UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE EL SALVADOR

CENTRO REGIONAL DE ILOBASCO

FACULTAD MULTIDISCIPLINARIA.

RESEARCH

“EFFECTS OF THE LACK OF INTEREST FOR READING IN FIRST-YEAR

STUDENTS OF LICENCIATURA EN CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACION CON
ESPECIALIDAD EN IDIOMA INGLES IN THE PERIOD OF FEBRUARY TO
JUNE 2018 OF UNIVERSIDAD CATOLICA DE EL SALVADOR CRI”

PRESENTED BY:

JESUS ALEXANDER VILLANUEVA CRUZ.

MIGUEL ALVARO BARRERA MEJIA.

SANDRA YAMILETH TORRES.

TO ATTAIN THE DEGREE OF:

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN EDUCATION WITH A SPECIALIZATION IN

TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

ILOBASCO CABAÑAS, EL SALVADOR. C.A

Index
Introduction _______________________________________________________ 1
Chapter 1: Research Problem ________________________________________ 2
1.1 Phenomenon to be studied ____________________________________ 2

1.2 Objectives _________________________________________________ 2

General Objective
Specific objectives

1.3 Justification _________________________________________________2

Chapter 2: Literature review __________________________________________3-5
2.1 Historical Frame ______________________________________________3-4
2.2 Research questions_____________________________________________5
2.3 Hypothesis___________________________________________________ 5
Chapter 3 Methodology _______________________________________________6 -10
3.1 Type of investigations __________________________________________ 6
3.2 Population and Sample _________________________________________ 6
3.3 techniques and instruments ______________________________________ 7
3.4 Procedures __________________________________________________ 8
3.5 Analysis statistics ____________________________________________ 8
3.6 Descriptive and specific schema of the final report __________________ 9
3.7 Chronogram of activities _______________________________________ 10
3.8 References ___________________________________________________11
Introduction

In this research project will be presented the elements to be studied about the problem Lack of
interest in reading of first-year students of Universidad Catolica de El Salvador, on this report
will be exposed how the disinterest in reading is a problem that is affecting Salvadoran youth
since it is occasioning problems in the academic performance of the students. Many students do
not present interest in reading a complete book for getting information, instead of that, they
prefer to look information on others sources that do not provide the necessary information; as a
result, this issue is affecting the quality of the education and the Salvadoran culture, so for that
reason, it necessary to create solutions in order to find methods to solve this problematic for
increasing the habits of reading in students. The research project will be divided into three
chapters, the chapter one will contain the following elements, a description of the phenomenon
to be studied, one general objective and three specific objectives of what is necessary to achieve
at the end of the research, also it will be included a justification where will be presented the
purpose and reason of the investigation. On the chapter two will be presented the literature
review, which is going to contain the description of the antecedents of the investigation, the
research questions of the problem, and the hypothesis of the problem that will be investigated.
On chapter three will be presented the methodology, on this part will be explained elements like
the type of investigation that will be used to study the problem, the population and the sample
that will be used, The techniques and instruments that are going to be used for collecting the
information, the procedure, the analysis statistics, the descriptive and specific schema of the
final report, the chronogram of the activities of the investigation and the reference list of the
information investigated.

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Chapter 1: Research problem.

1.1 Phenomenon to be studied.

Lack of interest for reading in first year students of bachelor of arts in education with a
specialization in teaching English as a foreign language of Universidad Catolica de El Salvador
Cri.

1.2 Objectives.

1.2.1 General objective

 Identify the factors that cause disinterest in reading in first-year students of Bachelor of
Arts in education with a specialization in teaching English as a foreign language.

1.2.2 Specific objectives

 Motivate students from first the year of Bachelor of Arts in education with a
specialization in teaching English as a foreign language to read in an independent way.
 Examine the reading habits and styles that students from the first year have.
 Inspect what are the factors that make a student not have a good reading habit.

