Reading Habits of Freshmen of Gedu College of Business Studies

Aim: The main purpose of this study was to determine college students’ attitude towards reading against the backdrop of perceived poor habit of reading among Bhutanese students and evidences showing decline in attitude towards reading observed among students as they matured.

Study Design: Descriptive survey.

Place and Duration of the Study: Gedu College of Business Studies (GCBS), a constituent college under the Royal University of Bhutan, during the 2019 academic session.

Methodology: The authors administered Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) questionnaire to 500 freshmen.

Results: A descriptive statistical analysis of questionnaires returned revealed a positive attitude towards reading. Specifically, from the two types of reading, the respondents preferred recreational reading slightly more than the academic reading. In addition, an independent-samples t-test revealed a statistically significant attitudinal differences between genders towards reading. In both cases, female-respondents were found more positive towards both recreational and academic reading than their male counterparts.

Conclusion: Analysis of the data revealed that the freshmen of GCBS held positive attitude towards reading with slight preference being given to recreational reading. Also, from the two genders, independent-samples t-test showed that females were more positive towards reading than males.