Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine students' reading habits, language proficiency, and perception of learning preferences in relation to literary competence. A sample size of 181 respondents was derived from 236 Form Four students in an urban secondary school in Sabah. A self-administered questionnaire was selected as a mode of data collection. All instruments used in the hypotheses testing were adaptations of previously developed instruments. Descriptive, Pearson Product Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression statistics were used to analyse the data with the aid of SPSS. Additional research instruments used were interviews conducted with teachers and students. The findings showed that there was a positive significant relationship between students' reading habits, language proficiency, learning style preferences, and literary competence. However, language proficiency was found to be the salient predictor for literary competence. Additional findings also indicated that there was a mismatch of teaching style and learning style. This study concludes that students' language proficiency contributed significantly to the attainment of literary competence and therefore it should be given more emphasis in the teaching and learning of the literature component texts.