Indonesian Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Technology (MARCOPOLO)

Vol. 1, No. 9, 2023 : 805 - 822

Students’ Reading Habit and Their Reading Comprehension in

Learning English

Nurhayati1*, Geraldo Amelius Najoan2

English Education Department, Universitas Klabat
Corresponding Author: Nurhayati nurhayati@unklab.ac.id
ARTICLEINFO ABSTRACT
Keywords: Reading Habit, The purpose of this study is to find out the
Reading Comprehension,
correlation between students’ reading habit in
Students, English learning
learning English and their reading comprehension
Received : 09 September in learning English and was used quantitative
Revised : 27 September descriptive approach. The data was collected from
Accepted: 28 October
100 students of Grade VII students in SMP Negeri
©2023 Nurhayati, Najoan: 1 Airmadidi. To answer the research questions,
This is an open-access article descriptive mean analysis and Pearson Product
distributed under the terms of Coefficient Correlation were used. The findings
the Creative Commons revealed that the level of students’ reading habit
Atribusi 4.0 Internasional.
was 3.30, indicating as moderate level. The level of
students’ reading comprehension was 2.70,
indicating as moderate level, and the p = 0.00, and
r = 0.45, indicating that there is a significant
correlation between reading habit and reading
comprehension. However, the correlation was
moderate. Since there is a significant correlation
between the two variables, it is important for
teachers to pay attention to students’ habit in
reading for their good comprehension as well.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/marcopolo.v1i9.6587 805

( E-ISSN : 2986-8009
https://journal.formosapublisher.org/index.php/marcopolo
Nurhayati, Najoan

INTRODUCTION
In the world of education, according to Maharsi and Maulani (2019), an
essential skill that students can acquire in learning English is reading. It means,
reading really helps students in learning English. Furthermore, according to
Wiyasa (2015), reading is essential for students because reading is required in
school, especially for books written in English. From that, students can know that
reading is important in learning English. In reading, it is the habit of reading that
can help students to get information from their lessons easily. This is supported
by Pramita and Atmazaki (2021) that, when a student has a reading habit it can
lead them to organize what they read. From that reason, the purpose students
read is to find out the information, they get from the reading so students can
understand what they read.
The student's goal for reading is to understand what is read. For example,
Rasema (2020) stated that interest in reading is when students get information
from the text they read. It means the information that students get proves that
they have read well and understand every piece of information they get. As we
all know that it is natural for someone to read to find out information and
understand the concepts and situations in the reading. According to Sesma et al
(2009) without the ability to understand related words in one sentence, the
readers will not get any information. Due to that, reading English is difficult
when there are some words that the readers do not understand. This is supported
by Zhang and Annual (2008), that students who have problems with the inability
to interpret difficult words in English also find it difficult for them to improve
their reading comprehension. Hence, reading comprehension will prove whether
students understand what they read or not.
It is assumed that students' reading habit improve their reading
comprehension in learning English. According to Indriani (2019) reading is about
thinking, assessing, and finding out about written texts. Hence, people nowadays
begin to cultivate what is called reading because it is considered very important
not to misinterpret information. Tantri (2017) added that reading activities that
have become habits and are developed will help students achieve effective
results. Consequently, students who already have the motivation to read will
make it easier for them to understand the main content contained in the text. As
claimed by Cahyono (2011), the students' abilities were seen when they were able
to listen and connect every word in English into one meaning. For this reason, it
is evident that students' best understanding when reading texts in English is
supported by their habitual reading culture. In short, students' reading habits can
improve the comprehension of their reading.
The researchers found some problems in students' reading habit. The first
one is limited access to reading resources. Based on the research found in China
by Yi et al. (2019), students in developing countries also often experience the
problem of a lack of reading resources themselves. This proves that even in
developed countries, they still have problems with reading habits. The second
problem is the lack of reading programs carried out in schools. The researcher
found an example in research conducted at one of the Universities in Malaysia.
According to Mohd and Ahmad (2003), students' reading of texts in English in

