Abstract
The
study focused on the Relationship between Reading Interest and Reading
Comprehension Achievement of SSS students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi
State. The purpose of the study was to identify the Relationship between
Reading Interest and Reading Comprehension Achievement of SSS students. The
study adopted the corrolational survey design. The sample of the study
consisted of seven hundred and sixty nine students in Afikpo Education zone of
Ebonyi State.
A questionnaire titled “Reading Interest
Inventory’’ (RII) and ‘‘Reading Comprehension Achievement Test” (RCAT) was used
to elicit information from students. The instrument was subjected to internal
consistency and part B was computed
using Cronbach Alpha and it gave a reliability coefficient of 0.71. Part C was
computed using KR-20 and it gave a reliability coefficient of... These coefficients showed that the instrument
was consistent and reliable. The research questions were answered using
the Mean and Standard Deviation while the hypotheses were tested using the
Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The results show that there is a
significant relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension
achievement of SSS 2 students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State. From
the findings of the study, some recommendations were made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title________________________________________________________
i
Approval____________________________________________________ii
Certification
_________________________________________________iii
Dedication
___________________________________________________iv
Acknowledgement
____________________________________________v
Abstract ____________________________________________________vi
Table
of Contents______________________________________________ vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study______________________________________ 1
Statement
of the Problem______________________________________9
Purpose
of the Study_________________________________________11
Significance
of the Study_____________________________________ 11
Scope
of the Study__________________________________________14
Research
Questions_________________________________________ 14
Hypotheses________________________________________________15
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
Conceptual
Framework_______________________________________16
The Concept of Reading/ Reading Comprehension
__________________17
The Concept of Voluntary Reading______________________________21
The Concept of Reading
Interest________________________________25
Student’s Attitude towards Reading/Teacher’s
Competence___________29
The Place of Reading Comprehension in
the Secondary School Curriculum/
Timetable__________________________________________________34
The Concept of Large
Classes___________________________________36
Environmental/Cultural Factors and the Students’
Reading Interest______39
Methods of Teaching
Reading___________________________________45
Gender and Reading Interest____________________________________52
The Chief Examiners Reports on SSCE past
Examinations_____________56
Analysis of Students
Five-Year Performances on WASSCE____________60
Relationship
between Reading
and Students Reading A academic Achievement________________________________________________62
Theoretical
Framework_________________________________________66
Theories of
Learning___________________________________________66
Anderson’s
Schema-Theoretical Model of Reading___________________66
Edward L. Thorndike’s Theory of
Connectivism (S-R)_________________67
Empirical Studies_____________________________________________69
Summary of Literatures
Reviewed________________________________74
CHAPTER
THREE: METHODOLOGY
Design
of the Study____________________________________________76
Area
of the Study_____________________________________________76
Population
of the Study_________________________________________77
Sample
and Sampling Technique_________________________________78
Instrument
for Data Collection___________________________________78
Validation
of Instrument__________________________________________79
Reliability
of the Instrument_______________________________________79
Method
of Data Collection______________________________________80
Method
of Data Analysis__________________________________________80
CHAPTER
FOUR
Findings
___________________________________________________81
CHAPTER
FIVE
Discussion of
Findings________________________________________91
CHAPTER
SIX
SUMMARY, CONSLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Implication
of the Study________________________________________95
Recommendations____________________________________________96
Limitations
of the Study________________________________________97
Summary of the
Study_________________________________________98
Conclusion__________________________________________________99
REFERENCES_________________________________________________71
APPENDICES
Appendix
A: Questionnaire/Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RII/RCAT)
Appendix
B: Reliability Analysis Scale
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Reading is very important for any
student who wants to excel academically. It is a vital ticket for graduating
from one level of learning to another. According
to Omojuwa (2005), reading is defined as getting meaning from a text or symbols
that represent the language we speak; it is interacting with the language that
has been coded into print. Maduabuchi
(2005:66) conceive reading as “a process and not a product” which characterize
an ongoing activity that begins long before the child gets to school and
continues to develop through life. The researcher maintains that reading
involves learning; it equally incorporates the individual’s linguistic
knowledge and can positively or negatively be affected by non-linguistic
internal or external variables. Interest
on the other hand, according to Hidi (2001), is the desire to learn more
about something. It is any activity or a subject that one enjoys and that one
spends ones free time doing or studying. Schraw (2001) equally conceive
interest as a relatively long-lasting habit of re-engaging with particular
objects and events. This re-engagement increases knowledge, value and positive
attitude. Thus, reading interest may be seen as the inner urge or desire to
engage in reading always. Also, Hidi believes that interest leads to more
elaborate and deeper processing of texts. Invariably, interest seems to have a
substantial effect on the quality of learning achieved by the students. This shows
that reading interest is necessary for the students, to enhance their reading
comprehension achievement.
Potter (2011) opines
that reading fires children’s imagination and encourages quick learning as well
as widens views, expand horizons, and helps readers learn about climes. He
further argues that it encourages imagination, curiosity and the ability to
handle complex ideas. Reading plays a vital role in any worthwhile effort to
learn English. It is a tool for learning other subjects and a yardstick for
measuring academic progress. It is also through reading that educational
objectives can be accomplished. Above all, reading is related to other language
skills. Fatimayin (2012) describe it as the core of the English language
syllabus by explaining that the acquisition of the large vocabulary needed for
clear and accurate oral and written expression depends to a large extent on
reading. It is a gateway to academic success. That is the reason its importance
cannot be overstated. However, in spite of this acclaimed importance of
reading, many Nigerian students according to Okon and Ansa (2005) have reading
problems. As if to compound these problems, Nigerian schools do not have a time
specifically set aside teach for the teaching of reading.
According to Adeboye (2012), educationists believe
that students retain about 6% to 10% of what they hear, 20% to 25% of what they
read, and about 50% of what they study. The summation of the last two figures
that relates to reading imputes that about 75% of what is read is retained and
this is enough to make a student pass his examinations. Going by this analysis
then, why the mass failure in comprehension tests? The implication of the poor
performances of students in this area, according to Chief Examiner’s Report (2011)
of West African School Certificate Examination, therefore, is that students do
not engage in substantial reading to retain that which will enable them perform
well in reading comprehension tests. It is failure in reading comprehension
that gives rise to failure in the English Language which directly or indirectly
affects other subjects. This analysis strengthens the importance of reading
especially to students.
As
important as reading is, it is particularly problematic for children within the
school system. A great majority of them are failing to learn to read and many
more are unable to read to learn Oduolowu (2006). Oyetunde (2001) believes that
the reading failure is as a result of the nature of the reading process which
is not generally understood in Nigeria, perhaps because English is a second
language, and as such a school language.
Oyetunde (2001) further
maintains that many teachers and teacher trainers do not readily appreciate the
difference between teaching the English language and teaching of reading.
Reading, therefore, is not usually conceived as something separate from
English. This may explain the reason reading is not included in the Nigerian
secondary school time-table. The general assumption is that children learn to
read in the course of schooling. Oyetunde (2001), therefore, opines that people
see reading as what is caught and not taught. Because of the failure to make a
distinction between reading and English language, it is sometimes assumed that
once a child can speak the English language he can already read. This
assumption leaves the child struggling on his own to develop interest in
reading which he knows very little about.
Potter (2011) is of the opinion that reading is a major source
of pleasure in any society. This is true of a society with a reading culture.
In the views of Fatimayin (2012), Nigeria is seen as a country with a poor
reading culture and this has a corresponding negative effect on the young
students who see the adults as their model.
It is very surprising to realize
that in spite of the immense benefits derived from reading, secondary school
students do not seem to have interest in it. Obanya in Oduolowu (2006) notes that in Nigeria, many students do not
come to school with the necessary texts or at least the basic reading
materials. Anderson (2012) traces the reason to environmental factors which has
to do with family background (where adult models do not have reading interests
themselves) and inadequate school facilities. Fatimayin (2012), on the other hand, observes that the place of reading
by SSS students is gradually being taken over by home video watching. This
causes their interests in reading to wane at the stage when in fact it should
be the period for building for higher learning. According to him, students are
not doing well in both internal and external examinations owing to their
decline interest in reading.
Reading is the means
through which the goals of other school subjects could be achieved. Uyoata
(2005) notes that an important means of realizing the goals of the National Policy
on Education (2004) is the mastery of skills of reading and comprehending the
contents of subject areas. Potter (2011) on the other hand, affirms that
reading serves as one of the language skills employed for effective academic
pursuits. He maintains that for reading to be meaningful, children must be able
to comprehend and learn from text. This will not just be in the classroom but
equally in their spare time. The major problem encountered is that ignorantly,
teaching reading is erroneously conceived as testing reading comprehension by
most teachers of the English Language. This confusion of reading and testing
reading comprehension further helps to kill the reading interests of students.
Reading
is a prerequisite for graduating from one level of learning to another. To a
student, a good academic performance is not divorced from thorough reading and
understanding of the content areas of a particular subject, just as an
excellent performance requires an extra reading especially beyond the content
areas. When a student indulges in this ‘extra’ reading (by personal choice)
either for pleasure or for information, he is said to be engaging in voluntary
reading (Schraw 2001). According to this researcher, Interest in reading, therefore, is believed to
gradually build students' voluntary reading habit which will boost students’
performance in examinations and consequently reduce the rate of failure
recorded in reading comprehension tests.
In the same vein, reading interest has specific ways
of affecting learning. Schraw (2001) notes that reading interests activate
text-processing strategies that result in readers being engaged in deeper–level
processing. He also records that the connections readers make between
information and their prior knowledge or previous experiences increase their
reading interests. When this happens, comprehension is facilitated which
subsequently leads to higher academic achievements. Another factor that has
been associated with reading interest and increased learning is attention. Hidi
(2001) argues that interest is associated with automatic attention that
facilitates learning. More specifically, the researcher argues that such
attention frees cognitive resources and leads to more efficient processing and
better recall of information. As interest undoubtedly has a strong emotional
component, this aspect play as critical role on how reading interest influences
learning.
On the other hand, Schraw (2001) upholds that
individual interest is a relatively long-lasting habit of re-engaging with
particular objects and events. This re-engagement increase knowledge, value,
and positive attitude. Students bring to their academic experience a network of
individual interests, some similar to and some incompatible with classroom
learning. The interest similar to classroom learning helps to facilitate
learning and consequently boost achievement.
Equally, gender plays an important role in deciding
the reading interest of students. Schraw (2001) believes that social categories
such as gender and race function as individual interest factors that may affect
classroom engagement. In his view, individual interest in a subject may help
individuals deal with relevant but boring texts. This is especially so where
gender is seen by Oyebola (2004) as influencing stereotypes and affecting the
text choice and achievement of the students. For instance, Pae (2004) holds
that gender stereotyping has permeated the school system, manifesting in both
direct and subtle ways. This researcher therefore upholds that certain subjects
are usually perceived as ‘masculine’, for example science, technology and
mathematics while others like home economics, literature, and secretarial
studies are usually seen as ‘feminine’. This claim if proved true, would definitely
affect the text choice and the reading interest of the students. On the other
hand, Oyebola (2004) upholds that the African society emphasizes gender and
this greatly affects both the students reading, reading interest and reading
comprehension achievement. According to this researcher, boys believe that
certain subjects perceived to be easier are for girls. Thus their interests
tend to tilt towards the ones they believe to be appropriate to their sex.
On the other hand, it is very worrisome that reading
comprehension achievement has been generally poor in both internal and external
examinations according to West African Senior School Certificate Examination
(WASSCE) Chief Examiners’ Report (2011). In this report, it is recorded that
over the years, both the male and female students perform poorly in English
language and the worst hit area is the reading comprehension test. The
importance of reading comprehension is that it helps the students to transfer
understanding to other subjects outside English Language and when this is done,
general success is achieved in examinations.
The Chief Examiner’s Report (2011) was corroborated by
the Nigerian Examination Committee of WAEC in the communiqué issued at the end
of their meeting in 2011. They blamed the poor performances mostly on poor
understanding of what the question demands. This problem, which relates to
reading comprehension, was equally identified by the Chi ef Examiners as one of the reasons students fail examinations.
According to Ekpu (2005), Omojuwa (2005), Udosen & Ukpak (2005), reading is
making meaning from texts. The interpretation is that a poor reader or a person
who finds reading boring also has comprehension problems. When a student has
comprehension problems, he/she is bound to have a wrong interpretation of
questions during examinations which may lead to answering examination questions
out of context. This consequently culminates to failure.
The whole essence of studying English language based
on the provisions of the National Policy on Education is for effective
communication both oral and written. For a student to communicate effectively,
many things need to be in place, and one of such things includes developing
reading interest. Ekpu (2005) pointed out that good readers make good writers.
Therefore, the very first step to combat the massive failure in the English
language in external examinations is to lure students’ interest to reading.
Thus, for the students to perform very well in examinations especially in
comprehension tests a good reading foundation has to be laid and students’
interest equally boosted in reading.
Further more, the high
failure rate in some subjects like mathematics, biology, physics, to mention
but a few, have been traced to failure in English Language Aliyu in Ekpu
(2005). Since poor performance in English language has a correlation impact on
other subjects, it means that the problem lies within reading comprehension. It
is in order to deepen concern in this sphere that this research is conducted,
first to determine the relationship between reading interests and reading
comprehension achievement of senior secondary school students and proffer
suggestions for improved reading comprehension for greater achievements.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
Available research
indicates that most students do not have interest in reading (Okon and Ansa
2005). They only read when they are compelled by teachers and adults to do so,
especially during examinations and as a result, they find reading very
difficult and boring. Because students do not have interest in reading and are
forced to read outside their own volition, reading becomes very boring causing
serious loss of interest and comprehension problem is usually encountered as a
result. This seems to explain the reason for the poor reading comprehension
achievements recorded in examinations.