1.3 Justification

The following investigation was focused on the lack of interest for reading because there are
many reasons why students do not like to read, so there were some aspects that were difficult
to know and it was necessary to consider to make a deep research analysis of this issue and
this investigation was significant for understanding the problems that are behind this lack of
interest in reading. Therefore, this research was convenient for academic purposes because it
allowed to know why was the main cause of why students avoid reading, It was essential to
investigate this issue for understanding students’ situation and apply new techniques for
helping them and promote reading inside and outside of the classroom; moreover, this research
was a great tool for teachers who wants to understand better why the students have lack of
interest and from there, it would be possible to apply techniques to help students.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

°AQUI PONE TU PARTE DE LA EXPO Con subtopics °

Causes and Effects of the lack of reading.

Nowadays the society is suffering a big damage that is the lack of interesting in reading this is
because for many factors that mainly affects young people. In the actuality, young people have
a more neglected life in which the only important thing for them is to have fun, leaving aside
the importance of acquiring new knowledge on various topics through of books ignoring
completely what are the terrible consequences that this entails.

The first factor is readers are forced to read. Dowhower (1987) has proven through his research
that when a person feels forced to read something, then that person will not enjoy the book and
this leads to hate the book, and as a consequence of this person can start having a fear for reading
because of the bad experience. Also, when a person is forced to read is probably that nothing is
understood, that happens because they reading without reading which means that they
pronounce or see the letter but they do not read in an appropriate way. Reading for fun or for
pleasure is the best way to understand the book easily, at the same time that is improving the
critical skill and acquiring new vocabulary, which is very important and useful at the moment
of expressing their ideas to other people or having a conversation about an important topic.

Second, Frustration of Reading. This is one the major problems of the lack of Reading, “ this
happen when a person is unable to understand the meaning of a sentences in the first two time
of reading” Hismanoglu (2005) This can happen when a person is forced to read and also when
they read something that has a difficult vocabulary for them this can be in their mother language
or in a foreign language because it can be confusing being reading something while is necessary
to be looking the meaning of the words, another factor that provokes frustration is when the
reader is unable to connect with the context of the text. Which can be provoked from the point
of view that the writer present in the text that can be in disagree with the readers’ point of view
about the topic.

Third, other things are taking your mind. According to Inegbenehi, I (2017) “attention can
neither be created nor destroyed, however, it can be changed from one form to another”. As a
person grows, he discovers new things which will often be of interest to him, offering them new

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emotions which little by little will make the reading pass to the second term until you lose all
interest in it. For the other hand, this can happen because of many times students while they are
reading are thinking about other things like their boyfriend or girlfriend or the problems they
have with their family or with their studies.

Fourth, too many things on your mind. Inegbenehi, I (2017) “The more the worries persist, the
greater the distractions” this means that when a person has many things bothering his mind and
starts Reading is very easily that this person lose concentration, and at the end of the Reading
this person will understand nothing.

Fifth, due to the influence of the mass media. People do not show much interest in reading
books; magazines and journals, among others (Palani, 2012). Students have been affected by
technology and as a result, they become lazy. Nowadays, students read for duty and not for
want. “As technology continues to increase and offer new attractions, the habit of reading will
continually decrease and the cultural poverty of youth will grow.” (Herrera, R. 2015) in the
actual, students thought that is students think that technology is the best source of information
that exists so many times they think that the use of books is not necessary or is a waste of time.

Factors that trigger students to lose their reading comprehension

As a consequence of those thoughts, most of the students present this big problem which
prevents them from developing completely in school or college activities. There are many
factors that trigger students to lose interest in reading.

Low reading comprehension. People who do not have the habit of reading are very difficult to
understand, interpret, retain, organize and value what they have read (Feandalucia, n.d). This
causes an impoverishment of intellectual capacity since the thought is not exercised, preventing
people from making an appropriate analysis of a text.

The poverty of vocabulary. The possession of a broad, rich, well-interconnected vocabulary is

one of the characteristics of skilled readers. On the contrary, the bad readers identify a smaller
number of words and they have difficulties in the words abstract, long or infrequent.

Loss of communication skills. According to LA NFL (2012) "The practice of reading develops
the capacity for observation, attention, concentration, analysis and critical spirit, in addition to
generating reflection and dialogue." So when people do not read they are losing little by little
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the ability to express their ideas in a correct way, when they have a conversation because they
do not have previous knowledge about the topic or by not having a good vocabulary, which is
obtained through the reading.