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this school is low due to the lack of implementation of an extensive reading

program in schools. In other words, inventory in terms of reading also influences
students' reading habits. Lastly, the researcher found an example from SMP
Negeri 2 Tembuku. Arsani (2020), in her observation, found that the students in
seventh-grade parallel A of SMP Negeri 2 Tembuku had learning problems in
English, especially reading skills and it showed in data obtained from initial
observations showed the average reading value of new students reached 57.18
with learning completeness of 35.71%. This showed that at the school and
country levels, there are still problems with reading habits.
Moreover, the researchers also found several problems in students' reading
comprehension. The researchers found evidence from one of the schools in
Wuhan, China. Dara (2019) found that the lack of knowledge of language in
reading a text is one of the problems. It shows that, when students read English
texts, it will be difficult for them to understand the meaning of the readings if
they do not understand the language they are reading. Similarly, Ganie and
Rangkuti (2019) found that high school students in Medan had problems in
reading comprehension when there was vocabulary they didn't understand. It
means, the problem regarding vocabulary also turns out to have an effect when
they read. Then, a problem was found in SMP N 4 Tegallalang from Saraswati
(2021), students at this school had problems finding specific information through
their reading passages. In other words, their difficulty in finding information or
understanding in reading turns out to be a fundamental problem for readers.
Furthermore, the researchers want to see if there is a significant
relationship between students' reading habits and their reading
comprehension in learning English. Firstly, the researchers have asked the
English teacher at SMP Negeri 1 Airmadidi about students' reading habits and
reading comprehension in learning English. Based on what the teacher told the
researchers, there are some of the students who still have deficiencies in learning
English through reading. When students are given the opportunity to read, there
are some who are not interested because the reading seems long or complicated.
Then, when asked to read the passage, some of the students who read it often
make mistakes in pronunciation or have some problems with intonation. Also,
for students who are asked to read they often say they do not know how to read.
And that was caused by the lack of reading habits of the students. From there, it
was found that they had difficulty reading because from the assumption they
had low reading habits and influenced their reading comprehension. To support
the examples above, Sartika et al (2020) explains that to have a good reading
comprehension the students need to have a good reading habit as well. In other
words, when students want to understand more about what they read, they need
to read more. Tanura (2022) stated that habit influences students' reading
activities and, in this case, refers to students' reading comprehension. The
purpose of this study was to find out the level of the students′ reading habit and
their reading comprehension. Also, the researchers would like to find whether
there was a significant correlation between reading habits and reading
comprehension when students learn English. This study was intended to find out
the correlation between reading habits and reading comprehension in learning

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English. Specifically, this study was designed to answer these following

