ONLINE READING HABITS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN BANGLADESH & ITS EFFECTS IN ESL CLASSROOM

Abstract

With the current surge of modern digital technologies, the obsession with social media, smart-phones/televisions and other gadgets, the habit of reading books in the younger generation, is undergoing a decline. In fact, the poor performance of the university students in the ESL classroom has become a matter of great concern for any ESL teacher in Bangladesh. Consequently, the research problems as being the students' excessive interests in online activities and their disappointing academic performance badly demand an investigation of their online reading behaviour. Hence, this study keenly explores the online reading habits of university students in Bangladesh so as to determine the effects of their extreme preoccupation with online activities in the ESL classroom. In order to have a broad overview of the current reading habits, a questionnaire was provided to 80 university students from three different groups: Bangla, English & Madrasa Medium background. A correlation between reading habits and writing proficiency has also been drawn. Besides, students were asked to write a composition on a given topic to evaluate their writing skills. Based on the findings of a questionnaire-based survey and the assessment of their written composition, it is deemed that reading habit should be built and catered from the very childhood. This paper also attempts to provide some guidelines for the parents and the ESL teachers all over the world for improving the reading habit of students in particular and the larger cross-sections of people in general.