A CASE STUDY ON READING HABITS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Learning through reading is the fundamental process. A case study was conducted on the students of UAF Sub-Campus Toba Tek Singh to examine the reading habits and academic performance. All the students of this campus are considered for the population of the study. The data was collected through an interview and focus group discussion from the sample (N=200) and quantitatively analyzed with the statistical approach such as, Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SSPS). The study revealed that the only 22.0% students read the relevant syllabus books and 17.5% students read the outside the syllabus books, while the vast majority 78.0% and 82.5% didn’t read syllabus and outside syllabus books respectively. They found that the positive association exists between the reading habit of students and academic performance. It is recommended that the students should be encouraged by the parents and teachers to increase reading habits and provide easy access to books.


INTRODUCTION
Learning through reading is the fundamental process. Reading habit opens up a world of knowledge and is crucial for lifelong learning. It is important component in a person life and also play a fundamental role in nation-building. In different eras, reading has been defined differently. According to Harris and Hodges (1995), reading is the process of understanding and looking at the meaning of a bit of writing via decoding the characters or symbols of which it is composed. Reading describe the information printed in visual form of any given codes or systems said by Tella and Samson, (2007).
In the age of internet, reading a book in a library has become an archaic idea when the readers are shifting from print to digital media. The considering of readers behavior this digital media age has completely changed the scenario of planning and designing library services, which also effect on reading trends of readers (Soroya and Ameen, 2016). It is a widely known fact that Pakistani students are becoming easy going and choose to read electronic copy of text books or precise notes or just relevant articles only rather than searching for printed books and read them (Shaikh, 2019). Due to lack of reading, very poor writing skills, inadequate grammar skills, unsatisfactory sentence structure and lack of writing practice have been identified common mistakes in these students (Maitlo, 2019).
Academic performance have a significant relationship with reading. Students can increase their critical thinking skills and ultimately achieved the better academic performance, if they possessed good reading habit. In addition, even the reading of non-academic books enhances students' language skills, mental capacity, reading skill of everyday life (Balan et al. 2019;Kumara and Sampath, 2019). A survey was conducted by the Gallup and Gilani Pakistan, the three out of four Pakistani don't read the books at all and less than 10% of Pakistanis are keen readers and they also found that most majority of students (75%) students aren't reading any book outside their syllabus (Khan, 2019;Maitlo, 2019;Shaikh, 2019). That too is only to pass their exams. Which is quite disappointing. For an extraordinary academic performance the university students need to form appropriate studying and improve reading habits as well. In the current scenario, the influence of the digital media, people couldn't show much interest in reading the books, magazines and journals etc. Therefore, a case study was conducted to find the reading habits of university students.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A case study was conducted to find the reading habit of university students. All the students of University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Sub-Campus Toba Tek Singh were considered for the target population. There are 14 programs are working in this campus. From each program the sample was chosen by adopting proportionate sampling technique and making a sample of 200 students. A self-designed questions was developed for the collection of data. After designing the questions, a pilot survey was carried out by the researcher to check the reliability and validity of research. The data was collected through interview and focus group discussion and analyzed in the form of frequency, percentage, weighted mean, mode, standard deviation, Chi-square and t-test by using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The analyzed case study data is presented though tables in the form of frequency, percentages, mean, and standard deviation on the basis of the responses received from the participants through interview and focus group discussion followed by the research objectives. The data is presented below. Further, it also reveals that the 87.5% majority of the respondents are in the age group of below 20-25 years, followed by, 7.5% of them are in the age group of below 20 years, 5.0% of the respondents age group of 26-30 years. The researcher also found the several factors such as, age, gender, marital status, educational background and occupation, and parents' educational background influence the reading habits of readers (Tor-Akwer and Chorun, 2014).  Table 2 shows the reading habits of students regarding relevant to syllabus, outside the syllabus and no. of books student read. It revealed that the only 22.0% students read the relevant syllabus books and 17.5% students read the outside the syllabus books, while the vast majority 78.0% and 82.5% didn't read syllabus and outside syllabus books respectively. There were the students (36.55) didn't read a single book, while 47.5% students agree to read a single from syllabus or outside the syllabus. In table 3 t-test was applied to explore the perceptions of students about comparative relationship between male and female reading habits and their academic performance. The result showed that mean score of female group of students (M = 3.87, SD = 0.168) was high than the male group of students (M = 2.37, SD = 0.537, t (198) *P<0.05. It is revealed that female group of students were found high perceptions about the comparative relationship between reading habits and academic performance than a male students. Allahi and Khandai (2015) study also showed that reading habits of female is higher than the male. They conducted a study of 410 college students and concluded that female students are better in academic performance due to greater reading habits. Stenberg, (2001) also stated that the female are awesome readers than male. According to him young female appreciate reading more prominent than young men and young men occasions have a negative frame of mind toward reading. Females reading for delight to male partners. Most men read papers contrasted with females. In table 4, t-test was applied to explore the perceptions of students about comparative relationship between male and female reading habits at home and online. The result revealed that the difference exists between gender of students on the basis of their reading habit at home and online. The mean score of female group of students (M = 3.49, SD = .876) were found higher than the male group of students (M = 2.25, SD = 1.799, t (198) *P<0.05. A survey was conducted at international level by Books Aid International, (2003) and the hard material reading capacity of students decreased in the United Kingdom because of YouTube and sharing online content. In table 5, Pearson r was applied to explore the correlation between students' reading habits behavior and purpose of reading, leisure time activities, perceptions about reading and their influence on students' achievement. It also revealed that a positive relationship exists between students' reading habits behavior with the purpose of reading, time, perceptions about reading and influence of reading on students' achievement. It was concluded that when students showed between students' reading habits behavior and purpose of reading, leisure time activities, perceptions about reading and influence of reading on students' achievement. So, the research question that what is the correlation between students' reading habits behavior and purpose of reading, leisure time activities, perceptions about reading and influence of reading on students' achievement answered in positive. According to Balan et al., the factors such as students study ethos, home environment, and parent's education play a central role in the reading habit of students. According to table 6, t-test was applied to explore the difference between gender of students about the reading habit have effect on academic performance. It revealed that there exists a statistically significant difference between female and male students on the basis of their test about the reading habit have effect on academic performance. The overall mean achievement score of female group of students (M = 3.07, SD = .274) and male group of students (M = 3.21, SD = .843, t (198) *P<0.05. Female group of students were found to have high performance than that of male the reading habit have effect on academic performance of students in the sampled data. So the research question that what is the difference between gender of students about the reading habit have effect on academic performance answered in positive. The study confirms Deavers et al. (2000) assertion that once the youngster has been instructed to read and has built up the adoration for books, he can investigate for himself the abundance of human encounter and information through perusing. Hence youngsters who pass up on the chance of connecting with books in their beginning periods throughout in their later years. Material and statement innovation have significantly impacted the distinctive habits students recite and contact interpretation materials to the organization they pick (Gorman, 2003). These components are relevant to student's enthusiasm for reading.

CONCLUSIONS
When concluded, it was observed that readings habits play an important role in students' academic performance at university level. It develops positive relationship and provides opportunity to understand and overcome the weaknesses and deficiencies. It revealed that there exists a statistically significant difference between females and males' students based on their test about the thought that vocabulary improves the reading habits of students. Female group of students were found to have high perceptions of perfect reading and appropriate time of reading. A significant moderate and positive relationship between reading behaviors of students and students' achievement score. It was concluded that when students showed positive reading behavior, the achievement score of students' increases.