CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This chapter described the design of the
study, area of the study, population of the study, the sample and sampling
techniques, the instruments used for data collection, validation of the
instruments, reliability of the instruments, method of data collection and
method of data analysis.
Design of the
Study
The study adopted a correletional
survey design. A correlational survey study, according to Nwogu (2003) is the
one that seeks to establish the relationship between two or more variables. The
study adopted this design because the researcher hoped to determine the
relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension achievement of
SSS students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State.
Area of the
Study
The research was carried out in
Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State. Ebonyi State is located in the
South-East geo-politcal Zone of Nigeria. It is bounded in the East by Cross
River State, in the West by Enugu State, in the North by Benue State and in the
South by Abia State. Ebonyi State is made up of three Education Zones:
Abakaliki Education Zone, Onueke Educaton Zone and Afikpo Education Zone.
Afikpo Education Zone is located at the northern part of Ebonyi State. Five
local governments make up Afikpo Education Zone: Afikpo North, Afikpo South,
Ohaozara, Ivo and Onicha Local Government Areas. The Zone is made up of urban
and rural areas. The urban areas comprise of people who are professionals in
different fields such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, lecturers, business men
and women, artisans, etc., while the people that make up the rural areas are
mainly farmers and few artisans as well as petty traders. The people of the
area are very hospitable. They assisted the researcher in no small measure to
locate the schools and Afikpo education zonal office needed for the study.
Population of the Study
The population of the study
comprised all the SS2 students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State and all
the schools in the same zone. Five local governments make up Afikpo Education
Zone: Afikpo North L.G.A has 22 schools, Afikpo South L.G.A. has 15 schools,
Ohaozara L.G.A has 16 schools, Ivo L.G.A has 09 schools and Onicha L.G.A has 18
schools. According to the 2010/2011 statistical data of the Ebonyi State
Secondary Education Board Afikpo Zone, the total number of schools in Afikpo
Education Zone was 80 while the total number of SS2 students of all the schools
in the zone was 3854 (see Appendix ).
Ebonyi State SSS
2 School Enrolment 2011/2012
|
S/NO
|
Local
Government Area
|
No
of Schools
|
No
of SS2 Students
|
|
1
|
Afikpo
North LGA
|
22
|
1002
|
|
2
|
Afikpo
South
|
15
|
781
|
|
3
|
Ohaozara
L.G.A
|
16
|
779
|
|
4
|
Ivo
L.G.A
|
09
|
497
|
|
5
|
Onicha
L.G.A
|
18
|
795
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
80
|
3854
|
Source: Ebonyi
State Secondary Education Board, Afikpo Zone School Enrolment 2011/2012.
Sample and
Sampling Techniques
The number of schools selected was
20 drawn from the 80 public schools in the five LGAs that make up Afikpo
Education Zone, while the number of students was 769 drawn from the 3854 SS2
students in the Zone used for the study as the sample.
Both the school and the students
were selected by systematic sampling technique. To achieve this, a list of the
names of the schools was drawn and in each school selected for the study,
thirty eight students were picked using the systematic sampling technique,
apart from two schools where fourty five students and fourty students
respectively were taken due to their sample size. The students were given
numbers and every 3rd number was picked until the 769 students that
made up the sample size were drawn.
Instrument for
Data Collection
In this study, two instruments: a
questionnaire tagged “Reading Interest Inventory” (RII) and a Reading
Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT) were used. The instrument was divided
into two parts: Part A and B. Part A was meant to elicit information from the
Bio-data such as school, class, age, sex and hobbies. Part B was a checklist of
20 items with four point rating scale to elicit data that will be used to
measure the students’ reading interest. The second instrument (Part C),
comprised 20 items with a four point rating scale (A,B,C,D) making a total of
40 items for the study. Part B was presented in form of reading interest
inventory which the researcher used to measure the reading interest of the
students. Part C was two Reading Comprehension Achievement Tests with ten
multiple choice items to accompany each of the comprehension passages, making
up the 20 items in Part C. The researcher used the reading comprehension tests
to measure the reading comprehension achievement of the students (see Appendix
A and B). The LIKERT Scale was used and the values assigned to it were Strongly
Agree 4, Agree 3, Disagree 2 and Strongly Disagree 1. There was a mixture of both negative and
positive items to ensure a proper balance.
