Paper Title
Students’ Functions of Reading: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract
The main purpose of the study was to identify the determinants of the functions of reading. The study was conducted at the Visayas State University campus and it involved a total of 503 elementary, high school, and college students. Data were gathered through a questionnaire. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA and Mann-Whitney tests were used to determine the differences in the functions of reading in the students when grouped into various categories. The Spearman’s Rho correlation was applied to find out the relationship between students’ functions of reading and reading attitudes, reading behavior, and reading motivation. Data were encoded using the Microsoft Excel and analyzed through Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results showed that for the respondents’ background profile, only their academic achievement is determinant of their functions of reading. When the respondents were grouped based on their reading attitudes, reading behavior, language exposure, and availability of reading materials, the most dominant functions of reading were learning, utility, enjoyment and stimulation. Among all the variables under reading motivation, only reading efficacy and reading for work avoidance did not show any relationship with the respondents’ functions of reading. To sum up, the findings of the study indicated that only the academic achievement (low, average, high) of the respondents made a slight difference for their reasons for reading. This is expected because they have different reading interests based on their academic and genetic make-up. This is where heredity comes in. Nevertheless, results of this study prove that students have limited reasons for reading. Only four of the ten functions became dominant. This situation makes the students collectively aliterate readers. This is alarming because this only shows that respondents are yet to discover and experience other important benefits they can get from reading. Therefore, helping aliterate readers become readers in the real world must be one of the thrusts of an academic institution. Keywords: Functions of Reading, Reading Attitudes, Reading Behavior, Language Exposure, Availability of Reading Materials, Academic Performance.