Lack of mastery of comprehension strategies. Various investigations show that students who
fail in the understanding are characterized by having a passive attitude when they read, what
leads them to a routine attitude, lacking in effort towards the search and construction of the
meaning (Feandalucia, n.d) When a person does not have a reading habit, they do not have
knowledge about what reading comprehension methods are, which leads them to read
monotonously, without being able to understand the text, which triggers frustration and hatred
towards reading.

Problems of memory. Many times the problems of memory are attributed to the short-term
memory which is in charge of receiving the information that we are learning. This memory
allows the information already processed to be maintained for a short period of time while the
processing of the new information that is arriving at the system is carried out, at the same time
as information is recovered from the long-term memory. So it is necessary to read to retain the
meaning of the words and keep the theme thread and thus be able to understand the ideas;
otherwise, the process of understanding is interrupted, and the acquired knowledge is lost little
by little.

Lack of reading in Latin America

The lack of interest in reading is present in most of Latin America; however, ( Juarez, 2014)
mentioned that According to a study carried out by the Regional Center for the Promotion of
Books in Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLALC), Argentina was the country with the
highest reading index in Latin America. The reading index corresponds to the percentage of the
population of a country that declares to have reading habits. On the other hand, Chile was the
country in Latin America where more books are read per person per year. This represents that a
good promotion of reading could change the perspective of reading a book, El Salvador needs
to promote in people reading habits in order to improve their lifestyle and have a quality
education. Eventually, this society is already damaged, the lack of interest of reading in people
has caused lack in the practice of values and criteria about what the society is living.

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According to the information that was presented previously, South America is not having
problems in promote reading, since most of the people possesses good reading habits, countries
like Argentina are in the head of reading promoters, this is possible because the government is
providing programs that support their students to create reading habits, also the economy and
problems like violence are not a problem for their society.

The lack of reading in El Salvador

The lack of reading habit is something that has been affected the youth of El Salvador. The
problem of many Salvadoran people is focused on the fact that reading is not a habit that people
get used to developing since childhood. Etllearning (2018) states that “Reading is one of the
most fundamental skills a child needs to learn to succeed in life, also Developing good reading
habits is vital for children future not just academically, but in everyday life as well.” This
explanation about the importance of reading is principally focused on the fact that reading must
be a habit that needs to start since the first years of the life of a child; however, many Youngers
of El Salvador are not showing this habit mainly in the high school and universities.

El Salvador does not possess a good record in the habit of reading, according to (Diario 1, 2014)
“El Salvador is the third or second country with less percentage of readers in Ibero-America”.
This information means that Salvadoran people are not interested a lot in reading a book, so for
that, this factor is representing a very bad problem that is affecting the culture and education of
the country. According to Medios (2016) Youngers only look for having fun, but they do not
care about look readings for reflecting” this shows that Salvadoran youth is not interested in
taking time for reading a book since most of the time they spend their time in trending social
networks.

The culture of reading is not even present in schools of El Salvador. Arbaiza (2014) states that
“On behalf of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture of the Presidency there is
no public policy for the promotion of reading”. This affirmation shows that El Salvador is not
interested in support initiatives that promote reading habits in the country, also the media does
not provide spaces for making reviews of books and magazines, the most of the content
presented on Television is news related to violence. Arbaiza (2014) also said that all that

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situation has resulted in an education without quality, which encourages mediocrity, corruption,
and crime. It has also contributed to the bankruptcy of the national book industry, which has led
to the closure of national printers, bookstores, and publishers.

The importance of reading

The importance of reading is a topic that has been started to take relevance in these last years
because it has been demonstrated that it is a habit that helps the students to improve aspects of
their lives. Etllearning (2018) mention five benefits that children get through reading, first
Reading develops the vocabulary which means that the more a child reads, the more new words
will find their way into his vocabulary. Second, Reading increases attention span which means
that good reading habits from an early age develops the child’s attention span and allows them
to focus better and for longer periods of time. Third, a good reading habits prepare children for
school, this means that children who spend a lot of time reading will have an easier time adapting
to the reading environment of a classroom, Fourth, Developing reading habits early leads to a
lifelong love of books, children who start reading regularly from an early age are more likely to
enjoy reading later in life. This will serve them well throughout their education and beyond.
And Fifth, Reading encourages a thirst for knowledge: Children with good reading habits learn
more about the world around them, and develop an interest in other cultures. Reading leads to
asking questions and looking answers, which means children learn more every day.