Validation of
the Instruments
The draft of the two instruments were
submitted to three experts for face validation: two in English Language to
assess the relevance and appropriateness of their contents and one from
Measurement an Evaluation unit of Science Education Department all of Ebonyi State
University, Abakaliki. The Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT) had
twenty objective derived test items while the Reading Interest Inventory (RII)
had twenty nine statement items. After face validation, no item was dropped,
only restructuring took place and the restructured items were accordingly
effected in the questionnaire (refer to Appendix C).
The two instruments were administered to
thirty students who were not part of the main study, in a trial testing. Data
collected from the reading interest inventory were used for construct
validation in a factor analysis using the Principal Component Matrix. By
Varimax Rotated Matrix, nine items were dropped from the twenty nine for bad
loading, which left behind twenty items for final use. The items dropped were:
1, 4, 9, 11, 16, 20, 23, 26 and 28 (see appendix D).
Reliability of the Instrument
To test the reliability of the
instruments, copies of the questionnaire were first administered to a group of
thirty students outside the sample group. The data obtained from the RCAT were
used to compute its reliability using Kudar-Richardson–20 (KR-20) which gave a
reliability index of 0.96 that was adjudged reliable having high internal
consistency (see appendix E). Also, data obtained from the twenty item RII
instrument were used to compute its reliability using Cronbach Alpha approach.
A reliability coefficient index of 0.71 was obtained showing high internal
consistency and hence suitable for the study (See appendix F).
Method of Data
collection
Copies of the instruments were taken
to the schools and administered accordingly. The researcher worked with the
English Language teachers who served as research assistants to help in the
distribution and collection of the instruments. The researcher went to the schools
a day before the administration of the instruments and properly briefed the
research assistants on the roles they were expected to play during the data
collection. They carried out these roles perfectly well. The three parts of the
instruments (A,B,C) were distributed at the same time and the students’
responses were collected on the spot to ensure maximum return.
Method of Data
Analysis
The research questions were
answered using the Mean and Standard Deviation while the hypotheses were tested
using the Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The interpretation was done
thus: for research question 1, the mean of 2.5 and above was considered to
reflect High Reading Interest while less than 2.5 reflected Low Reading
Interest. Then, in research question 2 which dealt with the achievement of the
students, the mean less than 3.00 indicated a low achievement While the mean
above 3.00 reflected High Achievement. For research question 3, the Grand Mean
of 1.0 and above was reagarded as High Reading Interest. Research question 4 determined the
achievement of both the male and female students, thus the mean less than 3.00
indicated Low Achievement. Research question 5 is answered by correlation of
the achievement score / the interest score of the students. A 4-point rating
scale was used: strongly agreed 4, agreed 3, disagree 2, and strongly disagree
1.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
The findings were analyzed in relation
to the research questions and research hypotheses formulated to guide the
study. The results were presented in tables (see appendix G).
Research
Question One
What
is the extent of the students’ reading interests?
Table 1:
Students’ reading interest
|
S/N
|
Items
|
SA
|
A
|
D
|
SD
|
_
X
|
SD
|
DECISION
|
|
1
|
I
don’t like reading always..
|
452
|
46
|
193
|
78
|
3.13
|
1.10
|
HRI
|
|
2
|
I
often prefer watching TV to reading.
|
439
|
53
|
98
|
79
|
3.10
|
1.0
|
HRI
|
|
3
|
I
detest home assignments because they compel me to read.
|
463
|
111
|
175
|
20
|
.i3.32
|
91
|
HRI
|
|
4
|
I
do not get bored reading beyond half an hour.
|
481
|
128
|
84
|
68
|
3.35
|
98
|
HRI
|
|
5
|
Reading
is boring to me.
|
450
|
133
|
147
|
39
|
3.29
|
.94
|
HRI
|
|
6
|
My
parents compel me to read sometimes.
|
359
|
286
|
08
|
116
|
3.15
|
1.02
|
HRI
|
|
7
|
I
prefer photography to reading.
|
189
|
428
|
0
|
152
|
2.85
|
1.00
|
HRI
|
|
8
|
I
usually find it difficult to read any novel to the end no matter how
interesting.
|
126
|
201
|
44
|
398
|
2.07
|
1.19
|
LRI
|
|
9
|
I
do not have a study time table.
|
514
|
172
|
08
|
75
|
3.46
|
.92
|
HRI
|
|
10
|
I
cannot read with understanding in the class when it is noisy.
|
162
|
435
|
170
|
02
|
2.98
|
.66
|
HRI
|
|
11
|
I
always read silently.
