On 8th February 1999, a survey was conducted among 16 overseas post-graduate students at the University of England. The purpose of the survey was to discover the reading habits in English of the students.
The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire given to the students to complete. The first part of the questionnaire dealt with the type of reading and its frequency. The second section was concerned with newspapers: the type of items read and those that were read first.
From the table of data, the most significant items are as follows. In the first section 81% of the students regularly read academic books" while 44% regularly read academic journals. Nothing else is read regularly or often by 40% or more of the students. The following comments can be made about the reading of newspapers, magazines and fiction. 75% sometimes read regional or local newspapers, 69% sometimes read books of fiction, 62% sometimes read general magazines, and 56% sometimes read national daily newspapers. On the other hand, 37% never read Sunday newspapers and 31% never read fiction.
In the second section, not surprisingly, 100% read news about their own country in newspapers and 56% read this first. 94% read international news,
25% read this first. 81% read about Britain and look at radio and TV informa-tion. The only other item that is usually read by more than 50% of the students is current affairs (read by 56%).
If any conclusions may be drawn from the data, they are, perhaps, as fol-lows. Overseas students presumably have little time for general reading: most of their reading time is spent on books and journals on their own subject. Out-side their studies, apart from reading news about their own country, interna-tional news, and news about Britain, they probably spend most time watching TV and listening to the radio.
/from Academic Writing Course by R.R. Jordan/