A Study on Readership Behaviour among Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Lingual Malaysian Students

School of Humanities, Universiti of Sains Malaysia, Malaysia.

Keywords: Malaysia, teaching and learning, reading, readership behavior, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, diversities, ethnic groups, university, secondary school students.

Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Conceptual Framework

• Explanatory Model of Reading Behavior
• Method
• The Main Findings
• Summary of Findings on University Students
• Profile of a Habitual Reader in English
• Summary of Findings on Secondary Students
• Profile of a Habitual Reader in English
• Conclusion
• References

Abstract

The discussion on teaching and learning practices in Malaysia will have to make important links with the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual dimensions in this society. Given this context of diversities, the debate on reading and readership behavior in Malaysia is closely inter-related to variations in ethnic groups, the language(s) used, impact of an individual’s personal factors, home and school factors. This paper reports the findings of a recent study conducted by the author on readership behavior among university and secondary school students. The discussion examines the ways reading practices are currently situated in the Malaysian learning landscape and outlines the profile of habitual readers.

"To argue that, in the era of information technology, learning to read is preparing children for the nineteenth, rather than the twenty-first century, is to misunderstand the nature of human thought and its development." Pumfrey and Owen, 1995 back

Introduction

The importance on teaching students to read and ultimately reducing illiteracy has been a major agenda in Malaysia. The literacy rate in Malaysia was about 52 per cent in 1957, when we achieved independence from the British, and it was recorded as 80 per cent in 1994 (New Straits Times, June 21, 1994). While this progress may paint a rosy picture, it cannot be assumed that this rate would continue to stabilize or increase in the coming years. Public attention has been drawn to the growing problem of non-reading among Malaysians, specifically among the students. Questions have been raised with regard to the readership behavior among school students and university adults. Readership behavior here refers to reading ability and willingness to read for information and leisure as well as reading practices that engage different print and audio-visual contents, such as newspapers, magazines, non-textbooks and informative material of various multimedia.

When adults in today’s age who can read, choose not to read, they are likely to create a generation of non-readers as well as perpetuate the problem of reading reluctancy. I use the term reluctant readers to people who can read but do not read and the term reluctancy to describe the phenomenon of people who can read but choose not to read. The focus on reading is crucial given the development of communications technology and the changed reality we confront in contemporary societies. For reading to be meaningful, it is essential that young people learn not only to read but they cultivate reading behavior for lifelong learning. While new forms of reading texts (mass and multimedia) have emerged, it is still not certain if communications technology will be used to maintain their reading for pleasure and lifelong learning.

A recent Malaysian survey on the reading behavior of 22,400 individuals and 6,050 households by the Ministry of Education revealed that only 20 per cent of Malaysians read regularly. This survey (New Straits Times, 29 August 96) further stressed that the small figure includes students who read just to pass exams.

In this paper I would like to focus my attention on students as studies have shown that many students are found to be reluctant to read for information or pleasure ( Ambigapathy 1993). This is a concern shared by many academicians, government officials and pressure groups who have stressed the need to investigate the poor reading behavior of Malaysians. If this phenomenon is left unattended, the future of Malaysia will eventually be directed by reluctant readers, that is, by people who are ‘retarded’ in terms of knowledge, intelligence and maturity.

This article reports the findings of two studies designed to investigate reading behavior of

1. University students,
2. Secondary school students

The studies here make important links to the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual dimensions that form intricate features in the Malaysian context. The discussion examines the ways reading practices are currently situated in the Malaysian learning landscape and the implications to curriculum development in the coming century. back

Conceptual Framework

It has been widely documented that reading models influence the younger siblings. Studies have shown that ignoring reluctancy is tantamount to sustaining the conditions for another generation of reading problems in the schools as the sons and daughters of non-reading parents complete the vicious cycle (see Figure1).

It is widely recommended that the enterprise of developing reading behavior has to start at an early part of one’s life and that there should be a conducive reading environment to stimulate lifelong reading (Ambigapathy, 1997,Anderson 1982, Winebrenner, 1971, Sanacore, 1990).

Figure 1: Modelling Effects

(Source : Smith and Mikulecky 1978:78)

Students in Malaysia however, for the most of the time have often associated reading with academic tasks and not for knowledge or pleasure. This does not enable the students who have the ability to read to use this activity in a significant way for self or social development.