|
419
|
196
|
123
|
31
|
3.30
|
.88
|
HRI
|
|
12
|
I
read less after school.
|
451
|
37
|
237
|
44
|
3.16
|
1.04
|
HRI
|
|
13
|
I
enjoy reading in my spare time during holidays.
|
429
|
120
|
220
|
0
|
3.27
|
87
|
HRI
|
|
14
|
I
rarely use the school library because I detest reading.
|
227
|
134
|
405
|
03
|
2.76
|
.88
|
HRI
|
|
15
|
I
read a newspaper when it is available only.
|
350
|
194
|
120
|
105
|
3.0
|
1.07
|
HRI
|
|
16
|
I
read to pass exams only.
|
165
|
484
|
32
|
88
|
2.94
|
.84
|
HRI
|
|
17
|
I
prefer the computer to reading.
|
502
|
226
|
04
|
37
|
3.55
|
.74
|
HRI
|
|
18
|
I
always prefer someone to tell me the story in a novel than reading it.
|
251
|
367
|
149
|
02
|
3.12
|
71
|
HRI
|
|
19
|
I
prefer reading alone.
|
412
|
27
|
109
|
221
|
2.81
|
1.34
|
HRI
|
|
20
|
Reading
is my hobby.
|
386
|
246
|
128
|
09
|
3.31
|
.78
|
HRI
|
|
|
Grand mean
|
|
|
|
|
3.09
|
|
(HRI
means High Reading Interest, while LRI means Low Reading Interest)
Table 1 indicates that the grand mean
score is 3.09 which is above the decision rule of 2.5. This shows that the
respondents have high interest in reading which is contrary to the research
findings of Okon & Ansa (2005) that the students have low reading
interests. It is also contrary to the views of Fatimayin (2012) that student’s
have low reading interests which affect their achievement. This shows that many
other factors like text content and text readability may be part of the reasons
for the students’ poor achievement in comprehension passage.
Research
Question Two
What
is the extent of the students’ achievement in reading comprehension passages?
Table
2: Achievement of the students in reading comprehension.
Students Reading
Comprehension Test Achievement Scores
|
|
Students
Sccores
|
F
|
_
X
|
SD
|
|
|
|
|
5
|
60
|
||||
|
|
10
|
44
|
||||
|
|
15
|
35
|
||||
|
|
20
|
69
|
||||
|
|
25
|
127
|
||||
|
|
30
|
88
|
|
|||
|
|
35
|
166
|
|
|||
|
|
40
|
88
|
|
|||
|
|
45
|
60
|
|
|||
|
|
50
|
18
|
|
|||
|
|
55
|
10
|
|
|||
|
|
60
|
04
|
|
|||
|
Grand Mean
|
|
|
28.84
|
12.26
|
|
|
From table 2 above, the decision rule is
28.84. This indicates that respondents’
have low achievement in reading comprehension. This result is in line with the
Chief Examiners’ Reports (2011) that the students’ results in reading
comprehension are poor on yearly basis. When students have interest in reading
and perform poorly in reading tests, a lot of reasons may be acountable to it.
It may be as a result of unavailability of reading materials, unconduceive
reading environment, lack of qualified teaching personel, poor teaching
methodology, no alloted time for reading in the school timetable, etc.
Research
Question Three
To what extent would the students’
reading interest relate by gender?
Table 3: The
reading interest of male and female students
|
S/n
|
ITEMS
|
Male
|
SA
|
A
|
D
|
SD
|
_
X
|
SD
|
Interpretation
|
Fe-male
|
SA
|
A
|
D
|
SD
|
_
X
|
SD
|
Decision
|
|
1
|
I
don’t like reading always.
|
M
|
226
|
24
|
93
|
38
|
3.15
|
1.0
|
Accepted
|
F
|
226
|
22
|
100
|
40
|
3.11
|
1.11
|
Accepted
|
|
2
|
I
often prefer watching TV to reading.
|
M
|
219
|
26
|
97
|
39
|
3.11
|
1.0
|
Accepted
|
F
|
220
|
27
|
101
|
40
|
3.10
|
1.11
|
Accepted
|
|
3
|
I
detest home assignments because they compel me to read.
|
M
|
228
|
57
|
87
|
09
|
3.32
|
.90
|
Accepted
|
F
|
235
|
54
|
88
|
11
|
3.32
|
.91
|
Accepted
|
|
4
|
I
do not get bored reading beyond half an hour.
