ABSTRACT

Loviyanti, Witri. 2020. A Study on Students’ Reading Preferences at English

Language Education Study Program ULM Batch 2018. English Language

Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,

Lambung Mangkurat University. Banjarmasin. Advisors: (I) Dr. Rina Listia,

M.Pd, and (II) Dini Noor Arini, S.Pd., M.Pd.

Keywords: reading, preferences, reading preferences, reading genre

Reading is important because it develops human’s thoughts, gives them

endless knowledge and lessons to read while keeping their minds active. Through

reading, people get knowledge and information to live better. In academic context,

reading cannot be separated from academic activities. Students read written

literature, whether it is related to academic achievement or not. Reading preferences

of individuals may vary depending on various factors. This research aims to find

out the students’ reading preferences at English Language Education Study

Program batch 2018.

This research used qualitative method and the result in descriptive form. The

population of this research was 107 students of English English Language

Education Study Program FKIP ULM batch 2018, and 95 students were taken as

sample using purposive sampling.

The result of this research shows that 61,1% of the students like to read both

fiction and non-fiction. Their reading purposes are 51,6% for both entertainment and

academic purpose, while 27,4% students are reading only for academic purpose and 21,1%

are reading only for entertainment purpose. The genre that were chosen by 90,5% of

them were fiction, while 9,5% chose non-fiction. Their favorite author mostly are

Indonesian author like Eka Kurniawan, Dee Lestari, Ika Natassa, Andrea Hirata,

and many more.

Based on the result, it is suggested that the students take the advantages of

the knowledge they gain from reading either fiction or non-fiction to their study.

They also may take the benefits of social media and other platforms as a source of

reading while carefully filtering the information.