It should be recalled
that English Language is one of the core subjects in the Nigerian school
system, especially in the secondary schools. Despite the fact that it is also
Nigeria’s Lingua Franca, it is one of the prerequisites for gaining admission
into any of the Nigerian universities. In addition, its importance to national
development cannot be overemphasized. It is the language of communication,
trade and social services. The Nigerian Constitution and the National Policy on
Education are all stated in the English Language. To achieve the desired impact
of this all important language to the Nigerian society, reading has to be
employed. In fact, success in every other subject is rooted not only in reading
but also on reading comprehension. The concern now is that students are
seriously loosing interest in reading to football and home video watching,
internet browsing and all other activities outside reading Fatimayin (2012). As
important as this subject is, no serious attention seem to have been paid to
enhance the student’s interest in reading. This is evidenced in the poor
performances recorded yearly in almost all subjects. According to the Chief
Examiner’s Report (2011), the worst hit area is reading comprehension tests
where students perform poorly especially in external examinations. This
indicates that students hardly understand what they read. This comprehension
failure has earlier been traced by Okon & Ansa (2005) to decline of reading
interest among secondary school students.
The failure rate in
the English Language has been placed between 70 - 75% annually Aliyu in Ekpu
(2005), which has a correlative effect on other subjects. This is a cause for
concern to educationists and well meaning individuals. The poor performances
have been consistent over the years (Saturday Sun 2011). The regular failure in
examinations strengthens the argument that students are gradually loosing
reading interest which is the master key to success in examinations especially
in reading comprehension achievements.
In view of the above, this study looks at the
Relationship between Reading interest and reading comprehension achievement of
senior secondary school students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of
this study is to determine the relationship between reading interest and
reading comprehension achievement of senior secondary school students in Afikpo
Education Zone of Ebonyi State. This study specifically:
1.
Determined the
reading interest of the students,
2.
Ascertained the
achievement of the students in reading comprehension,
3.
Determined the
reading interest of the students based on gender,
4.
Ascertained the
reading comprehension achievement of the students based on gender.
5.
Determined the
relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension achievement of
the students.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This study determined
the relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension achievement
of senior secondary school students and made recommendations for improved
reading comprehension. It will be useful to all stakeholders of the education
sector: curriculum planners, Ministry of Education, schools, school heads and
teachers, students, future researchers and the general public.
It will be useful to curriculum planners because it will
expose the need to pay serious attention to Reading as a core subject in the
school system during curriculum planning and development. This owes to the fact
that the Nigerian curriculum does not accord it the importance it deserves by
separating it from the English Language and allotting it a separate time in the
school time table.
The Ministry of
Education will benefit immensely from this study because it will become aware
of the relationship between reading interest and reading comprehension
achievement and thereby plan the breaking down of the language curriculum to
properly accommodate reading instruction for the student’s greater reading
comprehension achievement. It will equally help them to allot appropriate time
to reading instruction in the school time table. They will also begin to
organize workshops and in-service training for teachers of the English Language
who are currently used as substitutes to reading instruction teachers pending
when curriculum planners will include reading as a separate subject in the
school curriculum and more teachers trained for reading instruction.
Every school would
want to achieve the best result both in internal and external examinations.
Thus this study will benefit school authorities immensely as they will realize
that students’ interest in reading will bring improved performance in all the
subjects. The school authorities, therefore, would become aware of the
importance of good and well equipped libraries with current books as well as
interesting ones to attract the reading interest of the students for better
academic performance.
This study will also
be beneficial to teachers generally; especially the English language teachers
as they would begin to employ the best methods to teaching reading in order to
attract the interest of the students. Also, teachers would become aware that
constant reading has an important role to play in the reading comprehension
achievement of students. This will make teachers attend workshops and
in-service training to update their knowledge in reading instruction. When
students develop interest in reading and become voracious readers, teachers
would find it easier to teach vocabulary, spelling, figures of speech and
reading comprehension. This owes to the fact that they would have been properly
informed on the role reading plays to the student’s achievement in reading comprehension.
It will also be useful
to students because it would help them to develop interest in reading. The
reason being that they would become aware that interest in reading helps them
to read voluntarily and this leads to a better performance in reading
comprehension achievement. More so, students would, through reading, develop
the basis for greater achievement in vocabulary knowledge, verbal fluency,
spelling, reading comprehension and general world knowledge. This becomes
possible when the gap between reading interest and reading comprehension
achievement is established and teachers take advantage of it to teach students
properly.
The study will also be beneficial to future researchers
as it will necessitate the research on the strategies for promoting reading
interest among students. It will also benefit the general public because the
students are among the people that form the society. When the students perform
better academically they turn out to be gainfully employed and the society
consequently becomes better.
1.5 Scope of the Study
This study determined the relationship between reading interest and
reading comprehension achievement of senior secondary school students in Afikpo
Education Zone of Ebonyi State. It
focused mainly on reading, reading interests, reading comprehension, and
reading comprehension achievement. The
study was delimited to the public schools in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi
State and twenty schools were used.
1.6 Research Questions
The following research
questions were formulated to guide the study:
1. What is the mean of the students’
reading interest?
2. What is the mean of the students’
achievement in reading comprehension passages?
3. What is the mean of the students’
reading interest based on gender?
4. What is the mean of the students’
achievement in reading comprehension passages based on gender?
5. What
is the relationship between the students’ mean reading interest and their mean
reading comprehension achievement?
1.7 Research Hypotheses
The hypotheses that guided the study include:
1. There
is no significant relationship between the mean of the student’s reading
interest and the mean of students’ reading comprehension achievement scores.
2. There
is no significant relationship between the mean of the reading interest of male
and female students.
3. There
is no significant relationship between the mean of the reading comprehension
achievement of male and female students.
CHAPTER
TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Related
literature was reviewed based on the following major areas:
A Conceptual
Framework
·
The
Concept of Reading/Reading Comprehension
·
The
Concept of Voluntary Reading
·
The
Concept of Reading Interest
·
Student’s
Attitude Towards Reading/Teacher’s Competence,
·
The
Place of Reading in the Secondary School Curriculum/ Time Table,
·
Large
Classes,
·
Environmental/Cultural
Factors and the Students Reading Interest,
·
Methods of Teaching Reading,
·
Gender
and Reading Interest,
·
The
Chief Examiner’s Reports on SSCE Past Examinations,
·
Analysis of
Students Five-Year Performances on WASSCE
·
Students’
Reading and Achievement in Reading Comprehension.
B Theoretical Framework
·
Theories
of Learning:
·
Edward
L. Thorndike’s Theory of Connectivism (S-R)
C Empirical
Studies
D Summary of
Literatures Reviewed.
2.1 Conceptual
Framework
2.1.1 The Concept of Reading/ Reading Comprehension
English language scholars have given various definitions
of reading as well as reading comprehension. Reading is an interaction between
the reader and the text Carrel in (Matthew Thomas, Manzo, Anthony and Casale
2005). Widdowson in (Carr 2010) similarly defines reading as an
interactive process. He sees reading as the process of combining textual
information a reader brings to a text with a previous knowledge. In his view,
the reading process is not simply a matter of extracting information from the
text, rather it is one in which reading activates a range of knowledge in the
reader’s mind that he or she uses, and that in turn may be defined and extended
by the new information supplied by the text. He sees reading as a dialogue between
the reader and the text. This is obvious because meaning cannot be divulged
from information.
In addition, Carrel in Matthew Thomas, Manzo, Anthony,
Casale (2005) asserts that reading is not a passive but rather an active
process, involving the reader in an on-going interaction with the text.
Anderson (2011) on the other hand, sees reading far from being passive. He
upholds that it is an active process. He further expanded reading to meaning
seeking, information processing (how language and thought interact) as well as
the sociolinguistic aspects (language operating in a social context including
writers as readers).
On the other hand, Ekpu (2005), Omojuwa (2005), Udosen
and Ukpak (2005) define reading as getting meaning from a text or from symbols
that represent the spoken language, it is interacting with the language that
has been coded into print. Thus, reading is a must for a secondary school
student who wants to excel academically and otherwise.
Maduabuchi (2005:66) conceives
reading as “a process and not a product” which characterize an ongoing activity
that begins long before the child gets to school and continues to develop
through life. The researcher maintains that reading involves learning. It
equally incorporates the individual’s linguistic knowledge and can positively
or negatively be affected by non-linguistic internal or external variables.
Richgels in (Maduabuchi 2005) therefore notes that reading comprehension is the
result of a successful interaction of a reader with a text. This goes to strengthen the fact that reading
has to be a part and parcel of students’ life for a good academic performance.
Reading good books is very important for the child's
academic growth and parents should stand as a reading model as well as provide
interesting books in their homes. Uyoata (2005:41) realizes the importance of
books and reading when she stated that “homes
without books constitute an eyesore and African parents should show a good
example to their children by reading to the younger ones.” However, the status of the home must be considered. The
poor illiterate homes may not rank the purchase of books high as against the
purchase of food. An illiterate home will not be able to set the foundation for
reading. O'Reilly and McNamara (2007) note this as they observe that there are
proportionally many more reading failures among children who come from poor
homes than there are among their affluent age peers. They thus conclude that
illiteracy and poverty are contributing factors to students' poor reading
habits. It therefore, becomes the responsibility of the primary school teacher
to build in the pupils the love for reading.
Contrary to various definitions of
reading, Aukerman & Aukerman in Potter (2011) are of the opinion that
reading is not synonymous to deriving meaning from the printed page; in fact
they assert that there is no meaning at all on a printed page. To be found
there are only lines and curves that we happen to call letters from which we
build words. According to them, comprehension will not be found on the printed
pages but in the mind of the readers who read the words. It is difficult to
agree with these researchers because both the printed pages and the readers
mind work simultaneously to achieve comprehension.
From the view of Potter
(2011), it is clear that experience is necessary for the comprehension of a
text. Then, what is comprehension? Anderson (2011) defines comprehension as an
interaction of new information with old knowledge. Reading and comprehension
are intertwined; the meaning and relevance of one depends on the other.
Anderson (2011) equally analyzes another type of interactive model of reading,
namely a schema-theoretical model. They show how reading comprehension involves
interaction between old and new information. They focus on how the readers
schemata, or knowledge already in memory function in the process of
interpreting new information and allowing it to enter and become a part of the
knowledge store. Abioye (2010b) equally upholds the same view. To him reading comprehension
is processing written language to get ideas, relating ideas to experience,
organizing ideas, evaluating ideas and utilizing ideas. The reader equally must
have intelligence, language and experience. Johnston in Imam (2004) equally
posits that comprehension is building bridges between the known and the new.
Johnston’s view seem convincing because the reader cannot but interpret and
understand what he reads in accordance with the wealth of related knowledge
about the topic under discussion.
Akpama, Egong and Akwa
(2005) see reading and comprehension as complementary. In their view,
comprehension means understanding and making sense of what is being read or
heard. They establish that effective reading comprehension for students in the
context area is very vital and that reading comprehension question to be
answered by students in the examination help to ascertain their level of
understanding at the vocabulary, grammar and content levels. Lack of
understanding in any of these areas contributes greatly to the mass failure of
students in the English language examinations especially in the reading
comprehension tests. This is why this study becomes imperative to come up with
the findings that will boost students’ reading interest to enhance their reading
comprehension achievement.
2.1.2 The
Concept of Voluntary Reading
Voluntary reading is a type of reading carried out by
students on their own. This has to do with the reader's personal choice of the
material to be read, including when (time) and where (place) to read it.
Voluntary reading is done for information or pleasure. It requires no report or
checks on comprehension. Voluntary reading is seen by Krashen (2003) as leisure
reading, spare time and recreational reading, while Anderson (2011) conceive it
as independent reading and reading outside school. Independent reading involves
personal choice, reading widely from a variety of sources and choosing what one
reads.
According to Fatimayin (2004), voluntary reading cuts
across all categories of literate people - adults, youngsters, men and women.
This researcher further maintains that reading involves all kinds of
literature, depending on reader’s interests and purpose. In other words, one
can read for pleasure, novels, romance, fiction, science fiction, biographical
books, poems, plays, magazines and newspapers. Anyone reading for pleasure must
be literate, that is, such a person must be competent in most of the skills of
reading. Oduolowu (2006) states that Successful reading requires the
recognition of written words and the understanding of their meaning, but that
successful reading, especially of difficult material is dependent upon the ability
to think like and with its author.
Voluntary reading is a
form of recreation. Reading for pleasure, according to Abioye (2010a) is
traveling without exerting oneself and the information one picks up from
biographic, philosophical and psychological books to a large extent goes into
shaping one's thinking and personality. Reading, in its own way, liberates
individuals and societies from the shackles of backwardness (Fatimayin 2004).
This researcher also believes that voluntary reading promotes functional
literacy which facilitates intellectual development made possible by reading
all sorts of books for academic, pleasure and recreational purposes. This is to
say that through the process of recreational reading, students’ lives, attitude
to people, situations and events as well as their morals and communicative
competence are enhanced. The richer, better and wider the variety of books and
materials one reads, the better ones experience.
Fatimayin (2004:150) lists eight main purpose of reading
for English. The last four are reading for pleasure to prove the immense
benefits of recreational reading in the lives of students. The eight points are
to:
(a) Get main ideas in a section, chapter, essay,
story or poem,
(b) Get detailed
information or the important facts supporting the main ideas,
(c) Locate a
particular fact or to find the answer to a specific question;
(d) Gather material
for a critical analysis;
(e) Share the author's
feelings or those of his characters;
(f) Find out how to do something;
(g) Increase knowledge
and broaden horizon;
(h) Get pleasure.
It is evident, therefore, that students will benefit
tremendously when they begin to develop interest in reading.