questions: First, what is the level of students’ reading habit. Second, what is the
level of students’ reading comprehension, and the third, is there any significant
correlation between students’ reading habit and their reading comprehension.
In this study, the Alternative Hypothesis (Ha) was used. The researchers
used alternative hypotheses because based on the several problems, it was found
that there is a significant correlation between the variables under study. The
results of this study are intended to be useful for several parties. First, this
research may help teachers when they teach English. Teachers could help
students through the motivation given to students to improve their reading
habits. In addition, teachers can also provide reading resources and reading
situations that are enjoyable and good so that students can easily understand the
reading. Second, this research may help students to learn English. Students will
have a very good chance of understanding what is read when they have similar
reading habits and can support their reading. Third, for other researchers. This
research may help other researchers to become references and support in their
future research. Finally, readers in every circle or even readers at the regular
education level can get any information contained in this research that can be
understood and can be applied to achieve their reading comprehension through
their reading habits.
This study was focused on the level of reading habit and level of reading
comprehension of the grade VII parallel A which consisted of 30 students and
each 10 students for parallel B, C, D, E, F, G, and H who are enrolled in the second
semester of the 2022/2023 academic year. This study is a quantitative study, and
the correlative method was used in this study. Through this study, the
respondents fill out a questionnaire that was adapted from Poluan (2022) and
originally from Scales and Rhee (2001) for students′ reading habit and for reading
comprehension the adapted questionnaire from Hidayati (2018) was used. There
were several limitations in this research study. This study was implemented only
in Airmadidi, specifically in SMP Negeri 1 Airmadidi. The respondents of this
study were only the students from grade VII. Then, in distributing the
questionnaires to the students, the researchers could not avoid some of the
possibilities that the students did when filling out the questionnaire. Some
respondents may not be serious about filling out the questionnaire that has been
given to them and there are other things that disturb their concentration such as
rushing and distractions from their friends.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Reading is a source of information. Reading is the best skill to obtain
information and knowledge. Many people argue about the information obtained
through reading (Woudenberg, 2021). In reading, it turns out that you cannot just
look at the reading briefly but must also understand it. According to Pais (2020)
reading is “comprehending the ideas, gaining new words, studying how the
terms are used” (p.1). In other words, in reading, one must try to understand
what is being read to get information. In terms of reading, many have explained
the meaning of reading which is a simple benefit of reading. Many do not realize
that reading helps people understand life. Hughes (2015) found that reading is
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to know about things in the world and work to build awareness about new
things. It means people get to know the ideas that are around them. In addition,
reading is a skill that is useful for all people in various circles of society.
Therefore, reading is getting information for individuals, groups, and even
students, and it is emphasized once again that reading is very important. In
learning English, reading is important when students study at school. First,
students need to read carefully to read the questions in the exam. According to
Wiyasa (2015) reading helps students’ whey they take an examination and need
to understand the written questions. When they read the questions in the
questions they will answer well. Moreover, Munawir and Ramli (2021) also
stated that the more students read, the newer words they would find. In other
words, reading helps students expand their vocabulary. Diarani and Syamsi
(2019) also believed that “reading continuously, it would improve someone’s
vocabularies” (p.2). By knowing many words, it will broaden the knowledge of
the readers, especially the students who are currently in the phase of learning
and receiving knowledge. Furthermore, Mart (2012) stated that “reading will
help learners to decipher new words that they need for conversations” (p.93). It
emphasizes that students who read over and over can help them communicate
in English using every word they come up with while reading. In all the above
theories, habits are closely related to all aspects. This means that reading habits
play an important role for students in obtaining information.
Habits can be defined as something that people do repeatedly. According
to Duhig (2012), habit is something that is done repeatedly every day without
thinking about it and does it right away. This means that habit is one part of
humans in everyday life. Simamora (2015) claimed that the habit was consistent
and often carried out continuously and resulted in effectiveness. It also means
that in an action that is done repeatedly will result in something that is effectively
profitable or even effective is not profitable. In other words, good habits that a
person does greatly affect the next thing that is the result of that habit.
Furthermore, habits affect a person's personality. Wood (2017) found that people
facilitate desired behavior with beneficial habits followed by action. Thus, if
reading is an action that reflects the students' habits, it means that their reading
habits will unwittingly become part of their personality.
As previously explained, reading is a process of obtaining information
and knowledge by knowing the meaning of each word that is read and habits
which are actions that are carried out every time and produce an effect similar to
reading habits. Kumara and Sampath (2019) explained that reading habits are
skills that are actively carried out to gain meaning and knowledge in the aspects
that are read. This is emphasized that students who have reading habits show
that they will produce something from the actions that are often carried out
which are reading habits. Hence, reading habits can provide benefits and uses
for those who have them. Furthermore, Owusu-Acheaw and Larson (2014),
found that students with good reading habits are able to answer questions easily
compared to students who do not get used to reading. That means reading habits
are based on intentional and planned. Therefore, when students get used to
reading, they will be great to understand the meaning as well. Moreover, there

