A Survey On UTM TESL Undergraduates’ Reading Preference: Between Hypertexts And Books

This research uses a survey to investigate UTM TESL undergraduates’ reading preference between Hypertexts and books. The study is very crucial as it will help to identify the strengths and also the weaknesses of the preferred type of text. Therefore, questionnaires have been distributed to UTM TESL undergraduates’ session 2007/2008 (Refer Appendix A). From the research, it has been found that UTM TESL undergraduates preferred Hypertext as compared to books. The reasons why the students preferred Hypertext are encouragements from lecturers, cost and time saving, easier and faster access, interactive and interesting, up to date and more focused. However Hypertext has several weaknesses such as reliability low, has caused health problems and also technical problems. The findings suggest that the students must be taught, exposed and trained to select reliable reading materials, exposed and taught on how to overcome the technical problems and lastly they must be aware of how to prevent the Computer caused health problems.

[1]  Jacqueline Mary Mason.  New bridges to new literacies : year five and six students' use of hypertext in information literacy acquisition : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University , 1999 .

[2]  George P. Landow,et al.  HyperText: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology , 1991 .

[3]  Aristidis Protopsaltis,et al.  Cognitive aspects of web-based hypertext: an experimental approach , 2004 .

[4]  Theodore H. Nelson,et al.  Computer Lib/Dream Machines , 1974 .

[5]  J. Sandberg,et al.  The think aloud method , 1994 .

[6]  Rudi Volti,et al.  America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 , 1992 .

[7]  Z. Hasan.  A Survey on Shari’Ah Governance Practices in Malaysia, GCC Countries and the UK , 2011 .

[8]  Maarten van Someren,et al.  The Think Aloud Method: A Practical Guide to Modelling Cognitive Processes , 1994 .

[9]  Arif Altun,et al.  Understanding Hypertext in the Context of Reading on the Web: Language Learners' Experience , 2003 .

[10]  Ora Lassila,et al.  Hyperreader—An interactive course in reading comprehension , 1990 .

[11]  A. Dillon,et al.  Hypermedia as an Educational Technology: A Review of the Quantitative Research Literature on Learner Comprehension, Control, and Style , 1998 .

[12]  Js Srivastava,et al.  Your Research Project , 2001 .

[13]  C. Fischer,et al.  America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 , 1993 .

[14]  Jeremy Fox,et al.  A MICROCOMPUTER‐BASED APPROACH TO TRAINING IN SECOND LANGUAGE READING SKILLS , 1990 .

[15]  Ciaran McCarthy.  Reading Theory as a Microcosm of the Four Skills. Applied Linguistics Series. , 1999 .