Reading, apart from
providing opportunity for fun and leisure has a lot to contribute to both
individual and national development. Potter (2011) observes the contribution
that reading good literature does to children. According to him, reading good
literature can promote a sense of security, achievement and a sense of informed
appreciation in the child. Reading promotes a deep awareness and builds the
child up emotionally and intellectually. It equally educates children
unconsciously and pleasurably. According to Fatimayin (2012), the two major
broad areas of reading that students must be exposed to in order to promote
their interest in reading and enhance their academic performance include
intensive and extensive reading
Intensive Reading
Intensive reading
involves careful and detailed reading for facts. The advantage of this type of
reading is that it enables the student to have an understanding of exact and
implied meanings of words as well as the relationship of thoughts. Through
intensive reading the student has detailed knowledge of the text so as to make
critical judgment of them. Moreover, intensive reading helps to sharpen the
learner’s imagination and also increase his power of thought as factual and
critical questions play a very prominent role in determining whether or not the
texts have been understood. According to Oyetunde, (2001), intensive reading
gets the students involved in the independent use of the language and
encourages free expressions. Through constant practice and exercises in
intensive reading, the student might gain good control of the language, become
capable of forming accurate and correct concept and develop in an effortless
manner, keen perception and ease confidence and fluency in the correct English
expression.
Extensive Reading
Extensive reading involves reading many books outside
prescribed texts in any topic of interest (Oyetunde 2001). Under this approach,
the main purpose is to get the gist of the texts and also for the required
information. Extensive reading is also applied to train students to read for
pleasure and relaxation. While extensive reading calls for speed and reasonable
understanding and retention of materials read, intensive reading demands
careful and detailed study of materials for understanding the minutest points.
However, intensive reading and extensive reading complement each other.
Just as it is
important for students to engage in reading activities, it is equally very
important for what is read to be understood, otherwise reading becomes
unhelpful. According to Potter (2011), without understanding words become only
a series of lifeless symbols which neither communicate nor produce learning,
and consequently add nothing useful to the life of the child. This researcher
maintains that when a learner understands and interacts with written or printed
language, the language summarizes the knowledge of the world, fulfills many of
his effective needs and touches the very fiber of the child's existence. Bdliya
(2004) puts it more clearly when he says that the primary goal of reading is
meaning. Without meaning there is no reading and to read is to understand.
The Concept of Reading Interest
According
to Hidi (2001), interest is the desire to learn more about something. Again, it
is any activity or a subject that one enjoys and that one spend ones free time
doing or studying. Thus, reading interest may be seen as the inner urge or
desire to read. According to Schraw (2001), among various conceptualizations of
interest, the most common is to consider interest according to individual
mannerisms. This is because a person’s character has a way of affecting his/her
interest and it has both cognitive and affective (emotional) components.
Researchers also distinguish between individual and situational interest, with
the former targeting personal interest and the latter focusing on creating
appropriate environmental settings.
Individual Interest
Schraw (2001) views individual interest as a
relatively long-lasting habit of re-engaging with particular objects and
events. This re-engagement increases knowledge, value, and positive attitude.
Students bring to their academic experience a network of individual interests,
some similar to and some incompatible with classroom learning. The interest
which is similar to classroom learning helps to facilitate learning and
consequently boost achievement. Social categories such as gender and race also
function as individual interest factors that may affect classroom engagement.
Individual interest in a subject may help individuals deal with relevant but
boring texts.
Another factor that has been associated with interest,
reading and increased learning is attention. Hidi (2001) argues that interest
is associated with automatic attention that facilitates learning. More
specifically, the researcher argues that such attention frees cognitive
resources and leads to more efficient processing and better recall of
information. Finally, as interest undoubtedly has a strong emotional component,
this aspect may play a critical role on how interest influences learning. The
effect of emotions on interest, however, is yet to be fully investigated in
educational research.
Situational Interest
This refers to a psychological state elicited by
environmental stimuli (Schraw 2001). This means that the situation at hand
provokes the student’s interest and this once triggered, may or may not be
maintained. Situational interest
generated by texts may sustain motivation even when individuals have no
particular interest in the topic.
Topic Interest
According to Hidi (2001), this is the interest ignited
by the topic being treated. Topic interest may have an especially significant
role in reading and writing in school because students usually have to deal
with text on the basis of topics provided by teachers.
Influence of Interest on Reader’s Text
Processing and Learning
According to Schraw (2001), the prevalent view in
educational research around the 1980s was that proficient readers process and
recall text according to its hierarchical structure. This means that readers
could recall best more important ideas at the higher levels of text structures.
After the 1980s, researchers found that reader’s well informed individual
interests and their situational interests (evoked by topics and text segments)
contributed to their reading comprehension and learning. Several studies have
demonstrated that personal interesting text segments and passages written on
high interest topics to students facilitate their comprehension, inference and
retention. Thus, interest seems to have a substantial effect on the quality of
learning achieved by the students. Also interest leads to more elaborate and
deeper processing of texts.
Factors Contributing to Readers’
Interest
Research indicates that many factors
ignite the readers’ interest. According to Renninger and Ann (2002), text
characteristics contribute immensely to making reading materials more
interesting. These researchers indicate that certain concepts like death,
violence and sex can be considered absolute interests that almost universally
elicit individuals’ interest. Their subsequent research suggests that a variety
of text characteristics contribute in a positive way to the interestingness and
memorability of written materials. Sources that were found to be sources of
situational interest include novelty, surprising information, intensity, visual
imagery, ease of comprehension, text cohesion and prior knowledge.
Text based interest can also be
promoted by altering certain aspects of the learning environment such as
modifying task presentations, curriculum materials and individuals
self–regulation. For example, Schraw (2001) was able to change the
interestingness and recall of text materials by assigning for reading various
perspectives on the same topic. In addition, he maintains that research has
indicated that presenting educational materials in more meaningful, challenging
and /or personally relevant contexts can stimulate interest. Modifying the
presence of others in the learning environment can also elicit interest. For
example, Schraw (2001) records that mono-educational class in physics can
contribute to girls’ increased interest in the subject area.
Also, Schraw (2001) records that Carol Sansone and
colleagues in a series of studies show that individuals can self-regulate in
order to make tasks more interesting and subsequently to develop individual
interest in activities initially considered uninteresting. Although these
studies did not deal specifically with interest in reading, they indicate that
interest in reading could also be increased by similar methods.
Processes through which Interest
Influences Learning
Interest has specific ways of affecting learning. Schraw
(2001) notes that interest activates text-processing strategies that result in
readers’ engagement in deeper level processing. The researcher also records
that the connections readers make between information and their prior knowledge
or previous experiences increase their interest. When this happens,
comprehension is facilitated which subsequently leads to higher academic
achievements.
Student’s Attitude towards
Reading/Teacher’s Competence
Though it can be argued that the government is doing
its best to promote the culture of reading in schools and make students change
their attitude to reading through the employment of qualified language teachers
and the provision of subject–based textbooks, there is no clear-cut evidence to
support the argument because most public secondary schools have no functioning
libraries while most students cannot afford to buy the recommended textbooks
for their subjects because of the socio-economic background from which they
have come (Saturday Sun 2011). It can be argued, therefore, that there is no
facility, programme or activity on ground in Ebonyi State to develop and
sustain student’s interest in reading except the state library stocked with old
and uninteresting books. This situation is further worsened by the free
education policy introduced by the state government as vote–catching strategy
without adequate infrastructural support. This has become an excuse by parents
who do not have the wherewithal to buy books for their children but are willing
and are ever-ready to send such children to public schools.
The reasons for the waning interest
of students in reading may not be far from the approaches employed by some
teachers of English who attempt to teach reading (Oyetunde 2001). This
researcher maintains that some of these teachers who claim to teach reading end
up testing reading comprehension thereby getting their students more confused
on what reading is all about. The researcher adds that, the emphasis in almost
all the English textbooks is on aspects of reading comprehension such as
literal recognition, word meaning and syntax and rarely on inference,
evaluation and appreciation. Oyetunde (2001) further observes that materials
promoting leisure reading especially for students are now made available in the
markets and libraries. The books are now believed to be commercially produced
by publishers and are directed at young adolescents. Example of such books as
recorded by the researcher is Pacesetters series by Macmillan and Drumbeats
published by Longmans written in English which is believed to have attempted to
replace the imported popular reading materials such as James Hardly Chase which
is loaded with American English and Denis Robins books characterized with
archaic English, with indigenous materials. All these are efforts made to
enhance voluntary reading by students yet the question of teaching reading in
schools and the best approach to effectively pass it across to learners are
still given scanty attention. This owes to the fact that every effort the
teacher makes to employ the best approach boils down to that of testing reading
comprehension. This is a major problem because virtually all the secondary
school English teachers did not pass through the reading course during their
time in the higher institution (Oyebola 2001)). Because of this deficiency,
they replace teaching reading with testing reading comprehension which is the
one they are familiar with. Thus, the problem of teaching reading becomes more
compounded, turning out to be the case of a blind leading the blind when the
teachers enter into the classrooms. Oyetunde, (2001) observes that except the
departments specializing in language arts, reading is not taught formally in
tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
Omojuwa (2005) notes that teacher’s competence is a
key factor in the provision of effective reading instruction for students.
Teachers require a sound knowledge of the reading curriculum for that level and
the right skills and abilities of how to package and present instruction in the
best way to make pupils experience success in learning to read. Unfortunately,
there seem to be a steady decline in the quality of English teachers in the
secondary schools in Nigeria, a situation which contributes to the diminishing
of students reading achievements. This researcher maintains that while there
are still untrained teachers teaching in some schools, most of the trained ones
are ill prepared to teach reading. They exhibit deficiencies in essential
knowledge, abilities and skills required for reading instruction efficiency in
a bilingual/ multilingual context.
The issue of teacher’s competence
must be properly addressed so as to ensure adequate provision of competent
teachers for the first and second level of our educational system. Such
teachers as those who possess the right knowledge and skills and are able to
make the learning of reading not only easy and efficient but also able to
quickly help the students sort out whatever confusion they may have early enough
thereby saving money, time and waste of efforts in our education system. This
amounts to good foundation for reading to learn at higher levels and equally
guarantee a life long voluntary reading interest. Oyentunde (2001) is of the
opinion that teacher – education programmes do not seem to emphasize reading
and where it is a part of the syllabus, it gets overlooked or superficially
treated because most teacher-trainers themselves lack the necessary background
in reading. The consequence is that teachers at all levels, especially those
teaching in the primary and secondary schools, do not pay attention to the
development of reading skills in students.
Poor teaching methodology
contributes seriously to the failure of teaching reading. Reading is not being
taught in any meaningful sense in many Nigerian classrooms. For example,
Oyetunde (2001) states that beginning reading instructional activities tend to
be an exercise of reciting passages from the books with little or no
comprehension. Other features of beginning reading instruction that may be
observed in the classrooms include memorizing or reciting the letters of the
alphabet, letter naming, choral reading after the teacher and some form of
phonics (phonemic awareness) instruction. These essentially represent teacher’s
approaches to helping children learn to read.
It is sad to note that even when
supposed teachers of reading substitutes teaching reading to teaching reading
comprehension, they end up testing reading comprehension instead of teaching
it. Oyetunde (2001) has a clear analysis of the whole situation. As to what
teachers do to help students read to learn, according to him, a fair assessment
is that most teachers would seem to know what to do to consciously develop
reading comprehension skills in students. Equally, in many so-called reading
comprehension lessons, he believes that what goes on is actually a test of
reading comprehension. This researcher sites an example of a typical reading
comprehension lesson thus: the teacher asks the students to open to a
particular page and read for some minutes. Teacher then asks them questions to
test their understanding of the passage. The questions asked are mostly
literal. And if he decides to treat difficult words, he merely asks students to
single out the words they don’t understand; he then proceeds to explain the
words to them or asks the class to look them up in the dictionary. This
analysis clearly shows that no conscious attempt is ever made to develop in
students specific word attack skills such as the use of context cues or
structural analysis. The consequence of all these is that many students find
reading a difficult or frustrating experience and the very few that manage to
learn to read find it a wearisome task. This probably explains why students
read to pass their examinations and professionals read only when it is
absolutely necessary. Yetunde (2002) describes this tendency as a reluctant
reading and learning syndrome and the higher illiteracy syndrome.
Given the general concern of the Nigerian public and
other stake holders in education about the general decline of the reading
interest of students at the various levels of the education system, and the
general poor performance of students in external examinations, the need to
investigate the relationship between reading interests and reading
comprehension achievement of students becomes relevant. Also, since student’s
waning interest in reading seem to lead to their performing below expectation
in examinations, it cannot be allowed to continue. There is, therefore, need to
carry out this study in order to draw the students interest to reading which
will consequently lead them to cultivating a positive attitude towards reading
generally.
The Place of Reading in the School
Curriculum/Time Table
Evidence abounds to support that
reading has not been given its pride of place in subject classification and
distribution on the time-table of either primary or secondary schools in Ebonyi
State and Nigeria in general. Worse still, the curriculum did not make a clear
provision for the place of reading. In fact, Fatimayin, (2004) pointed out that
the state of reading and how it is being handled in the secondary schools in
Nigeria is deplorable because there are no teachers of reading, no
infrastructural facilities such as resource centers, books and the use of
inappropriate strategy that can not promote the development of reading by
teachers. The combined implication of the situation painted here is that most
secondary school students, in the words Oyetunde (2001), do not know how to
read basic texts and have negative attitude to reading and subsequently perform
poorly in school subjects and public examinations.
The curriculum stands as the road
map towards the achievement of the goals of the National Policy on Education
(2004) as it serves as a breakdown of the specified goals according to
teachable, learnable and measurable units. Reading, which is the most vital
area to facilitate the achievement of these goals seem to be totally ignored in
the curriculum. Ajibola (2008) believes that each time there is a review of the
curriculum, this vital area is still neglected. This may be as a result of what
Obanya (2002:203) describes as curriculum overload especially in the language
area. According to him,
Curriculum overload results when all the emphasis is
on more and more content instead of a thorough re-examination of goals,
objectives, methods and materials. It also occurs where there has been very
little attempt to integrate closely related content areas and where very little
distinction has been made between core and supplementary areas of curriculum
content.
A
lot of learning materials are packed in the curriculum leaving no room at all
for some important materials like reading.