The formation of readers’ interests and behavior is determined by a number of factors such as social values of their society, school, family and environment. Each factor has its own function and promotes the development of readers’ personalities. For example, the frequency of literacy events in the home is linked closely to the students’ personal focus and involvement in the literacy events. Parents who create a friendly environment that nurtures reading by providing space, materials, encouragement and example will promote the love for reading (Greaney, 1986).

The cultivation of reading behavior is also influenced by a range of other factors like exposure to media and computers. We are currently living in an era where much public discussion takes place on television, video, multi-channeled satellite broadcasting, interactive cable systems, e-mail and the internet. It could possibly be argued that visual representation has to be read more actively as it conveys a range of meanings that accompany the print or verbal text.

The students’ reading behavior is thus highly complex and there are many relationships that can be linked to reading behavior. In order to study the reading behavior of the above groups, an explanatory model was formulated and tested on reading behavior. back

Explanatory Model of Reading Behavior

A review of literature on reading research have not only shown that things that can affect reading behavior are multi- factorial but a plethora of relationships have been found related to factors affecting reading behavior. However, the major factors that affect reading behavior identified in the literature include three areas/domains, namely 1) Student Characteristics, 2) Home factors, and 3) School factors.

Accordingly, in this study it is hypothesized that certain factors related to students' background, home and schools have an impact on students' reading behavior. It is further hypothesized that such social psychological factors as exposure to language and attitudes towards reading and language would have significant effects on reading behavior too.

The above hypotheses which form the theoretical framework of this study was then incorporated in the form of an explanatory model for the reading behavior of the students' under study. Selected personal backgrounds, home and school factors which are assumed at play in determining one's reading behavior are tested in the model. Based on this model, I have attempted to identify the most powerful predictors of reading behavior of the students. This model also assesses the relationship and importance of these variables in promoting reading behavior.

The model used to develop adequate explanation of reading behavior among university students in Malaysia is presented in figure 2. As for the reading behavior among secondary students, based on the findings among university students, I have modified the model by adding new variables to it and also removing some of the suggested variables in order to develop a more adequate explanation of reading behavior (figure 3).

Figure 2: An Explanatory Model of Reading Behaviour (University)

Method

This study was interested in investigating the home and school literacy practices and their relationships with the emergent literacy knowledge among students. The study sought to examine both the home and school settings; the time spent on reading per week, activeness in acquisition of reading materials, the variety of newspapers, books and magazines and the availability of the reading area.

The study aimed to investigate reading behavior among students, namely university students and secondary school students. In the case of reading behavior among university students, data was gathered from 674 Universiti Sains Malaysia students. Out of 674 respondents, there were 277 male and 397 female students. 282 students were from the Science stream while the others were from Arts stream.

The subjects from secondary school were 975 Form Four government secondary school students from 15 schools (different zones) in the state of Penang. Five hundred and thirty-seven were female and 438 were male students. Seventy-six percent of the students were 16 years old while the other 14 percent were 17 years old.

The main instrument used in this study was a structured questionnaire. The items in the questionnaire were related to selected personal background factors; home factors, school factors; exposure to language; attitudes towards languages and reading behavior. Most researchers use descriptive statistics, such as frequency counts and cross tabulations, to study the reading behavior of students or adults. Since this study is a sample study and is multivariate in nature, the main statistical tool used here is multiple regression analysis. back

Figure 3:An Explanatory Model of Reading Behaviour (Secondary School)

The Main Findings

The study reveals that 80.1 per cent of university students are reluctant readers of English-language materials, while as many (76.9 per cent) are reluctant readers in Malay language materials. Among Chinese students who can read materials in Chinese, 59.8 per cent are reluctant readers while 50.8 per cent of Indian students appear as reluctant readers in Tamil-language materials (Figure 4).

In the secondary school students category, it was found that 76.2 per cent of the students under study were reluctant readers of English language materials while 61.4 per cent of the students were reluctant readers of Malay-language materials (Figure 5).

