THE PERSPECTIVE OF EFL STUDENTS ON READING TEXTBOOKS AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL

Abstract: In school, students are provided with the textbook as a tool in the teaching-learning process. Hence, this research aimed at investigating the students’ perception of the use of textbooks in class. In this research, the researcher used surveys and qualitative methods. 26 students of the 6th-semester study in the English education department of the University of Islam Malang as the subject of the study. The researcher used three instruments in this study. There are questionnaires, interviews, and documentation. Questionnaires were used to gain the students' perception of reading textbooks in class. The use of interviews was aimed to acquire depth information based on the questionnaires, while documentation was used as secondary data to know the students’ abilities in the class. The findings showed that even though the students only spent a little time reading, the use of textbooks in the class was effective, helpful, and understandable. Reading textbooks improve their score and abilities in class. The students acknowledge that they might get a standard score if they did not read textbooks. They also admitted that reading textbooks in class are their responsibility, not the lecturers’. For the findings of this research, the researcher suggests the lecturer give the students new strategies to motivate them to read. The researcher also suggests the students not wait for the lecturers’ instructions to read textbooks since that is their responsibility. For future research, the researcher expects to conduct the observation directly to meet the subject and deeply investigate the students’ anxiety related to the instruction to read by the lecturer.Keywords: Reading, Students’ perspective, Students’ expectation, Textbook