Obanya (2002) also identifies a
language curriculum at the basic education level:
·
Prescription (or
that which is intended);
·
Practice (or that
which is actually implemented); and
·
Outcome (or that
which is in the final analysis achieved)
Obanya
(2002) maintains that in ideal situations, there would be a perfect match
between what is prescribed and what is achieved. In real situations, curriculum
discrepancy arises in varying degrees and the mismatch between the intended,
the practiced and the achieved curriculum can be quite wide. One school of
curriculum theory believes that the achieved curriculum is the effective one –
the real curriculum.
The analysis above shows that the
English language curriculum is not achieved when reading which is very vital in
achieving other educational goals is not given its pride of place. If we base
our assessment on the opinion of the theory stated above, then we can feel free
to say that the English language curriculum needs a re-appraisal.
Changes in the content of the
curriculum has always been focused on the fact that every Nigerian should be
able to read and write with understanding, and to apply such skills acquired to
his/her daily life and to continue learning using the written word. However,
there is a fall in reading ability in Nigerians today as recorded in Okon and
Ansa (2005). These researchers further observe that up till now, the Nigerian
Curriculum does not recognize that the teacher of reading has to be specially
trained and this makes them resort to old methods of teaching comprehension and
vocabulary.
The Concept of Large Classes
Large classes in Nigerian schools constitute a major
problem in the allotment of periods in the school time table and it adversely
affects the teaching and learning of reading. The geometric progression of
student/pupil school enrolment is on the increase without corresponding
facility provisions and even staff recruitment Abioye (2010). The resultant
effect is large classes which has led to poor class control and management
problems in our schools nation-wide. It is as a result of this that it becomes
pertinent to identify ways of managing the problem for effective teaching and
learning of reading, which will subsequently promote students reading interest.
One of the major challenges
encountered in the school system, according to Maduabum (2004), is the problem
of large classes orchestrated by the teaming population of Nigerian parents to
have at least, a tolerable level of qualitative education for their ward.
Ideally, a normal class size should be between 35 and 45 and anything above
that falls short of the acceptable standard Abioye (2010). A situation where
the population of a given class is 50, 100 or above, the class is said to be
large or overpopulated. In some schools, a single class has many segments that
run in streams ranging from (a) to (n) or more, and a single teacher is
assigned to teach a particular subject to the whole stream. This in turn places
a load of over 20 periods a week on the teachers against the average standard
of about 12 to 15 periods a week.
Problems of Large Classes
According to Ekpenyong (2007) class
overpopulation is characterized by the following problems
i. inadequate Infrastructure
The rapid growth rate in students enrolment is not
matched with adequate provision of infrastructural facilities like enough and
spacious classrooms, teaching aids, related texts and a good and well equipped
library
(ii) inadequate and lack of spacious
classrooms.
Abioye (2010) observes that due to the large number of
student’s enrolment in schools, the available classrooms are not just enough to
accommodate them.
In most cases, the existing
classrooms are not spacious. A situation like that does not give room for all
students to bring their lockers to school. The researcher’s observation
indicated that the few students that reported early enough during school
reopening for a new term are usually the only ones opportune to have their
lockers in the classroom. Others hang around inside the classroom, the
corridor, and squat or sit by the widow frames. Some share their seats while
some sit on lockers. This is not conducive enough for the teaching and learning
of reading. This type of seating arrangements make it difficult for students to
copy notes, do assignments jot down points and write tests. Ekpenyong (2007)
holds that some big boys and big girls in the class intimidate the younger ones
to offer their backs as a reading table or writing material. Whichever position
the students take to read and write, the crowded atmosphere makes it a
nightmare to the students who easily manufacture reasons why they did not come
to school with their reading and writing materials or why they did not write
their class assignments.
A class such as the one described above easily
generates a bigger problem like noise in the classroom and poor class control
by the teacher. When students do not sit comfortably, fatigue and boredom
easily set in and when these happen, the students will employ all kinds of
trick to force the teacher to end the lesson. According to Ekpenyong (2007),
when teaching a subject like reading or reading comprehension where the teacher
or the students usually read aloud in turns, pronunciation errors and other
forms of reading mistakes are usually ridiculed with prolonged noise. They
mimic supposedly correct pronunciation as if they were errors. Even when the
teacher reads and emphasizes correct pronunciation, the crowd mimics and jeer
and such reactions only confuse the weak ones and that makes them loose
interest in reading, while only the very brilliant few learn from the exercise.
Thus, large classes are one of the major problems of developing students’
interest in reading which subsequently leads to poor reading comprehension
achievement.
Environmental/Cultural Factors and the
Students Reading Interest
According to Araromi (2002), the cultural background
of the child plays preponderant role in his interest in reading and his reading
ability. Both the home and the school environments stimulate the child’s
intellectual ability and also promote his general knowledge. Homes that are
equipped with language materials (books, journals, radio and television)
prepare the child properly for school learning.
If a child comes from a home where
the language of instruction used in schools is not used at home, he is some
what inhibited and he cannot be expected to perform as well as his counterpart
who comes from a home that is well equipped with language learning materials
and who understands the language of instruction being constantly used by his
parents at home. We must admit however that there are exceptions. Many
secondary school students in Nigeria come from homes that are ill-equipped
materially and consequently cannot be expected to perform well in their school
subjects, including reading especially, at the early stage.
The environment the child finds himself plays an
important role to his reading development. According to Anderson (2011), the
preschool years are the crucial ones for children's language and literacy
learning; what happens during those years has a lasting effect on all learning.
Morrow maintains that in all socioeconomic levels, some children who have
access to print and construct meaning from it, learn to read prior to school
entrance and that early experiences with language, stories and print are
formative. This early exposure goes a long way to determining the child’s
interest in reading. Children need
access to print, but they also need someone to mediate between their own
language and the language of the text. This person, according to Anderson
(2011), models reading and helps the child to construct meaning from print.
Language acquisition and literacy experiences begin at birth. Students lacking
previous experiences with skills such as print awareness, alphabetic principle,
and phonemic awareness need supplementary instruction to ensure they do not lag
behind their peers. Therefore, elementary school teachers must provide an
environment that allows students with disabilities to have access to
experiences they may have missed in their preschool years.
However, during the 1930s and 1940s, educators like
Morphett & Washbourne in Oduolowu (2006) were of the opinion that children
should not be taught to read until they were six and a half years old and
performed well on reading readiness tests. Their opinion was based on a study
showing that most children who received formal reading instruction when they
were that age usually succeed in learning to read. Subsequent researchers like
Krashen (2003) and Carr (2010) started looking into children who learned to
read without direct instruction before school entrance. They concluded that
children learned to read naturally although a great deal of supportive and
interactive behaviour conducive to learning was apparent. Overwhelmingly, the
studies show that children from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds learn to
read early. The Nigerian situation is slightly different. Here many children
from poor backgrounds, mostly illiterate homes, do not usually have any contact
with any print material in their preschool years. They often start off their
primary schooling without reading readiness.
In addition to
the contributions made so far by various researchers, Anderson (2011) adds that
studies of day-care experiences show that children’s literacy learning depends
heavily upon what adult caregivers do. This researcher studies the relationship
between the literacy activities discussed, guided or modeled by caregivers and
children’s voluntary literacy behaviour. The discovery indicates that few
day-care classrooms are designed to encourage literacy through writing centers,
lots of books, labels and prints. In centers where high literacy behaviour is
observed, however, adults engage children in frequent reading and writing
activities. They not only make books available, they make them unavoidable.
Their enthusiasm for books and stories becomes contagious. In the centers where
low literacy behaviour is observed, caregivers perceive play as a time for
social and motor development; they do not model or facilitate literacy
activities and therefore, few occur.
Children who
learn to read before school entrance are those who are read to, who have
someone to answer their questions, and who like to make marks on paper. They
are called “paper and pencil” kids. Studies show clearly that children need not
come from privileged homes in order to develop interest in reading or to learn
to read early, but they must have access to print and have someone to read to
them (Mason 2003). This researcher concludes that the way children interact
with books in many homes differ from how they are expected to interact with
books in school. He equally hold the view that children who come to school with
well-developed skills in “taking meaning from books” are clearly at an
advantage.
Other
researchers like Potter (2011) looks at the acquisition of reading from a
developmental point of view. Potter’s idea is that learning to read and write
begins very early in life and follows a continuum instead of appearing in
distinct stages. He shows that children acquire considerable knowledge about
language, reading and writing before coming to school. By the time they are two
or three years old, many children can identify signs, labels, and logos they
see in their homes and communities. Krashen (2003) equally finds that reading
and writing develop concurrently and interrelatedly. This researcher
establishes that children learn to read through active engagement and construct
their own understanding of how written language works, and that adults help
learners by modeling behaviours such as writing a shopping list as well as
interact with children around print, reading together from pictures and text.
It is very clear
that these researchers did not put into consideration children from illiterate
homes and those from very remote villages where they had no encounter
whatsoever with print materials before they started school; even when they
started school, there was no library both in the school and the community
around them. The children they were talking about were not just children from
literate homes but children from privileged homes. There is still evidence of
children who were not exposed to print materials (Children from illiterate
homes) who competed favourably with children with early exposure to print
materials.
However, Carr’s
(2010) studies of the homes of children who had learned to read early indicate
that someone in the home read to the children, answer their questions and
encourage them to write. The researcher counts
literacy events (which they see as any encounter in which the child is
involved in reading, writing, or engaging with print), and their finding is
that prior to school entrance, some children have hundreds of literacy events,
whereas others have few or none. The amount of experience that five year-old
children have with books, according to these researchers, is directly related
to their reading interest and reading comprehension at seven and eleven years
old. Children who engage in hundreds of literacy events enter school understanding
more about the world than children with minimal literacy events; they excel at
the end of elementary school. They equally hold the view that six years of
schooling could not make up for the loss children suffered by not engaging in
literary events in their early lives.
The views of
these researchers show that academic achievement is closely related to early
print exposure. However, it is possible for a gifted child without any prior
print exposure to excel together with his other counterparts with early print
exposure.
A
print rich environment is a tremendous asset to enhance the child’s interest in
reading and reading ability. The home should be the place where children should
first be exposed to books before the child starts school. Some of the children
from poor homes do not have the advantage of early access to print rich
environment until they start school. Even when they start school, the money may
not be available to buy all the necessary books for reading. This means that
poverty plays a hindering role to the child’s reading interest. Potter (2011)
rightly pointed out that there are proportionally many more reading failures
among children who come from poor homes than there are among their more
affluent age peers. The poor illiterate home may not rank the purchase of books
high as against the purchase of food. More so, the illiterate parents will not
afford to read story books to their children at bedtime. That may explain why
Potter (2011) notes that illiteracy and poverty are contributory factors to the
students’ waning interest in reading and poor reading habits.
Equally, government has not measured
up to standard in the provision of books in school libraries. Saturday Sun
(2011) notes that some schools do not have libraries at all and the available
ones are stuffed with old and uninteresting books. Good libraries should be up
to date with current materials including daily newspapers, magazines and novels
to cover the various reading interests of the child. Almost all the primary
schools especially in the rural areas do not have libraries. Even when the
whole world is information crazy, evident in the proliferation of computers and
internet facilities, Nigeria seems not to be interested otherwise every school
(both primary and secondary) should have a library which must be filled with
current books, computers and internet facilities. This further accounts for our
backwardness or slow developmental pace because reading widens ones horizon.
Thus the poor print-rich environment further alienates the child from reading
which consequently affects reading comprehension achievement.
Methods of Teaching Reading
The method of teaching reading employed by any teacher
greatly affects the interest of the students which consequently determine the
students corresponding performance. Many writers have defined method in various
ways. According to Azikiwe (2005) methods are the ways educational aims are
translated to practice as well as reality. It is in practice that a particular
method of teaching could be evaluated to see how educational aims have been
realized. In Azikiwe’s (2005:68) own words, “Method means a set of teaching
procedures to follow in delivering our lessons.” This researcher further
explained that method is also seen as “the overall plan for the orderly
presentation of language material, not part of which contradicts, and all of
which is based upon the selected approach.
Omojuwa (2005) on the other hand, defines method as an
overall plan for the orderly presentation of language learning materials. She
believes that method has a procedure that agrees with a particular approach
view or assumptions which have to do with the reading act as well as teaching
and learning reading. Omojuwa (2005) holds the same opinion with Azikiwe (2005)
that method is not static but changes frequently. The importance of teaching
methods in reading achievements cannot be over-emphasized. The major reasons
why many students fail to read owes to the fact that the right teaching methods
have not been applied, not that they just cannot learn.
In as much as there are many methods
available for the teaching of languages, not all of them would be appropriate
for the teaching of reading. Azikiwe (2005), notes this when she stated that
there are many methods from which to choose from when preparing a lesson
because some methods could be effective for teaching some aspects of language
while ineffective for other. A teacher makes his choice of method based on the
nature of content and the teacher’s perceptions about how best his students
would learn what he has to teach.
Several arguments have been going on
based on the best language teaching method. This led to the birth of many
methods of teaching language. Nweke in Azikiwe (2005) lists: Class Method,
Self-teaching Methods, Inquiry Methods, Project Method, Activity Method and
Induction Method. There are still many more language teaching methods such as
the Grammar-translation method (GTM), the Direct or Natural method (DM), the
Audio – Lingual Method (ALM), the silent way method (SWM), the total physical
response method (TPRM), the Audio Visual method (AVM), the play method (PM) the
Oral Method (OM), the Eclectic Way (EW), to mention but few. Webb in Maduabum
(2004) is of the view that the controversy over which method is the best has
been beside the point, and has obscured the important areas such as the quality
of teachers for the tasks, their proficiency or mastery of the language and the
realization that the main object of learning a foreign language is to enable
learners to use the language in life situations. This means that the
effectiveness of teaching and learning of a second language should not be
solely attributed to the methods used. Azikiwe (2005), therefore advises that
the teacher should adapt or use methods depending on some factors such as the
class, availability of resources, the ability of the learners and lastly the
preparation of the teacher. Webb in Maduabum (2004) warns that a method will
become inefficient if inflexibility is not applied. This is especially the case
in Nigerian situation where there is a nagging problem of large classes. This
problem requires the type of teaching method that will enable the teacher to
reach individual member of the class and which will equally help every student
to benefit from each lessons. Thus the best teaching method for teaching
reading should wholly depend on the teacher based on his/her understanding of
his/her students.
