EXPLORATION OF READING HABITS AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

This study investigated the reading habits of undergraduates in South West Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive survey research design where Eight hundred and thirty-four undergraduates who were accidentally sampled were used from seven (7) universities in South West Nigeria through stratified random sampling technique. The instrument used was Reading Habits Inventory (RHI) which contained twenty-five (25) items. ANOVA and T-Test were the statistical tools used for the analysis of data. Result showed that the means of the option was 2.5, while the mean average of the responses to reading habits among undergraduates in South West Nigeria was 2.94 which was above the mean of 2.5. This implied that undergraduates in South West Nigeria have good reading habits. The result of the hypothesis showed that there was no significant difference in the reading habits of undergraduates on the basis of gender (t=1.535, df=816, p=.125). This established the fact that there was no significant difference in the reading habits of male and female undergraduates in South West Nigeria. To cap it all, it was concluded that Undergraduates have good reading habits and there was no significant difference in the reading habits of males and females. Then, it was recommended that the parents and teachers should take it as a responsibility to nurture and cultivate reading habits in their children early enough, so that the habits of reading is formed in them and is sustained throughout their undergraduate days. On the individual undergraduate level, they should sustain their good reading habits, then cultivate the habits of reading Newspapers on a daily basis in the library. They should also cultivate the habits of reading at least, a story book per day, as well as, engaging in reading, consulting references on their course outlines, and reading through e-resources. The university authorities should develop alternative plans with the view of increasing reading habits among undergraduates. The same measure of teaching reading habits should be applied to all undergraduates regardless of sex.