READING HABITS OF STUDENTS OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, ECUADOR, AND ITS EFFECTS ON THEIR PERFORMANCE IN READING IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE

Abstract

The study aims to assess the impact of students' reading habits in their first language (L1) on their English acquisition at the National University of Education. It found that students who do not frequently read in their first language negatively influence their second language reading habits, resulting in a lack of vocabulary acquisition and fundamental grammatical structure management. As English professors, we were concerned about the underperformance in reading abilities of our students. This was further evidenced by the poor scores of learners who took the B1 test, particularly in the reading section. As a result, we began investigating the reading habits of students and the possible factors that contribute to their low reading proficiency. In the study, we administered a survey and a diagnostic test to 70 students from level five and 29 students from level six. The results showed that an extensive number of students read scarcely. A considerable number of students did not read at all. Only a minority of the assessed students read routinely. We compared the results from the survey with the data collected by the diagnostic test. We observed that students who barely read in L1 did not reach a high-performance score in their diagnostic. Furthermore, we concluded that reading in their mother tongue influences their reading performance in the target language. Therefore, it is necessary to motivate students to enhance their reading skills in the first and second language to acquire the vocabulary and grammar knowledge needed to improve their level of English.

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