For the purpose of this study, there are many methods of
teaching reading to enhance comprehension. The question of the best method
continues to promote lively debate, with experts believing passionately in one
approach or another. The reality, according to Dorrell (2002) is that all of
the methods have shown success to some degree. The main teaching methods can
broadly be categorized into those which employ phonics and those which do not.
The Phonic Method
According to Higgins,
Boone and Lovitt (2002), children learn how to decode in phonics methods of
teaching how to read. They look at the individual or groups of letters,
recognize the sounds and blend them together to form a fluent word. Children
can therefore read new words which they have never been taught. In alternative
teaching methods, children learn to recognize whole words or sentences rather
than individual sounds. Repetition in books or through flashcards is used to
enable the child to memorize new words. They may also be taught to take clues
from pictures accompanying the text. The Phonics
Method requires teachers to guide learners to think of the sound(s) that should
normally be associated with syllables in each word. In this method there will
be a lot of "sounding out" exercises in which a whole classroom
"sounds-out" together in accompaniment with DVDs, or videos, or
Powerpoint projected exercises. The names of the alphabet letters are a
prerequisite to the use of this method, but the sounds associated with each
syllable are the main points of focus.
The Alphabet Method
This
method, according to Dorrell (2002), deals with teaching the names of alphabet letters
(learning your ABCs). It was once thought to be adequate to lead children into
the reading of words. This was expressed in 1620 when flash cards, booklets,
and classroom slates were used to teach the letters of the alphabet in rural
America. As a method for teaching reading, the Alphabet Method is no longer
promoted. If a child or adult comes to school without knowing the English
alphabet, this deficiency is remedied as a separate topic. In the Alphabet
Method, a normal child will easily learn to say with confidence "Y YES BYE
DRY LADY. The words show that the letter "Y" can be used at the
beginning of a word, or within the word, or at the end of a word, and the word
can be of various lengths. Unfortunately the child or adult will quickly be
able to recite those words from memory. The recitation, however charming, has
not advanced the learner into understanding that the letters are meant to
signal sounds that ought to be uttered. According to Dorrell (2002), the Alphabet Method is no longer thought to be a valid way
to lead a person into the sounding out of syllables nor does it reveal the
phonetic basis for English orthography which is the basis for a person to read
eventually with integrity.
The Whole Word Method
According to Anderson (2011), learners are
expected to look at the general appearance of words in this teaching method.
Then from the shape of the word's appearance, the pupil is expected to memorize
the sounds that should be spoken. The goal is for learners to see each word as
a little picture and associate the teacher's spoken word with the little
picture.
The Linguistic Method
According
to Neuman and
Roskos (2005), teachers
adhere to the Phonic method above, but they try to avoid the deception of
deliberately showing misspelled words to children or other learners. Instead
they search for those few English words that are already spelled consistently
and they use only those words to instill the concept that letters are
trustworthy indicators of sounds to be uttered. Unfortunately, until now, their
lesson plans had to be quite short since English is riddled with arbitrary
spellings. Nor is it easy to isolate words that are quite phonically pure. In
the end children still have to make the transition to the majority of words
that are spelled in 36,000 random configurations of letters. But, the shortage
of pure phonetic words has limited this otherwise valid approach. A new
resource, however, greatly resolves the scarcity of naturally-occurring phonic
words.
The I.T.A Method (Initial Teaching
Alphabet)
This
method has been promoted with dozens of variations. According to Whitehurst (2003), since
English tries to signal us to make 42 various speech sounds by using 26
alphabetic letters, some linguists naturally suggest that we simply need more
letters to work with. The ITA introduces about 12 new symbols or characters
that designate our speech cues more accurately. By having these extra
characters a reader more accurately knows what sounds to utter. Purists at
heart, some linguists not only wish that all words were spelled phonetically,
but even then, they would complain further that there are not 42 letters in our
alphabet so something must be done about that. Whitehurst (2003) further
stated that in 1845 Sir Isaac Pitman and A. J. Ellis
published the first book that popularized this method, titled "The
Alphabet of Nature." In the book he claimed there had been 27 previous
attempts to correct the shortage of letters in the English alphabet. Lots of
other people have also placed logic above social convention. They want a letter
for every English speech sound. These purists hope against hope that everyone
will someday convert and use their bigger alphabets. Will we cheerfully buy new
computer keyboards with their extra letters?
The ITA
Method is an initial teaching alphabet only. It is used in similar ways to
phonics methods, introducing children to a reliable system where letters are
always used in reliable trustworthy ways to give us cues about pronunciation.
After one or two years, children are weaned from the comfort of the ITA
alphabet and nursed over to our normal spelling standards. As with phonics,
little harm is done.
The Laubach Method
According to Laubach (2002), this
method of teaching reading tremendously benefited nations that had no written
orthography for their spoken languages. He analyzed hitherto-unknown tribal
sounds and their styles of speech with the goal of providing an alphabet for
each tribe or nation. Then he would train teachers or leaders who soon taught
their people how to read. He was known as "Apostle to illiterates." His
program was called "Each One Teach one." Since he had control of the
requirements for each new alphabet, he could for example identify 35 speech
sounds used by a particular tribe and then create an alphabet that had 35
letters or symbols representing each of their 35 sounds. With that people could
learn to read within a day or two. Soon these tribes and countries began
producing their own literature, writing their on biographies, and documenting
their governing rules and discussions. Laubach provided alphabets and taught
reading to 103 separate tribes and nations. For English-speaking countries he
wrote the book "Learn English the New Way." In it he recommends a
limited number of words whose spelling is changed to make it into phonic form,
but he also used two diacritical markings to clarify pronunciation. He required
use of the slash and the apostrophe. So essentially this method was based on
the phonics method except that a few additional markings were introduced to be
used only during months of introduction to reading.
Gender and Reading Interest
In the African setting, gender has a
way of affecting almost everything – academics and circular life – reading
therefore is not an exception. According to Oyebola (2004) gender has a way of
being influenced by stereotypes. This researcher defines stereotype as a person
or thing seeming to conform to a heavily accepted type. Stereotyping is
culturally based. Every culture has a way of influencing the behaviour of
men/boys and women/girls (Oyebola 2004). This scholar maintains that this
stereotyping is consequently carried over to the school system where certain
subjects are usually seen as masculine. For example, science, Technology and
Mathematics are usually dominated by men while other areas like Home Economics,
Literature, Secretarial Studies, etc, are usually perceived as ‘feminine’.
In the first
chapter of Smith’s book Reading don’t fix no Chevys (2002: 10 – 20) is a
quick review of a major findings of research related to boys and reading:
·
Boys
do not comprehend narrative (fiction) as well as girls.
·
Boys
have much less interest in leisure reading than girls.
·
Boys
are more inclined to read magazines as well as newspaper articles.
·
Boys
are more inclined to read comic books and graphics novels than girls
·
Boys
like to read about hobbies, sports and things they do or want to do.
·
Boys
tend to enjoy escapism and humour.
·
Some
groups of boys are passionate about science fiction or fantasy.
·
The
appearance of a book and cover is important to boys.
·
Few
boys entering school call themselves “non-readers” but by high school, over
half do.
·
Boys
tend to think they are bad readers.
·
If
reading is perceived as feminized, then boys will go to great lengths to avoid
it.
Smith (2002)
observes that most young adult sections in public libraries are filled with
fiction with very little recreational non – fiction. If there is recreational
non-fiction, it is more than likely to be self-help, health – related, about
teen issues or pop star biographies. The researcher believes that there might
be magazines, but the chances are they are aimed more at girls than boys.
Furthermore, comic books are more than likely not to be there, and graphic
novels, if collected, are not features. According to the researcher, there is
probably not a newspaper lying around. Smith in his book maintains that
secondary school libraries, which do not highlight young adult materials to be
read outside of the curriculum, offer boys just as few options. Thus, for most
boys finding something to read in a library is like running an obstacle race.
Some writers
also observe that the language, characterization and illustrations in textbooks
and general reading materials produced in Nigeria reflect a gender bias
(Oyebola 2004). Areo in Oyebola (2004) observed that book contents show women
in a few stereotyped, restricted occupations and careers, say, nursing,
secretarial duties, receptionist roles, modeling, etc, while men are shown as
architects doctors estate agents, etc.
Moreover, O'Reilly and
McNamara (2007) explored whether there were any gender-differences on measures
of cognitive ability and science achievement among 1,651 male and female high
school students. They found that males scored higher than females on measures
of science knowledge, state science test, and passage comprehension.
Bügel and Buunk (2006)
examined the impact of passage topic on gender differences in FL reading
comprehension using 2,980 high school students in the Netherlands. They
selected a total of 11 different English reading passages including five texts
with a ‘male’ topic and six texts with a ‘female’ topic. Males scored
significantly better on the multiple choice comprehension items for essays
about laser thermometers, volcanoes, cars, and football players. Females
achieved significantly higher scores on the comprehension tests for essays on
text topics such as midwives, a sad story, and a housewife’s dilemma. Bügel and
Buunk (2006) included a gender-neutral passage in their FL study, and they
found that males performed significantly better than females on the
gender-neutral text. This finding contrasts with previous research which
suggests that females are better foreign language learners than male. Bügel and
Buunk (2006) concluded that differences between the sexes in prior knowledge
contribute to gender differences in foreign language reading comprehension.
In addition to
Smith’s (2002) research findings on boy’s readership, Barbieri (2005) finds
that seventh grade girls read for personal reasons: to clarify their beliefs
and to discover that they are not alone. Like Atwell (2007), she finds that
time, choice and response are necessary parts of a literacy programme if
students are to develop enthusiasm for reading. Psychologists Brown and
Gilliam’s (2002) finding show that girls’ sense of identity is deeply rooted in
their perceptions of relationships, which they see as a way of knowing and
opening between self and others that create a channel for discovery – an avenue
for knowledge. In the views of Brown and Gillam, girls read to explore relationships,
it is central to their reading. These researchers equally find that girls read
to search for answers to personal problems that bother them and that students
want the freedom to choose the books they read, to talk with peers about the
books and to respond to reading in ways they choose.
The Chief Examiner’s Reports of WASSCE
Past Examinations
According to The
Chief Examiner’s Reports (2005), the general performance of candidates in
almost all the subjects especially in the English Language for the year was not
impressive. The main weaknesses observed in the scripts of the candidates had
to do with insufficient exposure to the rudiments of the English Language.
According to the reports, students exhibited lack of familiarity with the
required formats of the skills of writing. They also had the problem of
construction of loose sentences, transliteration from mother tongues and abuse
of basic rules of grammar. Their performances in reading comprehension tests
were also very poor. This weaknesses displayed by the students owes to the fact
that students do not read as they ought to due to what researchers earlier
traced to failure in students reading interest. Also, Sulzby (2005) found that
reading and writing develop concurrently and interrelatedly. Thus, the reading
problems of students are manifested in written examinations. To buttress this
point further, Anderson (2011) reveals that there is a high positive
relationship between achievement in English language and other school subjects
and by the same token attributes declining performance of students in
examinations to low proficiency in the English language. This researcher also
notes that the amount of free reading done outside of school has consistently
been found to relate to growth in vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal
fluency and general information.
In the same vein, the
Chief Examiner’s Reports on WASSCE (2006) show that there was a little
improvement in some subjects including the English Language compared to the
previous year. Among the areas the students performed poorly are the reading
comprehension tests. In the reading comprehension tests, the reports indicate
that the students did not perform well in those questions whose answers are
identifiable from the two passages set. The main problem was that many of them
copied out what looked like answers from the passages when they were supposed
to use their own words to present the answers. According to the reports, in the
case of replacement of words, some candidates failed to put their options back
into the context to see whether or not they fit perfectly into the text. These problems identified still points to the
fact that students still have reading problems which needs to be seriously
tackled.
The performance of the students in the 2007 WASSCE is
recorded poor by the Chief Examiner’s Reports. Among the areas the students
performed poorly in the English Language was in the comprehension passage
tests. The students were presenting their answers in meaningless sentences
instead of phrases. Equally, despite the fact that the passages presented for
the comprehension test were quite interesting, the students seemed not to
understand it judging from the out-of-context answers they gave. These poor
performances show that the students are still having reading comprehension
problems.
Although the student’s performance in May/June 2008
was better than that of the previous years, it was still a poor show. The Chief
Examiner’s Reports indicate that the students were ill-prepared for WAEC examinations
due to some reasons. One of the reasons as deduced by the
Reports which relates to reading is inadequate coverage of the syllabus. This may be attributable to vast learning items lumped in English language. Such items include reading, reading comprehension, oral English, grammar and essay writing. These are vast areas of English that would have been allotted separate times in the time table. So many things to learn and little time to learn them contribute immensely to student’s failure. Students on their own part have not been able to cover up the gap by reading at home, may be because they are poor readers or they do not read at all, or simply because of poor reading comprehension.
Reports which relates to reading is inadequate coverage of the syllabus. This may be attributable to vast learning items lumped in English language. Such items include reading, reading comprehension, oral English, grammar and essay writing. These are vast areas of English that would have been allotted separate times in the time table. So many things to learn and little time to learn them contribute immensely to student’s failure. Students on their own part have not been able to cover up the gap by reading at home, may be because they are poor readers or they do not read at all, or simply because of poor reading comprehension.
Spelling errors, according to Chief Examiner’s Report
of 2009 SSCE, were the major problems students encountered during the
examination. The answers supplied by the students in the comprehension passage
tests were full of spelling errors and that made the students to score low in
that section. This combined with other problems brought about the poor
performance recorded in 2009. This may not just be because the English teacher
did not teach it well but for the reason that students do not read as they
ought to. Research shows that good readers are equally good writers. An avid
reader unconsciously learns the correct spelling of most words in addition to
the numerous things that is learnt while reading. That is why it is necessary
to cultivate a voluntary reading habit on students which is part of the
benefits to be derived from this study.