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2.2 Research Questions

1- Why Students prefer to use online search engines instead of reading a book?
2- Why some students think that reading is boring?
3- Does the genre of a book motivate the students to read?
4- Do students from private schools are more interested in reading than students form
public schools?
5- Does the lack of access to libraries in Cabañas affect the student’s interest in books?
6- Does the lack of interest in reading in El Salvador depends on the poverty?
7- Do students prefer to use online researcher instead of reading a complete book for doing
homework.

2.3 Hypothesis

1. The massive use of online search engine for university students generates less interest
in reading complete books.
2. If the students have not created a good habit of reading, they will create a wrong
perspective about that books are boring.
3. The kind of genre of the books that students read, will determine how much interesting
and important books are for them.
4. The students who studied in private schools will show more interest in reading than
students who studied in public schools.
5. The less existence of libraries in cabañas, will cause more disinterest in reading books
will be provoked.
6. The poverty in El Salvador doesn't allow to improve reading habits in the students
7. Students prefer to use online researcher instead of reading a complete book for doing
homework.

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Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1Type of research

The research was a combination of documentary research and practice because it was based on
previously research done about the topic "Lack of interesting in reading", it was combined with
the research that will be carried out in the coming months, with the students from first year of
Bachelor of Arts in education with a specialization in teaching English as a foreign language
being necessary since in these ways new discoveries could be added, in order to find new
methods that helped to eradicate the disinterest in reading.

3.2 Population and sample.

The population is the number of people that are used to obtain the information. For this research
students will be used of the first year of the career Bachelor of Arts in education with a
specialization in teaching English as a foreign language from Universidad Catolica de El
Salvador CRI, which was composed by 30 people between 18 to 20 years old, which are divided
into 19 women and 11 men, 15 of them from public schools and the other 15 from private
schools. The sample is a set of data collected or selected from a statistical population by a
defined procedure. For this research 100 percent of population was used because the resources,
time, and money are enough to be able to take into account each person within this group of
people.

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3.3Instruments and techniques

In order to obtain as much information as possible, the use of techniques and instruments will
be implemented which will be used as effectively as possible. The technique used was the direct
observation because the behavior of students was directly observed in the classroom on their
interest in reading for achieving a significant quality of information before passing the
instruments for the collection of data; in addition, it could help to know the real situation that
students had about reading. So, in the direct observation was used the ordinary observation
because in the classroom, it was observed how the students react on the reading even their
behavior towards reading. Therefore, during the ordinary observation, was done an analysis in
the classroom without being part of the problem; besides, it was observed without questioning
the students about their personal opinions on reading. The instruments are the devices that are
used to obtain the information about what is being investigated. For this research, the instrument
like surveys and observation guide were used since it was necessary to present the students a set
of questions related with the topic lack of interest in reading in order to get information of each
student and know their experiences with problem being studied. Surveys are methods of
gathering information from individuals, this device provided information of each student in
which they had select from three options that were presented, the one that they consider the best.
Interviews are a formal meeting in which one or more persons question, consult, or evaluate
another person, this device will help to obtain a close opinion about the problem to be studied,
also it will provides a better view about what the students think about the problem in a direct
way.

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3.4 Procedures

The instruments that were used are surveys and interviews for collecting data. Firstly, fifty
students from the first year of Bachelor of Arts in education with a specialization in teaching
English as a foreign language were surveyed on March 23rd, 2018 in which they received a page
with some questions about reading habits, then it was explained the purpose of the survey and
the instructions for completing it, for this, the students had to answer honestly because that
information were going to be analyzed and presented for getting results of the issues
investigated. Secondly, the interviews were made on March 26th, 2018 to 30 students from first
year of bachelor in arts and the interview contained a set of questions that were asked by the
interviewer, so those students had to answer the questions based on their reality because there
were questions related to reading in their lives. Moreover, the technique that was applied in the
first year of bachelor in arts was observing the students without being part of their class or
participating in activities with them, so the purpose was to analyze the behavior that they had
on the reading from the distance.

