Bacaan rekreasi bercetak dan digital dalam kalangan murid sekolah rendah dwibahasa di Singapura (Print and digital leisure reading among bilingual primary school students in Singapore)

Main Article Content

Mukhlis Abu Bakar
Baoqi Sun

Abstract

Kajian ini meneliti bacaan rekreasi dalam bentuk bercetak dan digital dalam kalangan murid dwibahasa sekolah rendah di Singapura dengan memberi perhatian khusus kepada murid dwibahasa Melayu. Tabiat membaca dalam bahasa Inggeris dibandingkan dengan tabiat membaca dalam bahasa ibunda, iaitu Melayu, Cina dan Tamil. Selain itu, perbezaan antara bacaan bercetak dan bacaan digital turut dianalisis, khususnya semasa tempoh penutupan sekolah akibat Circuit Breaker 2020. Data dikumpulkan melalui soal selidik yang dijalankan di sekolah, melibatkan 5,133 orang murid daripada lapan buah sekolah rendah, serta perbincangan kumpulan fokus bersama 72 orang murid. Berteraskan perspektif penglibatan membaca atau engaged reading, dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa murid membaca dengan lebih kerap dalam bahasa Inggeris berbanding bahasa ibunda, dengan bacaan dalam bahasa Melayu berada pada tahap yang jauh lebih rendah berbanding bacaan dalam bahasa Cina. Bacaan bercetak kekal sebagai medium utama bagi semua kumpulan murid, manakala bacaan digital hanya diamalkan oleh sebilangan kecil murid. Dalam konteks ini, murid Melayu khususnya menghadapi kesukaran mencari dan mengakses bahan digital yang sesuai dalam bahasa Melayu. Secara keseluruhan, dapatan ini menimbulkan persoalan tentang kelestarian bacaan rekreasi bahasa ibunda, terutamanya bahasa Melayu, dalam landskap pendidikan dwibahasa di Singapura yang semakin didominasi oleh bahasa Inggeris dan penggunaan teknologi digital. Oleh itu, strategi bersepadu diperlukan untuk meningkatkan akses dan penglibatan dalam bacaan rekreasi bahasa ibunda, termasuk melalui sokongan institusi, bahan digital, serta pendekatan pedagogi yang menyeluruh.

Article Details

Section

Articles

Author Biographies

Mukhlis Abu Bakar, Institut Pendidikan Nasional, Universiti Teknologi Nanyang, Singapura

Mukhlis Abu Bakar is Head and Associate Professor at the Asian Languages & Cultures (ALC) Department, National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Mukhlis was trained in speech perception in the UK for his graduate studies. He went on to work on Malay linguistics at the National University of Singapore. His interest in education brought him to NIE where he developed an expertise in the literacy practices of young children before expanding into bilingualism, biliteracy and mother tongue language education. In recent years, he picked up phonetics again, specifically socio-phonetics, researching on pronunciation and identity in the Malay language. In between, he ventured into madrasah education. Mukhlis has secured several research grants as Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator and Collaborator for projects on literacy, bilingualism and socio-phonetics. Among his recent publications include a volume by Bloomsbury "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Culture and Identity from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood" (2021) (co-editor with Wills, de Souza, Mata-McMahon & Roux), and a volume by Routledge "Rethinking Madrasah Education in a Globalised World" (2018) (sole editor).

Baoqi Sun, Institut Pendidikan Nasional, Universiti Teknologi Nanyang, Singapura

Baoqi Sun is Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Her research encompasses socio-cultural-cognitive and policy perspectives on language learning with particular focus on children’s bilingual education and biliteracy development. Within these broad perspectives, my research address three main issues: What are the underlying social, cognitive and linguistic factors for biliteracy development? How literacy instructional approaches can provide advancements or constraints in learning to read two languages? How do bi/multilingual community and school contexts influence and interact with home context to support bilingual learners? To address these research issues, she examined bilingual home and school contexts in Singapore on topic of metalinguistic awareness, home literacy practices, leisure reading, and family language policy. Her interdisciplinary training has allowed her to incorporate different research approaches into her work and to contribute to the field of applied linguistics, literacy studies as well as general educational research.

How to Cite

Abu Bakar, M., & Sun, B. (2026). Bacaan rekreasi bercetak dan digital dalam kalangan murid sekolah rendah dwibahasa di Singapura: (Print and digital leisure reading among bilingual primary school students in Singapore). RENTAS: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastera Dan Budaya, 5(1), 48-66. https://doi.org/10.32890/rentas2026.5.1.3

Research impact

Harvested 2026-09-14
0 citations recorded so far

Counts differ between services because each indexes a different body of literature. None of them is the whole picture.

Identifiers DOI 10.32890/rentas2026.5.1.3 OpenAlex W7171945998

References

Afflerbach, P., & Harrison, C. (2017). What is engagement, how is it different from motivation, and how can I promote it? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(2), 217–220.

Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Olson, L. S. (2007). Lasting consequences of the summer learning gap. American Sociological Review, 72(2), 167–180.