The Chief Examiner’s Reports of WASSCE (2010) indicate that poor communication skill was the bane of the student’s success during the examination. The whole essence of studying English language based on the provisions of the National Policy on Education is for effective communication both oral and written. For a student to communicate effectively, many things need to be in place. Ekpu (2005) pointed out that good readers make good writers. Judging from this, the very first step to combat the massive failure in English language in external examinations is to introduce students to reading.
Oluikpe in Oyebola (2004) explained
many methods and approaches to teaching the art of writing and almost all of
the methods and approaches have reading as its backbone. For example, he stated
that when teachers advise their students to read novels to improve their standard
of English, they are expressing the unflinching faith in traditional method of
teaching writing. The researcher believes that a good knowledge of vocabulary
items and sentence patterns, contrasts of usages of speech and writing and
then, the practice in the recognition of different styles of writing can never
work and no meaningful result achieved if previous reading has not been done.
The reports of WASSCE 2011 by the Chief Examiners reveals that one of the major problems the students encountered in the comprehension passage tests was Poor understanding of what the question demands This problem, which relates to reading, was equally identified by the Chief Examiner as one of the reasons why students fail examinations. According to Ekpu (2005), Omojuwa (2005), Udosen and Ukpak (2005), reading is making meaning from texts. The interpretation is that a poor reader or a person who finds reading boring also has comprehension problems. When a student has comprehension problems, he/she is bound to have a wrong interpretation of questions during examinations which lead to answering examination questions out of context and this culminates to failure.
The summary of The
Chief Examiner’s Reports indicates that there is a yearly poor performance of
students in WASSCE. Thus, for the students to perform very well in examinations
a good reading foundation has to be laid and students’ interest equally
enhanced in reading. This is one of the reasons why this research is carried
out.
Analysis of Students Five-Year Performances on
WASSCE
There has been a
yearly poor performance of senior secondary school students in external
examinations in Nigeria recorded in almost all subjects especially, the English
Language (Chief Examiner's Reports of West African School Certificate 2011).
Thus, the poor performance indicates that students either did not understand
what they read or they did not read at all.
The analysis of the student’s
performance in English language over the past five years (2005-2009) was put at
the average of 40% credit (this day, April 9, 2009). In 2005, 25.63% of
students who sat for May/June WASSCE had credit pass in English language while
36.93% failed out-rightly. Then, in 2006, 32.48% got credit pass in English
language while 29.65% failed. Equally 2007 recorded 30.32% credit pass in the
same subject while 30.25 failed. The same poor performance was recorded in 2008
where 35.02% credit pass was recorded for English language and 31% failed. In
2009, it was another poor performance of 25.99% credit pass and 36.69% failure.
Another poor performance was recorded in 2011 where 22.16% got credit pass and
37.13 failed.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
Source:
Nigerian Examination Committee of WAEC in the communiqué
|
issued
at the end of their 2011 meeting.
The percentage of failure in this statistics surpasses
that of credit pass which is the acceptable level for admission into the
Nigerian University. It should be noted that if the percentage of the number of
candidates that scored P7 and P8 is added to the number of failures (as
ordinary pass cannot secure admission in most of the Nigerian universities),
then the number of failures will increase. This shows that serious attention
needs to be paid to reading and reading interests of the students which is the
key to improvements.
The Relationship between Reading and
Students Academic Achievement
Researchers
have continued to provide evidence of the relationship of reading proficiency
to academic achievement. For instance, A study by Brantmeier (2003) of the
effects of voluntary reading on Japanese University Students proficiency in
English, found that students who reported reading more English books
voluntarily experienced significantly greater improvement in reading more
English books, experienced significantly greater improvement in reading ability
and vocabulary knowledge than those who reported reading less as measured by
pre-and post – test. The students also reported that the voluntary reading
programme helped them to improve on their English.
In addition to its
cognitive benefits, voluntary reading helps to develop a positive attitude
among students towards reading in the second language, it also increase their
motivation to read in the second language Koda (2005). Perhaps, this is because
the more one reads, the easier it becomes.
Indeed, Tsang
(2006), in comparing the effects of three programme, the one that included
extensive voluntary reading was found to be significantly effective overall. In
the area of content and language use, the extensive voluntary programme was
also the only one that was found to be significantly effective.
One of the best
ways to help students increase their language proficiency is to encourage them
to read voluntarily and extensively (Krashen 2005). Krashen conducted a comprehensive
meta-analysis of forty-one studies on in-school free reading, sustained silent
reading and selected reading programmes. In thirty-eight of forty one studies,
students who engaged in voluntary reading did as well or better on tests of
reading comprehension than students who were given direct instruction in
reading. Krashen’s meta-analysis showed that in-school voluntary reading
programmes are related to vocabulary development, knowledge of grammar, writing
and oral language facility, and that correlations between voluntary reading and
scores on literary proficiency tests are not always highly significant
statistically; however, they are consistent and show that free voluntary
reading does make a difference. Krashen (2005) also examined the results of
out-of-school studies in which participants gave self reports of their free
voluntary reading. The result of these studies confirm the in-school studies:
more voluntary reading results in better reading comprehension and related
literacy skills.
The same perception
towards voluntary reading was held by the students studied by McQuittan (2004),
in which he overwhelmingly found voluntarily reading to be not only more
pleasurable but also more beneficial for language acquisition than instruction
in grammar.
Students who
read independently become better readers, score higher on achievement tests in
all subject areas and have greater content knowledge than those who do not
(Stanovich and Cunningham 2003). This owes to the fact that the understanding
of a text can be hindered or facilitated by one’s knowledge of vocabulary items
which results in one’s ability or inability to sustain meaning and
understanding through complex sentences, discern meaning from figures of
speech, interpret idioms and figurative use of words.
Day, Omur and Hiramatsu (2001) in their study of 191
high-school and 397 University Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
students engaged students in sustained silent reading for pleasure. At the end
of the treatment, they found that these students scored significantly higher
than the control group in correcting and identifying the meanings of target
vocabulary items.
In a repeated
study conducted in Singapore using a similar design and involving over 500
students from Grades 11 to 3, Elley (2001) finds the same to be true. After
three years of following the Reading Acquisition and Language Programme
(REALP), the students made significantly more gains in vocabulary and other
language skills than the control groups. In reviewing the Singapore and Fiji
studies, Elly asserts that children who are exposed to an extensive range of
interesting and illustrated storybooks, who are encouraged to read on their own
and share them with other children are consistently found to learn the target
language more quickly. Not only did it lead them to improvement in reading,
writing and language use, it also lead to a positive attitude towards reading,
which would help to increase students’ language proficiency in the long term.
He added that they appeared to learn the language incidentally when immersed in
a meaningful text.
However, the most convincing evidence for the benefits
of voluntary reading comes from that which has come to be known as the “book
flood” studies (Elly & Mangubhai 2003), which looks at the effect of
voluntary reading on the English language proficiency of Fiji elementary school
children. These studies, which studies from about a hundred to several thousand
students, and for a period of about one to about three years, provide evidence
of the remarkable increase made by these students on measures of language use
(which the researcher specified as oral language, reading comprehension and
writing), language knowledge (also included word recognition, vocabulary
knowledge and grammar), as well as academic performance (as measures by the
examinations used across the Fiji elementary reading interest established in
the primary school level). This stand as a sure foundation for higher level
reading in the secondary school as well with a corresponding better performance
in English language and other subjects.
Greaney(2007)
reveals that there is a high positive relationship between achievement in
English language and other school subjects and by the same token attributed
declining performance of students in examinations to low proficiency in English
language. This researcher also noted that the amount of free reading done
outside of school has consistently been found to relate to growth in
vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal fluency and general information.
2.2 Theoretical Framework
2.2.1 Theories of Learning
There are many learning theories
propounded to help teachers deliver their lessons effectively to affect
positive learning outcomes in students. Notable among them are Edward L.
Thorndike’s theory of connectivism which results in transfer of learning and motivation
as well as Anderson’s Schema-Theoritical Model of Reading which emphasizes the
importance of background knowledge to text comprehension.
2.2.1 Anderson’s
Schema-Theoritical Model of Reading
Anderson (2011) analyzes a type of interactive model of
reading, namely a schema-theoretical model. It describes in detail how the
background knowledge of the learner interacts with the reading task and
illustrates how a student’s knowledge and previous experience with the world is
crucial to deciphering a text. The ability to use this schemata, or background
knowledge, plays a fundamental role in one’s trial to comprehend a text. Schema
theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of
mental frameworks that help a reader make sense of new experiences. Smith
(2002:14) calls schemes the “extensive representations of more general patterns
or regularities that occur in our experience”. For instance one’s generic
scheme of an airplane will allow him to make sense of airplane he has not previously
flied with. This means that past experiences will be related to new
experiences, which may include the knowledge of objects, situations, and events
as well as knowledge of procedures for retrieving, organizing and interpreting
information. Anderson (2011) presents research showing that recall of
information in a text is affected by the reader’s schemata and explains that a
reader comprehends a message when he is able to bring to mind a schema that
gives account of the objects and events described in the message. For Anderson
(2011:38), comprehension is the interaction between old and new information.
The researcher emphasizes: “To say that one has comprehended a text is to say
that one has found a mental ‘home’ for the information in the text or that one
has modified an existing mental home in order to accommodate that new
information”. Therefore, a learner’s schemata will restructure itself to
accommodate new information as that information is added to the system or
knowledge in store. It is the intercourse of the old and new information that
guarantees comprehension.
This theory is highly related to this study because
reading is all about comprehension. More so, experience or what a child already
knows is very important in achieving reading comprehension.
2.2.3 Edward
L. Thorndike’s Theory of Connectivism
Thorndike’s theory in Maduabum (2004) has to do with
stimulus and responses. It involves three laws: laws of readiness exercise and
effect. The law of readiness states that the learners’ background knowledge
plays a great role in learning. This means that there must be previous
knowledge at the background to help the learner face the level of learning
he/she is attempting. The implication is that the learner must be prepared for
learning. The law of exercise states that there must be practice before any
meaningful learning takes place. On the other hand, the law of effect states
that anything done that guarantees any positive or desired effect becomes
associated with that situation it was carried out.
A hungry cat was enclosed in a box with a dish of food
placed outside the box. The cat made desperate efforts to get to the food but
could not until it accidentally pulled the string attached to the box. The box
opened and the cat found its way out and consumed the food. The whole process
was repeated by Thorndike and the cat made several efforts and once again
pulled the string accidentally and went out to eat the food. This continued
until the cat got used to stamping in correct responses and stamping out
incorrect ones to get the food. This theory is clear evidence that learning
does not only involve constant practice but is encouraged by positive effects.
In this study, the researcher
adopted Edward L. Thorndike’s theory of learning because it encourages exercise
and practice. Reading involves mental exercise and constant practice, and
constant practice in reading would lead to reading comprehension which would
subsequently lead to greater comprehension achievement.
Furthermore, this theory was useful
to this study because it upholds that the learner’s background knowledge plays
a prominent role to learning. This is in line with the schema-analytical theory
discussed above. Reading comprehension requires the learner’s knowledge in
store to be achieved.
More so, this theory was adopted for this study
because it would aid transfer of learning. According to Azikiwe (2005) for
learning to be seen to have taken place, the child should be able to use the
knowledge skills and information acquired to solve related problems. A child,
who has interest in reading and is constantly reading, is likely to, at a
point, begin to understand even what was incomprehensible before, and then
begin to perform well academically as well as use what was learnt through reading
to solve other academic and life problems.
Equally, Thorndike’s theory
encourages motivation. Azikiwe (2005) stated that motivation is another aspect
of psychology of learning that guides the learner to achieve the desired change
in behaviour. This researcher defines motivation as the arousal of the tendency
to act or behave towards a goal which is selected in preference to all other
possible goals. Edem (2005) cited the concepts related to motivation to include
interest, need, attitude and aspirations and all these are highly related to
this study.
2.3 Empirical
Studies
Related empirical studies to this
present study have been done. Five of such studies were discussed.
Kosemani and
Ituen (2005) studied students’ approaches to reading in public and private
secondary schools in Rivers State. The survey design was adopted for the study.
The sample for the study was drawn through simple random sampling technique
from 16 secondary schools in Rivers State. A total of 608 students were drawn
from SS1 to SS3. The instrument for data collection was a Likert-type
questionnaire , divided into
four sections which were designed to elicit responses on students’ attitude to
reading, their preferred reading contexts both in the school and at home, and
their degree of perseverance in the reading task. A reliability co-efficient of
0.87 was obtained. Their findings include:
·
there
is significant difference between the students in public and private schools regarding
their attitude to reading;
·
a
significant difference exists between the students in public and private
schools regarding their mechanical approaches to reading;
·
there
is a significant difference between the public and private school students’
preferred reading contexts with particular reference to their home environment;
·
a
significant difference exists between the students in public and private
schools concerning the degrees of perseverance they possessed in reading.
This study reviewed was highly interested in
reading just like this present study but the major difference is that it was
mainly devoted to students’ approaches to reading. It totally ignored the
students reading interest which is one of the major keys to determining their
achievement in reading comprehension. This present study would fill this gap.
Yetunde (2002) conducted a study on environmental factors and positive
pleasure reading: a case study of the reading habits of secondary school
students in Ondo Local Government Area. Six secondary schools were randomly
selected from 36 secondary schools and 240 students were used. The findings
include:
·
fifty
(20%) of the respondents belonged to families where both parents are educated
beyond the secondary school level;
·
one
hundred and forty eight (62%) belonged to families where one of the two parents
are educated enough to qualify them to work at lower levels in any government
establishments;
·
forty
two (17%) came from families where neither of the parents are educated.
This study reviewed, tried to highlight the importance of the
environment (literacy level of the child’s parents) to his reading habit. As
much as the present researcher partly agrees with it that environment plays a
role to the child’s reading, the gap still begging to be filled is the area of
students’ reading interest and reading achievement. This current study intends
to close the gap.
