A case study of English-major students’ preferences for English reading from a printed text versus electronic text

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the preferences of English- major students to determine their reading activities when they have the choice of reading a printed text or an electronic text. The participants chosen for the study were 105 students from English reading classes at an English department. For the purpose of finding out students’ preferences for English reading from printed or electronic texts, a questionnaire for online reading comprehension was employed. The result of an independent-samples t test showed that there was no significant difference between the genders (male and female) regarding preference for printed or electronic texts. The results of a one-way ANOVA showed that there were significant differences between the different proficiency levels (high, intermediate, and low) regarding their preferences for printed text or electronic text in male and female groups. Interestingly, both the males and females in the high proficiency group preferred the printed text over the electronic text, and the students at the low proficiency level preferred to use the electronic text over the printed text to read. In conclusion, these results can provide educators and instructors with text preferences for their students when they designate the reading medium which could improve readers’ reading comprehension performance in the long run.