|
M
|
247
|
63
|
37
|
34
|
3.32
|
.99
|
Accepted
|
F
|
242
|
65
|
47
|
34
|
3.32
|
.99
|
Accepted
|
|
5
|
Reading
is boring to me.
|
M
|
225
|
67
|
70
|
19
|
3.30
|
93
|
Accepted
|
F
|
225
|
66
|
77
|
20
|
3.27
|
95
|
Accepted
|
|
6
|
My
parents compel me to read sometimes.
|
M
|
176
|
142
|
04
|
59
|
3.14
|
1.03
|
Accepted
|
F
|
183
|
144
|
04
|
57
|
3.16
|
1.02
|
Accepted
|
|
7
|
I
prefer photography to reading.
|
M
|
97
|
211
|
0
|
73
|
2.87
|
1.00
|
Accepted
|
F
|
92
|
217
|
0
|
79
|
2.83
|
1.01
|
Accepted
|
|
8
|
I
usually find it difficult to read any novel to the end no matter how interesting
|
M
|
66
|
97
|
22
|
196
|
2.08
|
1.20
|
Rejected
|
F
|
60
|
104
|
22
|
202
|
2.05
|
1.18
|
Rejected
|
|
9
|
I
do not have a study time table.
|
M
|
253
|
88
|
04
|
36
|
3.46
|
.91
|
Accepted
|
F
|
261
|
84
|
04
|
39
|
3.46
|
.93
|
Accepted
|
|
10
|
I
cannot read with understanding in the class when it is noisy.
|
M
|
81
|
218
|
81
|
01
|
2.99
|
.66
|
Accepted
|
F
|
81
|
217
|
89
|
01
|
2.97
|
.67
|
Accepted
|
|
11
|
I
always read silently.
|
M
|
202
|
99
|
65
|
15
|
3.28
|
.88
|
Accepted
|
F
|
217
|
97
|
58
|
16
|
3.32
|
.87
|
Accepted
|
|
12
|
I
read less after school.
|
M
|
226
|
18
|
116
|
21
|
3.17
|
1.04
|
Accepted
|
F
|
225
|
19
|
121
|
23
|
3.14
|
1.05
|
Accepted
|
|
13
|
I
enjoy reading in my spare time during holidays.
|
M
|
210
|
58
|
113
|
0
|
3.25
|
88
|
Accepted
|
F
|
219
|
62
|
107
|
0
|
2.28
|
87
|
Accepted
|
|
14
|
I
rarely use the school library because I detest reading.
|
M
|
113
|
69
|
197
|
02
|
2.76
|
.88
|
Accepted
|
F
|
114
|
65
|
208
|
01
|
2.75
|
.88
|
Accepted
|
|
15
|
I
read a newspaper when it is available only.
|
M
|
170
|
101
|
58
|
52
|
3.02
|
1.07
|
Accepted
|
F
|
180
|
93
|
62
|
53
|
3.03
|
1.08
|
Accepted
|
|
16
|
I
read to pass exams only.
|
M
|
79
|
240
|
17
|
45
|
2.92
|
.84
|
Accepted
|
F
|
86
|
244
|
15
|
43
|
2.96
|
.83
|
Accepted
|
|
17
|
I
prefer the computer to reading.
|
M
|
247
|
117
|
01
|
16
|
3.5
|
.7
|
Accepted
|
F
|
255
|
109
|
03
|
21
|
3.54
|
.76
|
Accepted
|
|
18
|
I
prefer someone to tell me the story in a novel than reading it.
|
M
|
126
|
178
|
76
|
01
|
3.12
|
.72
|
Accepted
|
F
|
125
|
189
|
73
|
01
|
3.12
|
.71
|
Accepted
|
|
19
|
I
prefer reading alone.
|
M
|
203
|
14
|
56
|
108
|
2.81
|
1.33
|
Accepted
|
F
|
209
|
13
|
53
|
113
|
2.82
|
1.34
|
Accepted
|
|
20
|
Reading
is my hobby.
|
M
|
188
|
123
|
65
|
05
|
3.29
|
.79
|
Accepted
|
F
|
198
|
123
|
63
|
04
|
3.32
|
.78
|
Accepted
|
|
|
Grand mean
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.39
|
0.94
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1.39
|
|
Accepted
|
Table 3 indicates that the Grand Mean of
1.39 is obtained for the male respondents while the Grand Mean score of the
females is also 1.39. This is an indication that the male and female students
have High Reading Interests and both reading interests of the male and female
students are Highly Related.