3.5 Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis is used to make descriptions of the result gathered in graphs, for
understanding the results one by one, to obtain the results from the surveys and interviews with
first year students of Bachelor of Arts in education with a specialization in teaching English as
a foreign language, it was used some sector diagrams and bar graphs in each question where
were shown the percentages that were obtained from answers of the questions and since an
analysis was made in order to know what happens with first year students in the lack of interest
in reading. The bar graph and sector diagram were created for each question; for instance, the
questions will have three possible answers, the graph will have three bars representing the
percentage got from the questions.

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3.6 Descriptive and specific schema of the final report

Introduction
Chapter 1: Research Problem
1.1Phenomenon to be studied
1.2 Objectives
General Objective
Specific objectives
1.3 Justification
Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Historical Frame
2.2 Research questions
2.3 Hypothesis
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Type of investigations
3.2 Population and Sample
3.3 techniques and instruments
3.4 Procedures
3.5 Statistical analysis
3.6 Descriptive and specific schema of the final report
3.7 Chronogram of activities
3.8 References
Chapter 4 result
4.1 findings
4.2 discussions
4.3 conclusions
Annexes

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3.7 Chronogram Activities

Activities January February March April May June

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Selection of the topic to
Investigate.

Creation of the objectives

Creation of the research
questions.
Creation of the literature
review.
Creation of the Hypothesis
Planning and creation of the
methodology.
Direct observation
Creation of surveys and
interviews.
Deliver surveys and
interview students.
Statistical analysis
Discussion
Conclusion
Deliver and defense of the
final report

13
3.8 References

Etllearningcom. (2018). 5 Reasons Why Reading Habits Are Important. Retrieved 6 March,
2018, from https://www.etllearning.com/resources/5-reasons-why-reading-habits-are-
important/

Diario1 (2014). El Salvador entre países con menos lectores. Retrieved 6 March, 2018,
from http://diario1.com/arte-y-cultura/el-salvador-entre-paises-con-menos-lectores-afirma-
presidenta-de-camara-del-libro/

Medios, C. (2016, September 18). A El Salvador le falta la cultura de leer y escribir.

Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://www.laprensagrafica.com/opinion/A-El-Salvador-
le-falta-la-cultura-de-leer-y-escribir-20160918-0026.html
Arbaiza, G. (2014.). Prohibido leer en El Salvador. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from
http://www.contrapunto.com.sv/archivo2016/tribuna/prohibido-leer-en-el-salvador
Juarez, V. (2013, April 21). Índices de Lectura en Latinoamérica. Retrieved March 06,
2018, from http://uvejota.com/articles/522/indices-de-lectura-en-latinoamerica
Palani, K. K. (2012) Promising Reading Habits and Creating Literate Social. International
Reference Research Journal Vol. III Issue 2(1) pp 91

S. (2017, September 29). La mayoría de latinoamericanos culminan la secundaria sin saber

leer bien. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from
http://www.semana.com/educacion/articulo/unesco-niveles-de-lectura-en-america-
latina/541971

Chartier, R. (n.d.). La Historia de la Lectura en América Latina vista desde Francia.

Retrieved March 07, 2018,
fromhttp://fh.mdp.edu.ar/revistas/index.php/magallanica/article/view/1068

Noticias. (n.d.). América Latina no siente placer por la lectura.Retrieved March 07, 2018,
from http://noticias.universia.net.mx/en-portada/noticia/2012/04/05/921929/america-latina-
no-siente-placer-lectura.html

Estímulo al fomento del libro y la lectura en América Latina y el Caribe. (n.d.). Retrieved
March 07, 2018, from http://www.unesco.org/new/es/media-services/single-
view/news/estimulo_al_fomento_del_libro_y_la_lectura_en_america_lati/

14
Essays, UK. (November 2013). Factors Affecting Reading Habits. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com.sv/?vref=1

Inegbenehi, I (December 2017). Reasons why your interest in reading is dying gradually.
Retrieved from https://flashlearners.com/reasons-interest-reading-dying-gradually/

Palani, K. K. (2012) Promising reading habits and creating literate social. Internacional
reference reseach journal vol. III issue 2(1) pp 91.