Equally, Oyetunde (2002) conducted a study
to determine how
secondary school
students process print. In the study, cloze tests were administered to 282 SS2
students drawn from five different schools in Jos, Plateau State. Four cloze
passages were prepared for the students. Two of the passages were on a
readability level of the grade tested and the other two were a readability
level below that grade level. These two passages were either on their
instructional or their frustration level. Each passage was about 300 words in
length. Readers were given the two lower level passages first and later the
more difficult passages. The findings of the study showed that:
·
the
students who read the passages at both frustration and instructional level were
stronger in their ability to use syntactic cues,
·
the
readers for whom the passages were on frustration level were limited in their
ability to use information from between and within sentences (comprehension was
slow),
·
readers
failed to observe punctuation marks thereby predicting words which resulted in
sentences which were semantically and syntactically unacceptable.
In Oyetunde’s
study, how secondary school students process print was highlighted. The study
confirmed that indeed there was a reading problem among secondary school
students. It neither traced the problem to the students’ reading interest nor
established the relationship between the students’ reading interest and their
reading comprehension achievement. This current study would add to the efforts
made by Oyetunde to establish this relationship.
A study by Jiboku (2002) examined the
relative effectiveness of pre-reading strategy instruction on reading
achievement of senior secondary school students. A pre-test-post-test control
quasi-experimental group design in which experimental groups were set up, were
used. Two secondary schools were used out of the six secondary schools in
Abeokuta. School A served as the experimental group while School B was the
control group. The findings indicated that the experimental group performed
better than the control group after treatment.
This study
reviewed is related to the current study in the sense that they are both
interested in the reading achievement of the students. The major difference,
however, is that while the former was interested in reading achievement
generally, the later focuses on reading comprehension achievement. In addition,
the study under review studied the relative effectiveness of pre-reading
instruction as a way of guiding the students to easy and quick way of
understanding a comprehension passage, the later is looking at the relationship
between reading interest and reading comprehension achievement of
students.
In a similar
study, Oyebola (2004) examined a selection of general reading books for
children authored by Nigerians, with the aim of observing the distribution of
the main characters in terms of gender. Seven books were selected for the
study. The data was analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. The
findings indicated that there was gender bias in the distribution of main
characters.
This study
reviewed concentrated on gender. This is in line with what the present study is
also interested in. The reviewed study established that gender bias is
displayed by some writers in the presentation of their language use,
characterization and illustration in some textbooks as well as general reading
materials produced in Nigeria. However,
the gap between the study in review and the present study lies on whether this
gender bias as seen in the presentation of books by authors affects the reading
interest of students. This makes the current study very vital. This is because
part of its purpose is to determine the reading interest of the students based
on gender.
2.3.1 Summary of Reviewed Literature
The related
literature review of this study discussed the concept of reading, reading
comprehension and voluntary reading; reading interest, poor student’s attitude
towards reading/teacher’s incompetence, the place of reading in secondary
school curriculum/time table, large classes, environmental/cultural factors and
the student’s reading interest, as well as the methods of teaching reading.
Literatures were
also reviewed on the relationship between reading and reading comprehension
achievement and they were seen to have a kind of relationship. The amount of
reading done by student’s seemed to correlate with their reading achievements.
Equally, the
review of related literatures examined text-types read by students and it was
discovered that students read different types of texts. Gender in relation to
the reading interest of students was also reviewed. In the review, it was seen
that gender seemed to be affecting the student’s reading interest.
Literature was
also reviewed on The Chief Examiner’s Reports on West African Senior School
Certificate Examination (WASSCE). This literature showed that students perform
poorly in English yearly. Also, students reading achievement seemed to
correlate with success in school and the amount of independent reading they do.
The empirical
studies reviewed indicated that the researchers studied students’ approaches to
reading, the importance of the environment to the students reading habit, how
secondary school students process print and, the relative effectiveness of
pre-reading strategy instruction on reading achievement of senior secondary
school students and, selection of general reading books for children authored
by Nigerians: observing the distribution of the main characters in terms of
gender.
The researchers
in the literatures reviewed succeeded in studying the students’ guided
voluntary reading. Whether the students were really interested in indulging in
such voluntary reading they were compelled to engage in by these researchers to
carry out their studies was totally ignored. This study will close this gap.
Equally, all the
empirical studies reviewed ignored the reading interests of the students which
are part of the major elements in reading and reading comprehension
achievement. The present study will also close the gap. No study known to the
researcher, has been carried out in the area of reading interest of the
students to determine if their interests affect their achievements in reading
comprehension. It is the importance of this key aspect that has been ignored by
researchers that compelled the researcher to embark on this study: Relationship
between Reading Interest and Reading Comprehension Achievement of Senior
Secondary School Students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This chapter
described the design of the study, area and population to be used for this
study. It equally dealt with the sample and sampling techniques to be adopted,
the instruments to be used for data collection, validation of the instrument,
reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data
analysis.
3.1 Design
of the Study
The
study adopted a correletional survey design. A correlational survey study,
according to Nworgu (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.
3.2 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. 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.
3.3 Population of the Study
The population of the study
comprised 3854 SS2 students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State and 80
public 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 public schools
in Afikpo Education Zone is 80 while the total number of SS2 students of all
the schools in the zone is 3854.
|
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 2010/2011.
3.4 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 the sample
selected through balloting.
3.5 Instrument
for Data Collection
In
this study, the researcher used two instruments: a structured questionnaire
tagged “Students’ Reading Interest Inventory and Comprehension Achievement Test
Questionnaire” (SRIICATQ) and a Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT).
The questionnaire was divided into two parts: Part A and B. Part A contains the
Bio-data, Part B is a checklist of 20 items with four point rating scale while
the second instrument (Part C), comprises 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 Part C. The researcher used the
reading comprehension tests to measure the reading comprehension achievement of
the students (see appendix A).
3.6 Validation
of Instruments
The draft of the
two instruments was 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 A.
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
A).
3.7 Reliability
of the Instrument.
Data obtained
from the RCAT were used to computer its reliability using Kudar-Richardson–20
(Kr-20) which gave a reliability index of ……… that was adjudged reliable having
high internal consistency see appendix B. 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 B).
3.8 Method
of Data collection
Copies
of the instruments was 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 questionnaire. The
three parts of the instruments (A,B,C) was distributed at the same time and the
students’ responses were collected on the spot to ensure maximum return.
3.9 Method of Data Analysis
The research questions was
answered using the Mean and Standard Deviation while the hypotheses was tested
using the Product Moment Correlation Coefficient
CHAPTER FOUR
FINDINGS
This chapter presents the research findings of the
topic “Relationship Interest and Reading Comprehension Achievement of Senior
Secondary School Students in Afikpo Education Zone of Ebonyi State”. The
findings are analyzed in relation to the research questions and research
hypotheses formulated to guide the study. The results are presented in tables.
Research Question One
What
is the mean of the students reading interests?
Table
one indicates that the grand mean score is 3.09 which is above the cut-off
point of 2.5. This shows that the respondents have interest in reading.
Research Question Two
What
is the mean achievement of the students in reading comprehension passages?
Table
2: Achievement of the students in reading comprehension.
|
|
Value
|
F
|
X
|
SD
|
Interpretation
|
|
|
5
|
60
|
7.8
|
7.8
|
|
|
|
10
|
10
|
44
|
5.7
|
|
|
|
15
|
35
|
4.6
|
4.6
|
|
|
|
20
|
69
|
9.0
|
9.0
|
|
|
|
25
|
127
|
16.5
|
16.5
|
|
|
|
30
|
88
|
11.4
|
11.4
|
|
|
|
35
|
166
|
21.6
|
21.6
|
|
|
|
40
|
88
|
11.4
|
11.4
|
|
|
|
45
|
60
|
7.8
|
7.8
|
|
|
|
50
|
18
|
2.3
|
2.3
|
|
|
|
55
|
10
|
1.3
|
1.3
|
|
|
|
60
|
04
|
.5
|
.5
|
|
|
Grand Mean
|
|
|
28.84
|
|
Accepted
|
From
table 2 above, the grand mean of 28.84 is obtained which is greater than the
cut-off point of 2.5. This indicates
that respondents’ achievement in reading comprehension is not poor.
Research Question Three
What
is the mean of the reading interest of the male and female students?
Table
three 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 reading interests of the male and female students are the
same.
Research Question Four
What
is the mean of the students’ achievement in comprehension passage based on
gender?
Table
4: The achievement of male and female students in reading comprehension
|
Gender
|
No of Classes
|
_
X
|
SD
|
SE of Mean
|
Interpretation
|
|
Male
Female
|
381
381
|
28.70
28.98
|
12.04
12.49
|
0.61
0.63
|
Accepted
Accepted
|
Mean
difference of Male and Female = .28.
Table
four shows that the mean obtained for the male respondents is 28.70 while that
of the females is 28.98. Thus, the mean difference of the male and female
respondents is just .28. This shows that the achievements of the male and
female students in reading comprehension are almost the same.
Research Question Five
What
is the relationship between the students mean reading interest and mean reading
comprehension achievement?
Table
5: The student’s mean reading interest and mean reading comprehension
achievement.
Reading
interest score = - .1031
N = 769
P = .004
Achievement
score = 1.0000
N = 769
P = .
Table
5 indicates that the reading interest score of the respondents is -.1031 while
the reading achievement score is 1.0000. The finding indicates that there is no
relationship between the students’ reading interest and their achievement in
reading comprehension.
Testing of the Null Hypothesis 1
Ho1:
There is no significant relationship between the mean students’ reading
interest and the mean students’ reading comprehension achievement.
Table
6: The Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of the mean students’
reading interest and the mean students’ reading comprehension achievement
Reading
Interest score = -.1031
N = 769
P = 0.004
Achievement
score = 1.0000
N = 769
P = .
Table
6 above indicates that the tcal is 36.11 while the tcrit is 1.960. The results
show that tcal is greater than tcrit. It therefore follows that the null
hypothesis one is rejected implying that there is a significant relationship
between mean students reading interest and the mean students reading
comprehension achievement.
Testing of Null Hypothesis Two
H02:
There is no significant relationship between mean reading interest 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.
Male
reading interest = 1.0000
N = 381
P = .
Female
Reading Interest = -.0593
N = 381
P = .249
It
is observed in table 7 that the Pearson’s Moment Correlation Coefficient is
-0.0593. The tcal is -16.45 while the tcrit is 1.960. Since tcal is less than
tcrit, the Ho2 is rejected. The implication is that there is a
significant relationship between the mean reading interest of male and female
students.
Testing Null Hypothesis Three
H03:
There is no significant relationship between mean reading comprehension
achievement of male and female students.
Table
8: Summary of the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient of the mean
reading comprehension achievement of male and female students
Reading
Comprehension Achievement of Males = 1.0000
N = 381
P = .
Reading
Comprehension of females =
.8380
N = 381
P = .00
Table
8 above indicates that the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient is
0.8380. The tcal is 42.57 while the tcrit is 1.960. The tcal is greater than
the tcrit and is therefore rejected. This therefore implies that there is a
significant relationship between the mean score of male and female students.
4.2
Summary of Findings
The
data analyzed reveal the following:
1.
That the students
have interest in reading,
2.
That the reading
comprehension achievements of the students are not poor,
3.
That the reading
interests of the male and female students are the same,
4.
That the reading
comprehension achievements of the male and female students are almost the same,
5.
That there is a
significant relationship between the students’ reading interest and their
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:
1. that the students have interest in reading,
2. that the achievement of the students in reading
comprehensive is not poor,
3. that the reading interest of the male and female
student are the same,
4. That the achievement of the male and female students
in reading comprehension are almost the same,
5. That there is a significant relationship between the
students’ reading interest and their achievement in reading comprehension.
That the students have interest in
reading
The research question one sought to
determine the reading interest of the students. The result of data analysis of
table 1 shows that the respondents have 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 do not have interest in reading because they
copy the society that has lost reading interest in the quest for materialism.
That the reading comprehension
achievement of students is not poor
Research question two 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 was
another surprising discovery: the reading comprehension achievement of the
students is not poor. This is quite contrary to the Chief Examiners' Reports on
WASSCE past examinations (2011) that students’ reading comprehension
achievement is poor on yearly basis. This is also contrary to 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.
On the other hand, this same finding
of research question 2 in table 2 compares positively with that of table 1 that
there is a significant relationship between the students reading interest and
their reading comprehension achievement. This owes to the fact that in table 1,
students are shown to have interest in reading and this has generated a good
achievement in reading comprehension in table 2. This is line with Stanovich
and Cunningham’s (2003) finding that students, whose interest in reading is a
driving force to their voracious reading, become better readers and score
higher on achievement tests in all subject areas.
That the reading interest of the male
and female students are the same.
The third research question was
formulated to determine the students reading interest based on gender. From the
data analysis of table 3, it is established that the reading interest of the
male and female students are the same. This finding is contrary to the research
findings of Oyebola (2004). In Oyebola’s study, boys tend to science subjects
while girls prefer Arts subjects. This current study has proved this researcher
wrong by 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 faulted by this
current study. In Smiths (2002) study, both boys and girls reading interest
varied according to their gender but this present study proves that there is no
gender difference in the student’s reading interest.
That the achievement of the male and
female students is reading comprehension is almost the same
Research question four sought to
find out if there is any gender difference between the achievements of students
in reading comprehension. The result obtained from the data analyzed in table 4
indicates that there is no gender difference between the male and female
students in reading comprehension achievement. This is contrary to Oyebola’s
(2004) findings that the male students achieve better in science subjects while
the female students do better in Arts subjects.
That there is a significant relationship
between the students’ reading interest and their achievement in reading
comprehension
Research question five was formulated
to investigate the relationship between the students’ reading interest and
their reading comprehension achievement. This is the crux of this study. The
finding indicates that there is a significant relationship between the
students’ reading interest and their achievement in reading comprehension. This
agrees with the literatures reviewed in this study where Krashen (2005) noted
that reading interest results in better reading comprehension achievement.