Research
Question Four
To what extent would the students’
achievement in reading comprehension differ by gender?
Table
4: The achievement of male and female students in reading comprehension
|
Table
4 shows that the mean obtained for the male respondents is 28.70 while that of
the females is 28.98. This shows that there is a significant difference between
the achievements of the male and female students in reading comprehension.
Research
Question Five
What is the relationship between the
students’ reading interest and their reading comprehension achievement?
Table
5: Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient between the students’
reading interest and achievement
|
|
Achievement
score
|
Interest
total
|
|
Achievement
score
|
1.0000
|
-.1031
|
|
|
(769)
|
(769)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
total
|
-.1031
|
1.0000
|
|
|
(769)
|
(769)
|
|
|
|
|
Table 5 indicates that the achievement
score of the students is 1.0000 while their reading interest total score is
-.1031. The finding indicates that there is no significant relationship between
the students’ reading interest and their reading comprehension achievement.
Hypothesis 1
Ho1: There is no significant relationship between
the mean student’s reading interest and the mean achievement in reading
comprehension.
Table
6: The Pearson’s Product Moment
Correlation Coefficient of the mean students’ reading interest and the mean
students’ reading comprehension achievement
|
|
_
X
|
SD
|
N
|
DF
|
r-Cal
|
r-Crit
|
Interpretation
|
|
Reading
Interest
Scores
|
3.09
|
0.96
|
769
|
767
|
36.11
|
1.960
|
Ho
Accepted
|
|
Achvt
Scores
|
28.84
|
12.26
|
|
|
|
|
|
Table
6 above indicates that the r-cal is 36.11 while the r-crit is 1.960. The
results show that r-cal is greater than r-crit. It therefore follows that the
null Hypothesis 1 is accepted, implying that there is no significant
relationship between mean students' reading interest and the mean students'
reading comprehension achievement.
Hypothesis Two
Ho2: There is no significant difference between
the reading interest rates of male and female students.
Table
7: Summary of the Pearson’s
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of the mean reading interest of male and
female students.
|
GENDER
|
_
X
|
SD
|
N
|
DF
|
r-Cal
|
r-Crit
|
Interpretation
|
|
Male
|
1.39
|
0.94
|
381
|
767
|
-16.45
|
1.960
|
Ho
Accepted
|
|
Female
|
1.39
|
0.95
|
388
|
|
|
|
|
It is observed in table 7 that the
mean of the reading interest of male students is 1.39, while the mean of the
female reading interest is 1.39. The implication is that there is no
significant difference between the mean reading interest of male and female
students, thus Ho2 is accepted.
Hypothesis Three
Ho3: There is no significant difference between
the achievement of male and female students in reading comprehension tests.
Table
8: Summary of the Pearson’s
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of the mean reading comprehension
achievement of male and female students
|
GENDER
|
_
X
|
SD
|
N
|
DF
|
r-Cal
|
r-Crit
|
Interpretation
|
|
Male
|
28.70
|
12.04
|
381
|
767
|
42.57
|
1.960
|
Ho
Rejected
|
|
Female
|
28.98
|
12.49
|
388
|
|
|
|
|
Table
8 above indicates that the mean of the achievement of the male students in
reading comprehension is 28.70 and that of the female is 28.98. Based on
this, Ho is therefore rejected. This
therefore implies that there is a significant difference between the mean score
of male and female students.
Summary of
Findings
The data analyzed reveal that the
students have interest in reading. This is contrary to the views of researchers
in the literatures reviewed in this study where it was noted that the students
have no reading interest. A typical example is the findings of Okon & Ansa
(2005) that the students have low reading interests. It is also contrary to the
views of Fatimayin (2012) that student’s have low reading interests which
affect their achievement. This shows that many other factors like text content
and text readability may be part of the reasons for the students’ poor
achievement in comprehension passage not necessarily lack of interest.
It was also found that the reading
comprehension achievements of the students are poor. This result is in line
with the Chief Examiners’ Reports (2011) that the students’ results in reading
comprehension are poor on yearly basis. When students have interest in reading
and perform poorly in reading tests, a lot of reasons may be acountable to it.
It may be as a result of unavailability of reading materials, unconduceive
reading environment, lack of qualified teaching personel, poor teaching
methodology, no alloted time for reading in the school timetable, etc.