After determining the rate of reluctancy, multiple regression was carried out on each of the independent variables of reading behaviour. Table 1 presents a summary of findings of the impact of background variables on home, school, intervening and reading habit variables in all languages in the case of university students. back

Table 1: Impact of Background Variables on Home, School, Intervening and Reading Habit Variables (All Languages:N=674)

Summary of Findings on University Students

Background Variables

With respect to reading habits in English and Chinese, but not in Malay and Tamil, students from urban rather than rural areas are found to have a better home reading environment. Rural-urban differences, however, are insignificant on the home variables for reading behaviour in Malay and in Tamil. It is likely that urban families see the need for their children to read in English. It is then important for rural families to create a reading environment similar to that found in urban homes. Among the ethnic groups involved in this study, the Chinese are found to live more in urban than in rural areas; this could be one of the reasons for urban-rural differences being significant for Chinese reading habits.

For the various languages, female students tend to feel they have better reading facilities at home. This finding could be used as one of the indicators on why female students generally are found to have better reading habits than males. In all languages, students from higher SES families are found to have a better home reading environment than students from lower SES families. Higher SES families are able to provide a better reading environment, especially reading materials, because these materials are more easily affordable to higher SES families. Reading materials are expensive in Malaysia, more so when there are fewer readers and production costs are high; eventually consumers have to pay a higher price for those materials. As such lower SES families are less likely to be able to afford to buy these materials for their children.

The ethnic differences in the home variables show that Indian students have a better reading environment for reading behavior in English, while Malay students tend to have a better environment for reading habits in the Malay language. With respect to reading behavior in languages, it was found that students from rural areas tend to come from schools that provide better reading facilities for reading materials in Chinese and English. Thus, it can be suggested that there is pressure from the environment, for example via parent-teacher associations requiring the schools to provide materials to meet the needs of the environment. It is also likely that since Tamil schools are mostly concentrated in rural areas, the urban-rural chasm is almost minimal in terms of facilities available.

With regard to ethnic differences, it was found that Indian students have a greater exposure to English language based materials than Malay and Chinese students while Malay students have a greater exposure to Malay language based materials than Chinese and Indian students. Compared to non-Malay students, Malay students are found to be significantly more active in acquiring reading materials in English and to spend more time reading in English. Malay students are also found to read a wider variety of materials in Malay and to spend more time reading materials in Malay.

Sex differences in the school variables are significant for reading behavior in English and Chinese but not in Malay and Tamil. Female students tend to feel that their schools provide a better reading environment than do the males. Female students are found to have a more positive attitude for reading in English and Malay, but not in the case of Chinese and Tamil.

Home Variables

Home influence is strongly correlated with exposure to English, Malay and Chinese, but it has no impact in the other two intervening variables. Although home influence has no impact on Tamil, it is positively correlated with attitudes towards reading in Tamil.

Reading models at home are strongly correlated with reading habits in Malay and Tamil, and to a lesser extent with Chinese, but not with English. Reading models are also significantly correlated with attitudes towards reading in English and in Malay but not in ethnic languages.

Availability of a greater amount of materials at home is positively linked to exposure to English and attitudes towards Malay language; but it has no impact on the other intervening variables. Variety of materials at home is positively correlated only with exposure to Chinese and has no impact on the other two intervening variables.

Home influence is found to be a stronger influence for students who read in English and Malay but not for those who read in Chinese and Tamil. It is likely that parents pay more attention to the languages that they consider more important for their children’s education and future prospects as Malaysian citizens, that is the English and Malay languages.

With respect to reading habits in English and Malay, but not in Chinese and Tamil, the presence of role models at home is positively linked to two reading behavior variables: variety of materials and time spent on reading. It is likely that parents and siblings who read at home do read a variety of materials; e.g. newspapers and books in English and in Malay, and thus spend more time reading

School Variables

Availability of reading area is strongly correlated with exposure to the English language only. It has no impact on the other two attitudinal variables. Peer influence is positively linked to exposure to language, be it English, Malay or one’s mother tongue. However, teacher’s influence is positively linked to exposure to English and Chinese only. The variable "attitudes towards reading" in English and in Malay, but not in Chinese and Tamil languages is correlated with the teachers’ influence but not with peer influence.

Variety of materials is not correlated to any intervening variables. However amount of materials is positively linked to attitudes toward Chinese and Tamil.

Peer influence in reading behavior in the various languages is generally stronger than teacher influence. It is positively linked to all the reading habit variables in Malay. Peer influence among those who read English and Chinese is stronger too in each case but limited to variety of reading materials, activeness in acquisition of reading materials and time spent in reading. Among those who read in Tamil, peer influence is strongly related to activeness in acquisition of reading materials. These findings indicate that peer influence is an important determinant of reading behavior in all languages. Since peer influence is stronger than teacher influence, teachers and parents should find ways to capitalize on peer influence to promote reading behavior among the students.