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are factors that can influence students' reading habits such as reading interest
and reading ability. It is no longer a surprise in the world of reading habits that
there are factors that support reading habits. One of them is reading interest.
According to Kirby et. al (2011) they stated that interest in reading develops first
at home when parents actively teach children reading skills. When they are at
home, parents play an active role in encouraging their children to be diligent in
reading and be aware of the interest in reading from within the child itself.
However, if the child does not have an interest in reading from within, that is a
challenge. In addition, Fitria (2019) explains that when there is an interest in
reading, students will be active in reading and to get it students must have a
willingness to read. Then, there is something called the impact of reading
interest. Renninger and Bachrach (2015) found that interest in reading turned out
to have a strong impact on influencing the minds and feelings of readers about
what they read. It means that student interest is the first strong factor to improve
students' reading habit.
Word recognition is useful to assist the reader in the reading process.
Harianto (2020) stated that, a student must recognize word by word to absorb
the message. It shows that, through recognizable words it will help students
better understand what is read. Adams (2011) also supports by providing a view
of word recognition that with word recognition, students can connect word by
word to clarify and strengthen the understanding of what is read. It is
emphasized that students who read by repeating sentences or words are one of
the word recognition techniques. So hereby, Schadler and Thissen (1981) explain
that the process of word recognition becomes a technique and skill for readers in
reading. Therefore, the existence of word recognition supports this factor to be a
way that readers get used to when reading.
There will be a challenge for English learners when there is a problem in
reading ability. In fact, reading ability is needed in the world of learning English.
According to Chen et al. (2018) the definition of reading ability is the ability that
results from two aspects, namely academic achievement, and personal
development. Academic achievements that students get improve their ability to
read. Herbers, Cutuli and Supkoff (2012) support this statement and they explain
that academic achievement produced by students can train and enrich their new
skills. Personal development according to Abbott (2021) is “phallic stage, which
a child enters at around 4 years of age” (p. 30). This applies to the things a child
does from childhood to adulthood.
Reading comprehension is an important part of reading to find out the
results of the reader whether they find meaning in what they read or not. Indriani
(2019) stated that reading comprehension is to understand the meaning, function
and find the information contained in the reading. Also, in the process of
searching for existing understanding, readers must be able to find the correct
understanding of the information obtained. According to Septiarini and Rahmat
(2018) appropriate understanding of readers is needed to the maximum because
the knowledge obtained must also be correct. Thus, when knowing the context
of the reading the readers must be ready to describe what they get. Sulaiman and
Harpiansi (2018) also stated that reading is an intelligent process that requires

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readers to learn a lot about each symbol and the meaning of sentences contained
in existing paragraphs, be it short passages or long passages.
In reading comprehension, there is a factor that enables students to
understand what they read, namely the intrinsic factor. In the opinion of Logan
et al (2011), intrinsic factors can motivate students to learn to understand what
they read. Therefore, the students provide their own strategies to find out the
meaning of what is read. As said by Rosmarie (2021), students will try to find out
the topics and main ideas in every paragraph they read. In fact, students must
try the same thing with text in any language and especially in English. Lipka and
Siegel (2012) also stated that students who read English texts must need attention
and focus to understand what is read. In other words, when a student reads a
text, this process must be encouraged by self-motivation to try to understand
what is read to produce an understanding worthy of being called a good reading
comprehension.
Students who easily understand what they read must have support from
their family to keep them motivated and also supportive reading sources.
According to Mohseni and Ahmadi (2017), motivation from their family can
influence a student to be comfortable reading and easy to understand texts. This
factor is called extrinsic factor and is often forgotten by people today because
support from their families to diligently read will motivate them to persevere.
Likewise, readers will find it easy to read if there is support through the sources
they will read. Moreillon (2007) stated that the collection of reading provided in
the library is a factor that supports students to make it easier for them to read. In
other words, students will have good opportunities to read when resources are
available. In short, the two points explained above will help students in their
learning understanding and it is called extrinsic factor. When reading a text in
English the students experience difficulties. For example, students find it difficult
to get and interpret the main ideas in the text. Kendeou et al (2014) found that
students who were weak in understanding English reading were those who did
not understand the vocabulary and grammar of the text. Because, if students do
not have knowledge of sentence structures it becomes difficult for them. Cain
and Towse (2008) also stated that, students who have difficulty understanding
the language in the text they read are when they do not understand the context.
That is, these difficulties interfere with students in achieving understanding in
reading. Cain (2016) also added students will also experience difficulties in
understanding the reading in the inference section. In other words, inference is
important to incorporate every information contained in the text or story so that
if students do not understand this passage, they fail to have good reading
comprehension. Therefore, these difficulties are factors that must be avoided by
students.
There are students who use technique while reading. For example, to
understand a word they do not understand, the students ask someone else or
look up the meaning in a dictionary. Jun Zhang (2001) found that, if there are
problems in reading, students often try to solve the problem through the
dictionary or ask for help to clarify the meaning by friends. This shows that there
are ways that students can do to understand reading. Moreover, reading

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techniques when difficult and even long sentences or words appear can affect
their understanding. Jalilehvand (2011) stated that the length of the reading and
difficult sentences can change the way they understand the reading. In addition,
reading for a long time to focus is also a technique that is used when trying to
understand text. Brown (2017) analyzed that reading for a long time is very useful
to help readers focus on ideas. This emphasized these techniques affect the
reader's understanding of reading the text.

