Printed books versus e-books: a comparative analysis of efl students’ reading motivation

Abstract

In the digital age, the increasing use of digital reading materials alongside printed books has raised questions about their influence on students’ reading motivation. This study aims to compare the reading motivation of EFL students who prefer printed books with those who prefer e-books. The study was conducted at the Department of English Education, UIN Mataram, involving third-semester students as the participants. A quantitative approach with an ex post facto comparative design was employed to examine whether there was a significant difference in reading motivation between the two groups based on their preferred reading format. Data were collected using a Likert-scale questionnaire adapted from the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) and the Motivation for Online Reading Questionnaire (MORQ). A total of 67 students participated in this study, consisting of 32 students who preferred printed books and 35 students who preferred e-books. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, assumption tests, and hypothesis testing. Since the data were not normally distributed, the Mann–Whitney U test was applied. The results indicate that both groups demonstrate a high level of reading motivation. Furthermore, the Mann–Whitney U test shows no significant difference in reading motivation between students who prefer printed books and those who prefer e-books (p > 0.05). These findings suggest that reading format preference does not significantly affect EFL students’ reading motivation.