Teacher influence is found to be stronger among those who read English and Malay, rather than Chinese and Tamil. It is likely that Chinese and Indian students for whatever reasons did not find this emphasis on reading appropriate or relevant. Certainly, students spend less time with these teachers, compared to English and Malay teachers.

Intervening Variables

Attitude towards reading in the English language is strongly correlated to activeness in acquisition of English materials but this correlation is not relevant in the case of students reading in Malay, Chinese and Tamil.

Attitudes toward language is weakly correlated with two of the reading behavior variables in English, weakly correlated with each of the Malay reading behavior variables, but has no impact on reading behavior the mother tongue languages. Taken as a set, as presented in Table 2, it was found that in terms of indirect impact on reading habits, the school variables contribute more than home variables. However, in terms of contribution to the explained variance of reading habit variables, it was found that home variables and school variables account equally for the greatest portion of the explained variance in two different reading behavior variables. Home variables account for the greatest portion of the explained variance in variety of reading materials and habitualness in reading. An explanation of these findings is tat home must begin by creating the reading environment by providing materials, influence and reading models for the students to start the habit of reading for pleasure, and the school must continue the reading habit by providing sufficient reading area in the library, encouragement from teachers and influence from peers. In sum, this study asserts that reading habits are cultivated at home and in school with adults and peers serving as models, giving encouragement, or influencing one another; and with adequate facilities in terms of reading materials and reading area.

Table 2: Contribution of the Four Sets of Variables to the Explained Variance of Reading Habit Variables with Respect to English (N=674)

From the findings on reading behavior in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil, it is now possible to provide a profile of a habitual reader in each language. In this article the profile of a habitual reader in English is presented. back

Profile of a Habitual Reader in English

A Malaysian university student is more likely to be a habitual reader in English if he or she

• Lives in an urban area rather than a rural area.
• Comes from a family with a higher SES
• Comes from a home where there is a greater variety and amount of materials in English, more home influence and reading models at home.
• Has attended a school with a greater variety and amount of materials in English, with more teachers who encourage students to read and more friends who read English.
• Has more exposure to English.
• Has a more positive attitude towards reading in English.

Among the habitual readers, this study has found that Indian and Malay students are more habitual than the Chinese. However, they do not share the same characteristics. Hence, in terms of ethnic differences, Indian students tend to come from a home where there is a greater variety and amount of materials in English, more home influence and reading models at home; have attended a school with a greater variety of English reading materials, with more teachers who encourage students to read and more friends who read English materials.

Malay students are found to be more active in acquiring reading materials in English and they also spend more time reading materials in English. back

Summary of Findings on Secondary School Students

Background Variables

After looking at the rate of reluctancy among secondary school students, which was reported earlier in this article, my next concern was to look into the relationships between background variables and home variables, all of which have a bearing on students’ reading habits in English. The background variables included seven variables namely, sex, age, ethnicity, stream, grades in English and Malay Language and socioeconomic status. The home variables included in the model are related to reading materials available at home, home influence and reading area at home.

In order to determine the impact of the background variables on home variables, multiple regression analysis was applied. Table 3 shows the results of the regressions.

Based on the sample data, all of the background variables have a significant impact either on one or all of the home variables. However, SES is found be the only background variable that is most strongly correlated with all the six home variables (p <.0001 in 5 variables and p<.001 in 1 variable). Hence, we can say that students who come from higher SES families tend to have a greater amount and variety of reading materials at home, more positive home influence, parents who are more likely to read and serve as reading models and a greater reading area at home.

It was also found that students who fared well in the languages at PMR level come from homes where there is more amount and variety of reading materials in English, positive home influence and parents serving as reading models.

Table 3: Impact of Background Variables on Home, School, Intervening and Reading Habit Variables (All Languages: N=975)

School Variables

The next concern was to look at the relationships between background variables and the school variables that have bearing upon the development of reading behavior. As can be noticed, unlike the home variables, two of the background variables, Commerce stream and SES do not have any impact on the school variables. However, sex seems to have a strong impact on five of the school variables. The analysis shows that female students tend to come from schools that have a greater variety of reading materials in the library, more teacher influence, greater peer influence, more peer reading model as well as greater reading area in the school library. In terms of ethnicity, the non-Malay students, in this case the Chinese and Indian students seem to have more peer influence than the Malay students.