Studens’ Reading Students’ Reading

Habit Comprehension

Picture 1. Conceptual Framework of Students Reading Habit and their

Reading Comprehension.

Figure above show the major variables of this study. The variables are
students' reading habits, which is the independent variable (variable X), and
reading comprehension as the dependent variable (variable Y). Based on these
variables, the conceptual framework is assumed that students’ reading habits
correlate significantly with their reading comprehension.

METHODOLOGY
In conducting this study, a quantitative study was used. This research is
called quantitative research because the reporting uses numbers. According to
Babbie (2010) quantitative study is focus on numerical mathematical statistical
measurement and analysis through data from survey results or questionnaires.
Descriptive design was also used in this research because the researcher
provided an explanation of the level of students' reading habit and reading
comprehension in learning English. Johnson and Christensen (2010) stated that
descriptive design is “to learn about attitudes, behaviors, and demographics (e.g.,
age, gender, ethnicity, education) of people.” (p. 366). Then, the researcher used
a correlation method to see the correlation between reading habit and reading
comprehension in students learning English. According to Mukaka (2012),
correlation is a statistical method used to assess the possibility of a linear
relationship between two variables. Thus, the research designs were correlative
and descriptive. The respondents of this study were grade VII students from SMP
Negeri 1Airmadidi, especially those who enrolled in the second semester of the
2022/2023 academic year. The respondents included the students from grade VII
parallel A to parallel H. Further, the respondents who were included in the data
were only 10 students in each parallel and were grouped into 80 students for the
pilot study. This was done using data from these eight classes from a pilot study
to a real study, but in real study, the statistician recommended the researcher to
add 20 students from parallel A and it became 30 students for the whole class for
this parallel and became 100 students for the real study. The researcher is
responsible for the data collected by not distributing the data twice to the same
respondent and not at the same time.

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In this study, the researcher used convenience sampling. According to

Etikan, Musa and Alkassim (2016) convenience sampling is a technique used to
collect easily accessible information from participants. In other words, sampling
techniques are for participants who give their time and also fill in the required
data. Therefore, the sample of grade VII (10 students in parallel B to H and 30
students in parallel A) of 100 students partook in this study.
To collect data, the researcher used two questionnaires as an instrument
for this study. Firstly, the questionnaire originally came from Scales and Rhee
(2001) and was adapted. The questionnaire was used to collect data
regarding the reading habits of students. The researcher modified the
questionnaire, and it contains 20 items. The first part consists of statements
number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 which direct respondents to interest in
reading. The second part are the statements related to word recognition when the
respondent reads; namely statements number 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. Third,
statement numbers 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 are referred to reading ability.
Specifically, the number of statements on reading habits is presented in the
following table.

Tabel 1. Number of Statements in Each Subscale of Reading Habits Instrument

Name of Subscale Number of Statements Statement Serial Number
Reading Interest 10 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
Word Identification 5 11,12,13,14,15
Reading Ability 5 16,17,18,19,20
TOTAL 20 20
Secondly, another questionnaire used for reading comprehension was
from Hidayati (2018) and the questionnaire already translated into Indonesian,
and the researcher adapted the questionnaire as well. The items for the
questionnaire consist of 17 items only. For the first part of the questionnaire there
are statement number 1, 2, 3, and 4 referring to intrinsic factors in reading
comprehension. Next, the statements number 5 and 6 are about extrinsic factors
that are related to reading comprehension. Then, statements number 7, 8, 9, and
10 referring to difficulties in reading. Also, the last part consists of reading
technique in statements number 11 to 17. Specifically, the number of statements
on reading comprehension is presented in the following table.

