL Students in Indonesia

Abstract

Due to pandemics, students carry out their studies from home. They have more leisure time and are freer to do activities. In such a condition, questioning students’ commitment to reading to learn becomes relevant. The question is whether and to what extent the students do the reading activity, what they read, and whether their preferences are different based on their genders. This topic is inconclusively studied, especially in the context of EFL. Therefore, it seems important to conduct a study on this topic because the results might raise the effectiveness of teaching EFL. This study is a descriptive survey revealing students’ reading preferences to spend their leisure time based on gender differences. The subjects are undergraduate EFL students aged 19–23 years who study at the English Department in Indonesia. The data were collected by a questionnaire consisting of closed and open items. The responses were tallied, calculated, and tabulated. The findings show that female respondents favored reading more than males. Both genders tend to prefer reading social media to spend their leisure time. Female respondents are more likely to read e-books, while male respondents are more into the printed books. They do extensive reading to get knowledge more than to get pleasure. Although they are EFL learners, they prefer reading the sources in their native language because it is more accessible than in the target language. The reasons underlying those findings and pedagogical implications are also described at the end of the article.

Undergraduate Students’ Reading Choices in the University of Benin, Nigeria

“…The male students on the other hand preferred the reading of journals and newspapers, textbooks, magazine sand fiction, and comics and fiction respectively. The results for hypothesis one are thus in line with those of previous studies which showed differences in the reading materials selected by undergraduate students on the basis of sex (Gilbert & Fister, 2011;Milal et al, 2021;Morrison et al, 2017;and Thums et al, 2021).…”

Gender Differences in Chinese EFL Learners’ Comprehension When Reading Across Mediums

“…Additionally, some prior studies reported that boys favor digital mediums (Elwood & MacLean, 2009;Liu & Huang, 2008), but the newly conducted research found that girls were more likely to read digital materials (Milal et al, 2021), and to use smartphones more frequently (Elhai et al, 2021) for language learning activities (Şad et al, 2022), which might increase their exposure to familiarity with digital mediums. When female learners have equivalent access to mobile phones or other digital mediums, boys seem to have lost their advantages in the digital world in the educational context (Shimray et al, 2015).…”

“…In this digital age in which almost every tertiary student has a smartphone (Kwangsawad, 2019), whether the gender gap has already been bridged remains unknown. However, the newly conducted research does find that female learners are more willing to read digital materials (Milal et al, 2021), and to use smartphones more frequently (Elhai et al, 2021) for language learning activities (Şad et al, 2022), which might increase their exposure to familiarity with digital mediums. When girls and boys have the same level of access to digital devices like mobile phones, the advantage that boys might have previously had in using these technologies for educational purposes diminishes or disappears (Shimray et al, 2015).…”

“…As one of the digital reading mediums, the smartphone possesses mobile features such as portability and mobility, becoming increasingly popular among young people. Among studies (Elhai et al, 2021;Milal et al, 2021) that are relevant to smartphone-based reading, there is research focusing on differences between males and females in mobile reading attitudes or strategy use. However, studies concerning gender differences in reading comprehension or reading outcomes are rarely found.…”

Extensive Reading as a Gateway to Create Research Gap: Valuable Lessons from Indonesian Expert Authors

“…The primary prerequisites for academic success are reading comprehension and reading fluency (Milal et al, 2021). Additionally, studies demonstrate that reading a lot can speed up reading and improve comprehension (Permatasari et al, 2020).…”