Intervening Variables

I then examined how the background variables, home variables and school variables affected the five intervening variables. Unlike the background variables, most of the home variables and some of the school variables do not have a strong impact on the five intervening variables. Most of the background variables do have an impact on media exposure and home environment exposure. It is also found that non-Malay students have a more positive attitude towards reading in English and the English language.

Reading Habit Variables

All of the background variables, except grades in Language, have an impact on at least one of the reading habit variables. It seems that more female students tend to read a variety of newspapers and spend more money on buying reading materials in English while male students tend to spend reading at a variety of places. This supports an earlier analysis where more female students were found to spend time on leisure reading.

It also seems that students who are sixteen years old spend more time reading materials in English than students who are seventeen years old. It is worth noting here that the seventeen year old students are those who are from Chinese/Tamil vernacular schools or students who are repeating their PMR examination. It can also be seen that non-Malay students read a variety of materials in English, especially newspapers. However, Malay students are found to read more magazines in English. Students from the Science stream seem to read a wider variety of reading materials in English than students that read from the Arts and Commerce stream. This is an interesting feature which also emerges in a study on Universiti Sains Malaysia students, where undergraduates in the Science discipline are found to be more active in activities related to English language (Ambigapathy, 1993).

Grades obtained in the language do not have any impact on reading habits. This finding is consistent with other studies where students who have good grades in the language are not found to be habitual readers in English. In a study carried out by Ambigapathy (1993) it was found that Malay students who were weak in the English language spent more time reading materials in English for pleasure than non-Malay students who had good grades in English at the SPM level.

As for the SES variable, it can be seen that students from higher SES families tend to read more variety of materials in English, purchase reading materials more actively, read a variety of books and spend more money on buying reading materials in English.

As for the impact of the home variables on reading habits variable, four out of the six home variables have an impact on at least one of the reading habit variables.

Students who come from homes where there is a variety of reading materials in English tend to read a variety of magazines in English. It can also be seen that students who come from homes where reading materials are available tend to read a variety of materials, spend more time reading in a week and read a variety of newspapers. Students, who come from homes where there are reading models, are active in acquiring reading materials in English and spend more time reading in a month. Students who have parents who read at home tend to read a variety of materials themselves, are active in acquiring reading materials, spend more time reading materials in English per week, read a variety of magazines and, read at a variety of places.

As for the school variables, only five of the eight variables have an impact on at least one of the reading habit variables. Teacher influence is correlated with variety of materials and variety of books read. Students who come from schools where there is a strong teacher influence tend to read a variety of materials, especially books. It is also found that students who have friends who read in school tend to be active in acquiring reading materials, read more in a month, also read more in a week, read more newspapers and are active in purchasing reading materials. The findings also show that students who had teachers as reading models in the school tend to read more in a week and spent more money on buying reading materials in English. It was also found that students who saw teachers reading in school tend to be active in acquiring reading materials and read more books themselves. Students who had more reading area in the library tend to read more books too.

Unlike the background, home and school variables it was found that each of the intervening variables had an impact on some of the reading habit variables. Students who were exposed to the media, namely television and radio tend to be active in acquiring reading materials, spend more time reading in a week and a month, are active in purchasing reading materials in English, read more newspapers and spent more money in buying reading materials in English. The findings also reveal that students who had more exposure to the English language around their homes tend to be active in acquiring reading materials, read more in a week and a month, read more newspapers and books in English. Students who had exposure to the English language around the school tend to read a variety of materials, are active in acquiring these reading materials, spent more time in a week and a month reading, are active in purchasing reading materials, read a variety of newspapers and books and spent more money buying reading materials in English. It was also found that students who had a positive attitude towards reading materials in English tend to read a variety of materials, are active in acquiring reading materials, spent more time reading in a week, read more newspapers and books in English. As for attitudes towards English language, it was found that students who had a positive attitude towards English language tend to read a variety of materials, are active in acquiring reading materials, spend more time reading in a month, are active in purchasing reading materials, read a variety of newspapers and books and spent more money on buying reading materials in English.

I have presented the findings based on the regression analysis in accordance with causal priorities suggested in the explanatory model of reading habits. Taken as a set, as presented in Table 4, it is observed that intervening variables account for the greatest proportion of the explained variance in eight of the ten reading habit variables whereas background and home variables contribute to the other two reading habit variables.