Krashen is not alone in this discovery. Stanvich and Cunningham (2003) confirm
that students reading interest positively affects their reading comprehension
achievement.
CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The educational implications of the
findings are discussed in this chapter. It is also in this chapter that the
limitations of the study are analyzed. In addition, suggestions for further
studies, recommendations, summary and conclusion of the study are presented
here.
6.1 Implication
of the Study
The findings of this study have some
educational implications for the curriculum planners, ministry of education,
schools, school heads, teachers, students and the general public.
This study has proved that students
have interest in reading contrary to some researcher’s findings and popular
belief that students of these days no longer have interest in reading. It is
one thing to have interest in reading and it is another to actually have the
time to read, the materials to read and the conducive place to do the reading.
Governments and parents should equip both the home school and state libraries
with current and interesting books, magazines and newspapers to accommodate the
various reading interests of students. Adequate time should also be created in
the school time table to allow reasonable time for students’ free reading.
Gender disparity in the students
reading interest is in the mind of the people not actually what is obtained.
The cultural belief that certain roles are for men and some for women has led
to the erroneous assumption that certain subjects ought to be for boys and
certain others for girls. This cultural belief, perhaps, may have led to the
belief that the male students’ interest in reading is different from the
females. This study has clearly established that there are no such differences
in the students reading interest their reading comprehension achievement. Thus,
the general public should stop enforcing gender differences on the minds of the
students and allow them to explore their world through reading, irrespective of
their gender.
This study has also proved that
there is a relationship between the students’ reading interest and their
achievement in reading comprehension. The implication of this finding is that
students who have interest in reading and are always reading would subsequently
perform well in reading comprehension achievement tests while those who do not
read as a result of no reading interest, would as a result record poor
performances in reading comprehension tests. This implies that the students’
reading interest has to be strengthened and sustained for a steady growth in
their reading comprehension achievement as well as their overall performance in
other subjects, as success in reading comprehension has been seen to correlate
with success in other subjects.
6.2 Recommendations
The
findings of this study lead to the following recommendations.
1. The home, school and state libraries should be
properly equipped with current books, newspapers and magazines to strengthen
and sustain students’ interest in reading.
2. Gender differences should not be emphasized to
encourage the students to explore their world through reading no matter the
subject or discipline.
3. Reading should be well accommodated in the school
timetable by allowing it to be treated separately from the English language.
4. Reading instruction teachers should be properly
trained for it not merely using English language teachers as reading
instruction experts.
5. The right teaching methods should be employed by
teachers of reading to boost students’ interest in reading.
6. Students should be provided with the necessary reading
texts for proper participation in reading classes.
7. Unqualified
teachers should not be allowed to handle reading instruction.
8. In-service training and workshops should be encouraged
by the Ministry of Education and schools to update teacher’s qualifications in
teaching reading.
6.3 Limitations
of the Study
Some
obvious problems were encountered by the researcher in the process of carrying
out the study.
1. The State Secondary Education Board found it difficult
to release the statistical data of the WASCE results as well as their copy of
the Chief Examiner’s Reports on WASCE.
2. The West African Examination Council on the other
hand, was unwilling to release the results as well as the Chief Examiners’
Reports on WASCE.
Suggestions
for Further Studies
Further
studies are suggested in the following areas
1. Strategies for enhancing studies’ interest in reading.
2. Causes of students’ poor performances in West African
School Certificate Examinations.
3. Effects of Home Video watching on the students’
achievement in reading comprehension.
6.4 Summary
of the Study
The major target of this study was
to establish the relationship between the reading interest and reading
comprehension achievement of senior secondary school students in Afikpo
Education Zone of Ebonyi State. A comprehensive Literature review was done not
only to serve as a guide but also to keep the researcher properly informed on
what other scholars have done in the area.
Five research questions as well as
five research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The design for the
study was a correlation survey design. A total of 769 SS2 students were used to
provide data necessary for answering the research questions and testing the
hypotheses guiding the study.
The questionnaire which contained
the reading interest inventory and two reading comprehension achievement tests
were the main instruments used for the collection of data. Equally, the mean
and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while the
Pearson’s, Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the
hypotheses formulated to guide the study. The study revealed among other
things, that the students have interest in reading, the achievement of the
students in reading comprehension is not poor, the reading interest of male and
female students are the same, the achievement of the male and female students
in reading comprehension are almost the same and above all, there is a
significant relationship between the reading interest and reading comprehension
achievement of senior secondary school students in Afikpo Education Zone of
Ebonyi State.
6.5 Conclusion
Based on the discussion of the major
findings of the study, it is concluded that:
i.
There is a
significant relationship between the mean students reading interest and the
mean students’ reading comprehension achievement.
ii.
There is a
significant relationship between the mean reading interest of the male and
female students.
iii.
There is a
significant relationship between the mean reading comprehension achievement of
the male and female students.
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APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRE
Department of Arts and
Social Science,
Dear Respondent,
I am a Postgraduate Student
in the Department of Arts/Social Science Education majoring in English Language
Teaching.
I
am carrying out a dissertation on the topic, "Relationship between Reading
Interest and Reading Comprehension Achievement of Senior Secondary School
Students in Afikpo Education zone of Ebonyi State." I will require honest
answers to the questions attached to this letter. This is purely an
intellectual exercise which entails that your answers to these questions ought
to be as sincere as possible while I, the questionnaire/interviewer, shall
treat your responses with utmost confidentiality.
Thanks for your anticipated
cooperation.
Yours faithfully,
SECTION A
BIODATA
Please tick (ü) as appropriate and fill the space where necessary.
School:______________________________________________
Class:_______________________________________________
Age:________________________________________________
Sex:________________________________________________
Hobbies:_____________________________________________
SECTION B
Please tick (√) for the
option that best fit your interest.
SA = Strongly Agree, D =
Disagree, A= Agree, SD= Strongly Disagree
READING
INTEREST INVENTORY
|
S/N
|
|
SA
|
A
|
D
|
SD
|
|
1
|
I like reading always.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
I prefer computer games
to reading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
3
|
I seldom make use of the
public library.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4
|
My school has a
functional library.
|
|
|
|
|
|
5
|
My parents have a home
library.
|
|
|
|
|
|
6
|
I do not get bored
reading beyond half an hour.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7
|
Reading is boring to me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
8
|
My parents compel me to
read sometimes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
9
|
I have all the textbooks
I need for reading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
10
|
I prefer photography to
reading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
11
|
I like assignments that
compel me to read different books.
|
|
|
|
|
|
12
|
I usually find it
difficult to read any novel to the end no matter how interesting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
13
|
I do not have a study
time table.
|
|
|
|
|
|
14
|
I cannot read with
understanding in the class when it is noisy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
15
|
I always read silently.
|
|
|
|
|
|
16
|
I grew up in a
print-rich environment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
17
|
I read less after
school.
|
|
|
|
|
|
18
|
I enjoy reading in my
spare time during holidays.
|
|
|
|
|
|
19
|
I rarely use the school
library.
|
|
|
|
|
|
20
|
I read educational
magazines only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
21
|
I read newspaper when it
is available only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
22
|
I read to pass exams
only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
23
|
I am interested in
reading to impress my parents.
|
|
|
|
|
|
24
|
I prefer the computer to
reading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
25
|
I prefer someone to tell
me the story in a novel than reading it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
26
|
I prefer reading in the
school only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
27
|
I prefer reading alone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
28
|
I like to read silently.
|
|
|
|
|
|
29
|
Reading is my hobby.
|
|
|
|
|
PART C
READING COMPREHENSION
PASSAGE A
Read the following passage carefully and
answer the questions after it.
Malnutrition has been described as a tragedy of great magnitude. WHO declares that it is an
accomplice in at least half of the 10.4 million child deaths each year.
Malnutrition covers a wide range of illness from undernourishment due to a lack
of one of more nutrients such as vitamin and mineral deficiencies to obesity
and other diet-related chronic diseases.
However, Protein-Energy Malnutrition
(PEM) is by far the most lethal form
of malnutrition. Malnutrition is restricted
to children. It casts long shadows in the developing world according to WHO.
Industrialized
countries are not free from the scourge of malnutrition as about 11 million
people suffer from it.
Malnutrition is caused by inadequate
intake of nutrient in the body triggered
by a combination of factors, an insufficient intake of proteins, calories, vitamins
and minerals.
Illnesses such as diarrhea, measles,
malaria and respiratory disease tax the body heavily and cause loss of
nutrients. They reduce appetite and food intake thus contributing to
malnutrition. Children are at a greater risk
of suffering malnutrition. This is because they are in a period of rapid growth
that increases the demand for calories and proteins. For similar reasons
pregnant and nursing women are easily prone to malnutrition. Frequently, the
baby’s problem begins even before birth. If a mother is undernourished or
malnourished before and during pregnancy, the baby will have low weight. Then
early weaning, poor feeding habits and lack of hygiene can bring on
malnutrition.
Malnutrition wreaks havoc on the body particularly that of a
child and various studies have shown that poor growth in a child is associated
with impaired mental development and poor scholastic and intellectual
performance. A report from the United Nations calls these effects the most
serious long term results of malnutrition. For children who survive
malnutrition, the aftermath can linger on into adulthood.
QUESTIONS
1.
Why is malnutrition described as a tragedy of great magnitude? (a) It is an
accomplice (b) it causes illnesses and diseases (c) it leads to mineral
deficiencies (d) it leads to large number of child death yearly.
2.
What according to the passage are the immediate causes of malnutrition? (a)
lethal form of malnutrition (b) inadequate intake of nutrients in the body (c)
insufficient intake of proteins, calories, vitamin (d) diseases that tax the
body.
3.
Why are pregnant women and nursing women easily vulnerable to malnutrition? (a)
their babies require more calories and proteins for development (b) children
suffer malnutrition the most (c) breast milk needs to develop (d) they may
suffer infections.
4.
How can a child’s problem begin before birth? (a) Early weaning and poor
feeding habit is a problem. (b) The baby will have low weight(c) when a mother
is malnourished during pregnancy; (d) when a mother eats little food before and
after pregnancy.
5.
What according to the passage are the long term results of malnutrition? (a) It
wreaks havoc to the child (b) It hinders growth and mental development. (c) It
results to illiteracy (d) the child is always sick.
6.
‘…The scourge of malnutrition’ is (a) Apostrophe (b) oxymoron(c)
personification D simile.
7.What
is the grammatical name of ‘...who survive malnutrition?’ (a) Adverbial phrase
(b) adverbial clause (c) adjectival clause (d) adjectival phrase.
8.
The function of the grammatical expression in number ‘7’ above is (a) it
qualifies the noun ‘ children’ (b) modifies ‘ malnutrition (c) qualifies the
verb ‘ can linger’ (d) objective of the verb ‘survive’
For
each of the following words, choose from the options given another word or
phrase which means the same and can replace it as used in the passage.
9.
magnitude (a) attraction (b) tolerance
(c) degree (d) devastation
10.
Lethal (a) great (b) unfortunate (c) inexplicable (d) destructive
READING COMPREHENSION
PASSAGE B
Read the following passage carefully and
answer the questions on it.
It was a sunny day in the month of May the sun took
its rightful position very early, lending credence to the general feeling that
Andrew’s birthday was going to be greeted with the blessing of a pleasant weather. The sky looked so
bright that Andrew insisted on having an open-air party. Andrew had gone to great lengths to ensure a hitch-free party; a
party which would remain the talk of the town. Although it was not intended to
be free for all, a lot had been done to the occasion on the memories of many people
long afterwards.
The bright sun continued to smile.
Andrew’s face beamed with pleasure
with every passing moment. Very few of his contemporaries
have so far succeeded in reaching the top of the ladder. Andrew in particular
had been an orphan of storm. His father’s death during his third year in the
secondary school and that of his mother two years later were only two of this
orphan’s storms. He suffered a physical misfortune
when a stockfish machine severed his
left middle finger. But Andrew did not despair.
The courage to fail is very cheap. Every fool can
afford to fail. But it raises one the herds of cowards and never-do-wells to be
up and struggling. The reward of forbearance
in the end is resounding success.
And so it was for Andrew. Ever since
he finished his university education, it had been success galore. He had got a
good job in one of the country’s insurance companies. His pay was good; his
promotion had been steady and his prospects
bright. At forty, he had a good car and had already bought a house of his own. The world was at his feet!
QUESTIONS
1. At what age was Andrew celebrating his birthday party?
(a) Forty years ago (b) After his university (c) when he became rich (d) at
forty
2.
What encouraged
Andrew to organize an open-air party? (a) The brightness of the sky (b) the sun
went down very early (c) doubting Thomases (d) gloomy weather
3.
What two
hardships had Andrew gone through in life? (a) He was an orphan and he passed
through a storm (b) he was an orphan and he suffered a machine accident (c) his
little finger was cut off and he was not discouraged (d) he had no helper and
he struggled alone.
4.
Why do you think
Andrew was able to succeed brilliantly? (a) encouragement of friends and well
wishers (b) he went through a lot in life (c) patience (d) faith in God.
5.
‘The world was at
his feet’, what is implied by the expression? (a) He had confidence (b) people
always stood up for him in occasions (c) he could buy anything he wanted (d) he
was a success.
6. ‘The bright sun continued to smile’
What
figure of speech is this? (a) Personification (b) simile (c) metaphor (d)
paradox
7.
What grammatical name is given to ‘The courage to fail?’ (a) noun phrase (b)
noun clause (c) adverbial clause (d) adjectival phrase.
8.
What is the function of the statement in question 7? (a) modifies the verb ‘is’
(b) object of the sentence (c) subject of the sentence (d) a complement.
For each of the following words, find another word or
phrase from the options given, which means the same and can replace it as is it
used in the passage.
9. Pleasant (a) rainy (b) gloomy (c) tremendous (d) friendly
10.
Beamed (a) light (b) shined (c) smiled (d) wrinkled.