Table 2. Number of Statements in Each Subscale of Reading

Comprehension Instrument
Name of Subscale Number of Statement Serial Number
Statements
Intrinsic Factors 4 1,2,3,4
Extrinsic Factors 2 5,6
Difficulties in Reading Reading 4 7,8,9,10
Technique 7 11,12,13,14,15,16,17

TOTAL 17 17

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And to fill them, respondents fill out on a scale of 1-5 which refers to never
to always, as in the following: 1 (Sangat Tidak Setuju); 2 (Tidak Setuju); 3 (Netral);
4 (Setuju); and last 5 (Sangat Setuju). In addition, before distributing the
questionnaire of reading habits. The researchers conducted a pilot study only to
find the validity and reliability of the questionnaire’s items. This pilot study was
conducted at SMP Negeri 1 Airmadidi, which is in Sarongsong II, Airmadidi. The
respondents of the pilot study involved 10 students in each parallel of grade VII
in the school which are eight parallels (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H) in the academic
year of 2022/2023 which is the same setting as the real study. Then, after the
researchers distributed the questionnaires, the researchers ran the data, and the
results showed that out of 20 items for variable x (Reading Habit) there was 1
invalid item, namely item number 20. Also, out of 17 items for variable y
(Reading Comprehension) there were 3 invalid items, namely items 1, 4, and 9.
After that, Cronbach's Alpha scale is used to see the reliability of the
questionnaires. The result of the reliability test for the questionnaire in variable x
(Reading Habit) was 0.697 and for the questionnaire in variable y (Reading
Comprehension) was 0.642.
In addition, since the two questionnaires were already used by previous
researchers for their pilot study and real study, the researchers used the same
questionnaires and did not need to issue invalid items when carrying out real
study data. The reason was that the criteria and standard of these questionnaires
were reliability, and it was reliable enough to use the two questionnaires from
the pilot study and the real study. When the researchers distributed the
questionnaires, the researchers explained to the respondents how to fill out the
questionnaires. The researcher did not force the respondents but asked them to
fill out the questionnaire properly, sincerely, and honestly. The researchers did
not ask respondents to write down their names or other identifying information.
When the researchers saw that they were ready, the researchers immediately
distributed the questionnaires and asked them to fill them out. The researchers
analyzed the data using statistical tools and the data analyzed as follow: to find
out the answer of the research question number one and two or to determine the
level of students’ reading habit and the level of students’ reading comprehension,
the researchers used descriptive analysis of mean scores. For the last question,
the researcher used the Pearson Product Moment Coefficientto find the
correlation between students’ reading habit and students’ reading
comprehension.
To interpret the data from the questionnaire, the researcher used Likert’s
Scale to interpret the Mean score of the level of students’ reading habit and
reading comprehension as follows:

Tabel 3. The points of Likert’s Scale

Range Verbal Interpretation
1.00 – 1.49 Very Low Level
1.50 – 2.49 Low Level
2.50 - 3.49 Moderate Level
4.50 – 5.00 Very High Level
(Joshi, Chandel and Pal (2015)
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To interpret the data for the significant correlation between the two
variables, the researchers used Pearson Product moment correlation analysis.
Taylor categorized the value of r in the correlation coefficient as follows:

Table 4. Correlation Coefficient

Range Verbal Interpretation
≤ 0.35 Weak Correlation
0.36 – 0.67 Moderate Correlation
0.68 – 1.0 Strong Correlation
R > 0.90 Very High Correlation
(Taylor, 1990)

RESEARCH RESULT
To find the level of students′ reading habit, mean score was employed.

Table 5. The Mean Score of the Level of Students′ Reading Habit

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Reading Habit 100 1.00 5.00 3.30 .87039

Valid N (listwise) 100
The average score of students' reading habits is 3.30. Based on the interpretation
scale, the average score for reading habits is in the range of 2.50-3.49 which indicates a
moderate level. This means that students' reading habits do not have low or high levels
of reading habits. This finding also has the same results as those by Diets and Sengkey
(2023) who found a moderate level in reading habits. The researchers used a
descriptive analysis of the mean score to find out the level of reading habit and found
that the reading habit level of the 10th grade students at the school which is a private
high school in North Sulawesi is moderate with a score of 2.76.

To find the level of students′ reading comprehension, mean score was

employed.