Allington, R. L., & McGill-Franzen, A. M. (2021). Reading volume and reading achievement: A review of recent research. Reading Research Quarterly, 56, S231-S238.

Baron, N. S. (2015). Words onscreen: The fate of reading in a digital world. Oxford University Press.

Baron, N. S. (2021). How we read now: Strategic choices for print, screen, and audio. Oxford University Press.

Clark, C. (2012). Children’s and young people’s reading today: Findings from the 2011 National Literacy Trust’s annual survey. National Literacy Trust.

Clark, C., & Rumbold, K. (2006). Reading for pleasure: A research overview. National Literacy Trust.

Clark, C., Picton, I., Cole, A., & Oram, N. (2024). Children and young people’s reading in 2024: Findings from our annual literacy survey. National Literacy Trust. https://nlt.cdn.ngo/media/documents/Children_and_young_peoples_reading_in_2024_Report.pdf

Cremin, T., & Scholes, L. (2024). Reading for pleasure: scrutinising the evidence base - benefits, tensions and recommendations. Language and Education, 38(4), 537-559.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE.

Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (4th ed.). Wiley.

Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp. 403–422). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Guthrie, J. T., McRae, A., & Klauda, S. L. (2007). Contributions of concept-oriented reading instruction to knowledge about interventions for motivations in reading. Educational Psychologist, 42(4), 237–250.

Harun Baharudin. 2025. Perspektif guru sekolah rendah daerah Telupid, Sabah: Isu dan pendekatan simulasi lisan frasa bahasa Arab: (Primary schools teachers’ perspectives in Telupid district, Sabah: Issues and approaches to verbal simulation of Arabic phrases). (2025). RENTAS: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastera Dan Budaya, 4(1), 23-51. https://doi.org/10.32890/rentas2025.4.1.2

Hennessy, M., Bleakley, A., & Fishbein, M. (2001). Conducting focus groups with middle and high school students: Methodological, strategic, and ethical considerations. Evaluation Review, 25(1), 65–85.

Krashen, S. D. (2011). Free voluntary reading. Libraries Unlimited.

Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2015). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (5th ed.). SAGE.

Loh, C. E., & Sun, B. (2022). The impact of technology use on adolescents' leisure reading preferences. Literacy, 56(4), 327-339.

Loh, C. E., Sun, B., & Weninger, C. (2023). “Because I have my phone with me all the time”: The role of device access in developing Singapore adolescents’ critical news literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 66(5), 319-329.

Loh, C. E., Cremin, T., & Scholes, L. (2024). What is the future of young people’s volitional reading? Exploring diverse perspectives. Language and Education, 38(4), 531-536.

Luke, A. (2019). Educational policy, narrative and discourse: The construction of social and educational “problems”. Journal of Education Policy, 34(3), 333–356.

Majid, S., Ng, S. S., & Su, M. L. (2018). Reading habits of children in Singapore. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 50(3), 251–265.

Ministry of Education, Singapore. (tanpa tarikh). Learning a Mother Tongue Language in school. Ministry of Education. Learning a Mother Tongue Language in primary school | MOE.

Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2025). Education Statistics Digest 2025. ESD-2025.pdf

Mukhlis Abu Bakar (dalam penerbitan). Rebalancing bilingualism: Rethinking mother tongue language education in English-dominant Singapore through the lens of Allan Luke. Journal of Education, Language and Ideology.

Nakanishi, T. (2015). A meta-analysis of extensive reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD]. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Neuman, S. B., & Celano, D. (2001). Access to print in low-income and middle-income communities: An ecological study of four neighborhoods. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(1), 8–26.

Samaon, S., Subet, M. F., & Daud, M. Z. (2025). Penginterpretasian sikap positif dan nilai kemanusiaan dalam sumber pengajaran dan pembelajaran seni bahasa berdasarkan teori relevans. RENTAS: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastera dan Budaya, 4(1), 121–136.

Shaharir M. Zain. 2022. Beberapa isu pemeribumian linguistik bahasa Melayu: (Issues in indigenisation of Malay linguistics). RENTAS: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastera Dan Budaya, 1(1), 1-50. https://doi.org/10.32890/rentas2022.1.1

Sun, B., Loh, C. E., & Curdt-Christiansen, X. L. (2020). Leisure reading in multilingual Singapore. Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, 1(2), 313-339.

Sun, B., Loh, C. E., O’Brien, B. A., & Silver, R. E. (2021). The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Bilingual Singaporean Children’s Leisure Reading. AERA Open, 7(1).

Sun, B., Loh, C. E., & Nie, Y. (2021). Report on the Reading Habits of Bilingual Children in Singapore 2021. National Institute of Education.

Torppa, M., Niemi, P., Vasalampi, K., Lerkkanen, M. K., Tolvanen, A., & Poikkeus, A. M. (2020). Leisure reading (but not any kind) and reading comprehension support each other-A longitudinal study across grades 1 and 9. Child development, 91(3), 876-900.