Herrera, R. (2015, june) lack of interest in reading in young people. Retrieved from
http://desintresporlalecturaenjovenes.blogspot.com/

LA NFL (2012, june) Linguistic skills: listening, listening, reading, writing. Retrieved from
https://lanfl.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/habilidades-linguisticas-escuchar-hablar-leer-y-
escribir/

Feandalucia (N,D) Difficulties of reading comprehension. Retrieved from

https://www.feandalucia.ccoo.es/docu/p5sd9613.pdf

15
Chapter 4: Results
4.1 Main Findings

16
4.2 Discussion
The massive use of online search engine for university students generates less interest in
reading complete books. This hypothesis is fulfilled because most of the students that
answered the survey said that the use of technology when researching a topic is very
necessary since with the use of mobile devices the information can be found in record time.
The research that would take hours if we took physical books for finding information could
be made in minutes with the use of technology. In other words they said that is a wasted of
time investigated through books.

If the students have not created a good habit of reading, they will create a wrong perspective
about that books are boring. During the investigation, we realized that this hypothesis is not
fulfilled since the majority of the students answered that they do not find reading boring even
if they have not had a habit of reading since always or do not read very often. As the contrary,
students feel interesting in reading books because they said that they can explore new lives
and new worlds where the story takes place.

Another important element for discussing is one of the hypotheses that states that the kind of
genre of the books that students read will determine how much interesting and important
books are for them. This hypothesis was fulfilled since during the investigation, it was
possible to detect that the genre that they select for reading determine the level of interest for
reading books, most of the students that were surveyed manifested that they prefer to read
books about fiction, fantasy, comedy, and action instead of reading books about science and
math; as consequence, it is necessary to create new methodologies in which students can
learn in schools by reading books of different kinds of genres. In conclusion, the genre of a
book determines the level of interest of the students in reading.

The next discussion element states that students who studied in private schools will show
more interest in reading than students who studied in public schools. This hypothesis was not
fulfilled because in the results obtained in the surveys and observation guide, students from
public and private schools manifested that they have almost the same interest in reading, the
results showed that some students from private schools have 0 motivation for reading or
visiting a library; in comparison with students, 5 students stated that they feel inspired when

17
reading a book. As conclusion, students who studied in private schools and public schools
have the same levels of interest in reading books.

The following hypothesis states that the less existence of libraries in cabañas, will cause more
disinterest in reading books will be provoked. This hypothesis was not fulfilled since during
the investigation many students said that they have libraries near form their houses some of
them that manifested that they possess 2 or 3 libraries, just 5 students who were surveyed
said that they don’t have libraries, we can still support this information because most of the
students who participated in the study say that they are not visiting libraries since they prefer
to use other tools that are easier to use. In conclusion, the lack of existence of libraries in
cabañas is not the problem of why they are not interested in reading, the main problem begins
because those libraries are not being promoted by the main authorities in this case the local
government, and they are not offering programs or curses that motivates them to read books.

The next hypothesis created stated that the poverty in El Salvador doesn't allow to improve
reading habits in the students. This hypothesis was fulfilled since in the investigation, it was
possible to detect many factors that affect the reading habits, as for example, the lack of
material, the lack of motivation in schools, and the lack of reading programs. Etc. but the
main root of those problems are the poverty, El Salvador is one of the countries with the
highest levels of poverty. This means that many people are just worried in surviving and find
a good job, and they omit the importance of the school and the education, on the other hand,
the government is not providing the necessary tools and programs for helping the people to
have a good education.

Another of the hypothesis created was if Students prefer to use online researcher instead of
reading a complete book for doing homework. This hypothesis was fulfilled since during the
investigation, it was possible to determine that for most of the students the use of technology
for making their homework was the best option for looking for information, they manifested
that technology is faster than reading a complete book. They say that they can use google and
find the information that they want in minutes or seconds. In conclusion, the use of
technological devices has become in a new tool for obtaining information, this has caused
that students avoid the use of books for looking information.

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4.3 Conclusions

19