Table 6. The Mean Score of the Level of Students′ Reading Comprehension

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Reading 100 1.00 5.00 2.70 .86801
Comprehension

Valid N (listwise) 100

The average score of students' reading comprehension is 2.70. Based on
the interpretation scale, the average score for reading habits is in the range of
2.50-3.49 which indicates a moderate level. This means that students' reading
comprehension do not have low or high levels of reading habits. Based on the
mean score found by the results are the same as Tampi (2020) who found that the
mean score of reading comprehension for seventh grade students of SMP Negeri

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1 Eris was moderate level as well with a score of 61.62. The research in that school
using the mean score on the total score found in the test which is a moderate level
is the same as what researchers got in their research result as well.
The third research question of this study was to investigate if there was a
significant correlation between variable x (Reading Habit) and variable y
(Reading Comprehension) in students during learning English by using Pearson
Product Moment Correlation Coefficients.

Table 7. Correlation Between Students’ reading Habit and Their Reading

Comprehension
Reading Habit
Reading Comprehension Pearson Correlation 0.455**
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N 110

The findings showed that the r = 0.455 and p = 0.000. Since the p-value was
lower than α = 0.05, it can be concluded that there is a significant correlation between
these two variables concerning students' reading habit and their reading
comprehension. Thus, the hypothesis stating "There is a significant correlation
between reading habit and reading comprehension in learning English" is accepted.
Furthermore, the results of this study are supported by several previous
studies that the researchers have found. The first one, conducted in Vietnam by
Pham (2020) explained that when the researcher ran this study to EFL Van Lang
students it was found that there was a significant correlation between these
variables in reading habit and reading comprehension. From the results of this
study, the researchers found that the more often students read, the more significant
results they would have for their reading comprehension. The second one, a study
from Muawanah (2016) found a relationship between students' reading habit and
reading comprehension. The respondents of this study were the students in SMA
Dua Mei Ciputat in the academic year 2012/2013. Additionally, the researcher can
provide the study at the same high school level from Lusianah (2017) who were in
seventh-grade students at Patra Mandiri Middle School who have the same result,
which was at the moderate level.

DISCUSSION
This study used a quantitative method that used descriptive as well as
correlational methods to find out the significant correlation between reading
habit and reading comprehension among students in learning English. The
researchers used a questionnaire from Scales and Rhee (2001) for the first variable
and Hidayati (2018) for the second variable. The respondents of this study were
students in grade 7 in parallel A to H but in each parallel the researchers only
took 10 students for pilot and the final study the researchers added 20 new
respondents in parallel C, who enrolled in the second semester of academic year
2022/2023. The findings of the study showed that students had a moderate level

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Vol. 1, No. 9, 2023 : 803 - 820

of reading habit since the mean score was 3.30. Furthermore, students in SMP
Negeri 1 Airmadidi had a moderate level as well in reading comprehension since
the mean score was 2.70. Lastly, the researchers found out that there is a
significant correlation between students′ reading habit and their reading
comprehension in learning English since the p-value0.000 which is less than α =
0.05.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It can be concluded that students had neither a low nor high level of reading
habit and reading comprehension. It was found that for research question
number one the level of reading habit was 3.30 for the mean score and analyzed
as a moderate level. For research question number two, it was found that the level
of reading comprehension was 2.70 and in the range of moderate level as well.
Regarding the r-table for Pearson correlation, it was found in the score of 0.455
which indicated as a moderate correlation in the range of 0.36 – 0.67. It means
that, reading habit and reading correlation in this study have correlation.
In this last section, the researchers provide several recommendations
regarding the study that have been conducted. Firstly, since the students' reading
habit and reading comprehension are both at a moderate level, the researchers
recommended that the English teachers should improve students' reading habits
by providing appropriate reading sources and enjoyable reading times for
students so that what will be read is available. Also, teachers should help
students if they have difficulty recognizing difficult words or sentences. In
addition, teachers should teach students how to read so that reading skills and
techniques are well organized. Secondly, students should be able to manage their
time well when reading. Also, students should learn any words or sentences that
are not easy for them to understand. In addition, students should find out the
meaning of sentences that are difficult so that it is easier to understand what is
read.

ADVANCED RESEARCH
The researchers would like to recommend that if there are other researchers
who want to use this study as their references, they can use it in different
locations or even at different levels by seeing how each variable can be correlated.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The researchers would like to express gratitude to almighty God and
appreciation to colleagues who have supported them in completing this research.

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Nurhayati, Najoan

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