This study equally found that the
reading interests of the male and female students are the same. This is opposed
to the finding of the literature reviewed where Oyebola (2004) noted that the
reading interest of the male and female students differ.
In this study, it was found that there
is a significant difference between the reading comprehension achievements of
the male and female students. This agrees with the findings of the literatures
reviewed where McNamara (2007) found that boys perform better in science
subjects than girls. in the same vein, Bugel and Buunk (2006) also found that
boys performances differ from that of girls.
Finally, the study also found that there
is no significant relationship between the students’ reading interest and their
reading comprehension achievement. This does not agree with the literatures
reviewed where researchers like Greany (2007) found that reading interest
results in better reading comprehension achievement.
CHAPTER
FIVE
DISCUSSION OF
FINDINGS
This chapter discusses the findings
of the study “Relationship between Reading Interest and Reading Comprehension
Achievement of Senior Secondary School Students in Afikpo Education Zone of
Ebonyi State”.
The findings are hereby discussed
under the following headings, in line with the findings:
•
students'
interest in reading,
•
achievement
of the students in reading comprehension,
•
reading
interest of the male and female student,
•
degree
of difference in the achievement of the male and female students in reading
comprehension,
•
relationship
between the students’ reading interest and their achievement in reading
comprehension.
Students'
Interest in Reading
Research
Question 1 sought to determine the reading interest of the students. The result
of data analysis of Table 1 shows that the respondents have high interest in
reading. This research finding is contrary to the findings of Okon and Ansa
(2005) where they noted that the students do not have reading interest. This
result equally is a surprising turn-around of popular results got by Oyebola
(2004). This researcher found that students have low interest in reading
because they copy the society that has lost reading interest in the quest for
materialism. This result is an indication that students may have interest in
reading but many other factors like time, environment, availability of reading
materials, social media like internet browsing, the use of facebook etc, may
hinder them from actually carrying out the reading process. For instance, a
student have interest in reading because he/she knows that that is the major
means of passing his examinations but may prefer to chat with friends in the
facebook. Equally, a child may have interest in reading but there may be no
books to read or he/she may have to assist the parents in the farm or market
early in the morning before going to school or after school, with little or no
time to read.
Reading Comprehension Achievement of Students
Research Question 2 was formulated to
investigate the mean achievement of the students in reading comprehension.
Based on the evidence from the data in Table 2 of Chapter Four, the result
indicated that the reading comprehension achievement of the students was poor.
This is in line with the Chief Examiners' Reports on WASSCE (2011) that the
students’ reading comprehension achievement is poor on yearly basis. This is
also in agreement with Aliyu (1995) assertion that the failure rate of students
in English language, of which reading comprehension is part of, is placed
between 70-75% annually.
That the reading
interest of the male and female students are the same
Research Question 3 was formulated to
determine the students reading interest based on gender. From the data analysis
of table 3, it is established that there is a significant relationship between the reading interest of
the male and female students high reading interest. This finding is contrary to
the research findings of Oyebola (2004) that the reading interest of male and
female students differ. This current study has establishing that gender does
not affect the reading interests of students. In the same vein, Smith (2002)
whose research findings proved that males have contrary reading interest to the
females was also opposed by this current study. In Smiths (2002) study, both
boys and girls reading interest varied according to their gender but this
present study found that there is no gender difference in the student’s reading
interest.
Achievement of
the Male and Female Students in Reading Comprehension
Research
Question 4 sought to find out if there is any gender difference in the
achievements of students in reading comprehension. The result obtained from the
data analyzed in Table 4 indicates that there is a gender difference between
the male and female students in reading comprehension achievement. This, to an
extent, is contrary to Oyebola’s (2004) findings that the achievement of the
male and female students in reading comprehension is not the same.
Relationship
between the Students’ Reading Interest and their Achievement in Reading
Comprehension
Research
Question 5 was formulated to investigate the relationship between the students’
reading interest and their reading comprehension achievement. The finding
indicates that there is no significant relationship between the students’
reading interest and their achievement in reading comprehension. This finding
disagrees with the literatures reviewed in this study where Krashen (2005)
noted that reading interest results in better reading comprehension
achievement. Krashen's findings is related with Stanvich and Cunningham's
(2003) that students reading interest positively affects their reading
comprehension achievement. This means that interest in reading does not
necessarily determine better achievement in reading comprehension as other
factors have roles to play.
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