From the findings on reading habits in English, we are now able to provide a profile of a habitual reader. back

Profile of a Habitual Reader in English

A Form Four Secondary School Student from Penang is more likely to be a habitual reader in English if one :

• Is a female rather than a male,
• Is a non-Malay,
• Is from the science stream,
• Comes from a family with a higher SES,
• Comes from a home where reading materials, are available in English; has parents Who read materials in English and serve as reading models,

^{Table 4: Contributions of the Four Sets of Variables to the Explained Variance of Reading Habits}

^{Variables with Respect to English (N=975)}

• Comes from a school where there is more encouragement from the teachers; teachers who read themselves and serve as reading models,
• Has encouragement from friends to read materials in English,
• Listens to radio programmes in English and watches television programmes in English,
• Has exposure to English language around the house,
• Has exposure to English language around the school,
• Has a more positive attitude towards reading, and
• Has a more positive attitude towards English language. back

Conclusion

The results indicate that reading models both at home and in school bear important relationships to reading behavior. Students who come from homes where there are reading models as well as schools where language teachers are reading models tend to read more materials. These findings reinforce the importance of reading models that was highlighted earlier as one of the major concerns of this study. The results presented here, also have, in several aspects, important implications for education, teachers and parents. All of us involved in promoting reading habits need to seriously consider the factors that seem to influence reading behavior as indicated in this study and translate these implications into practical use. In other words, by using these findings and taking crucial measures, it is hoped that the vicious circle identified in the reading model discussed at the beginning of this discussion can not only be broken, but a vigorous reading society in Malaysia can also be intelligently promoted and sustained.

The reading model presented alerts the importance of modeling effects. This study has found that unless people who read, do continue to read willingly for information and pleasure, we won’t have models who can contribute effectively towards promoting positive reading behavior. The lack of positive reading behavior is one that breeds at both secondary school as well as university levels. If university students who read will continue to read after graduation, their influence as models in their respective homes, workplaces and schools if they are educators, will contribute to the amelioration of the problem of widespread reading reluctancy in the nation.

This study also demonstrates the need to provide students with more media and information technology exposure and to instill positive attitudes towards language and reading, specifically in the area of English language learning. It is here that schools have a critical role to play so as to create environments that encourage reading behavior. Relevant authorities, especially teachers, parents and administrators should note the findings in the study and chart an agenda to promote positive reading behavior. In this regard, it is no longer useful to regard reading as an intra-personal or individual activity. Reading has to be strongly promoted as an interpersonal, social or family related activity that can advance the social development of the Malaysian society in the 21st century. The two studies reported in this article also provide strong empirical support for our assertion that parents and siblings at home and teachers and peers at school can direct their efforts and contributions to the development of positive reading behavior. back

References

Ambigapathy Pandian (1997), Reading in Malaysia, UKM Bangi.

Ambigapathy Pandian (1997), "Literacy in Post Colonial Malaysia", Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 40:5.

Anderson, M.J.(1982) :Reading Attitudes of College Students: Progress toward

Adequate Assessment". Reading Improvement 20(2):120-124.

Frank Small and Associates (1996), Study of Reading Behavior in Malaysia, National Library Malaysia.

Greaney, V (1986) "Parental Influences on Reading" The Reading Teacher 39(8): 813-818.

Sanacore, J (1990) "Creating the Lifetime Reading Habit in Social Studies" Journal of Reading 33(6): 414-418

Smith Carl, Smith Sharon and Mikulecky L (1978), Teaching Reading in Secondary School Content Subjects: A Book Thinking Process, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

Winebrenner, R (1971) How Can I Get My Teenager To Read? Newark: International Reading Association.

New Straits Times, 21 June 1994

New Straits Times, 29 August 1996 back

About the author

Dr Ambigapathy Pandian, an Associate Professor at the School of Humanities, USM is also the co ordinator of the Literacy Project in the School of Humanities at the Universiti of Sains Malaysia. He obtained his Doctorate from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1993 and has been a contributor to English literacy in Malaysia. Dr Pandian has research and published on Literacy in Malaysia authoring the book Reading in Malaysia and editing the volumes Readings towards Global Literacy: Visions, Revisions and Vistas in Education and Literasi Dalam Pendidikan: Perubahan dan Caaran.

Email: ambiga@usm.my