A STUDY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WDRD IDENTIFICATION AND COMPREHENSION ABILITIES OF NIGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

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Date
1982
Authors
ABE, EZEKIEL ABAYOMI
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Abstract
A STUDY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WORD AND COMPREHENSION ABILITIES OF NIGER IIADNE NSTEICFOINCDAATRIYO N SCHOOL STUDENTS By EZEKIEL ABAYOMI ABE Under the supervision of Professor Dale D. Johnson This study aimed to determine whether or not Nigerian students’ abilities in word identification are related to the "total" comprehension of a text; and whether or not variables such as first language, sex, parents' education and occupation, and type and location of school affect students' reading abilities. The study sought answers to these questions: (a) Do phonics, structural and contextual analyses skills have positive relationships to Nigerian students' reading comprehension abilities? (b) Is there a relationship between students' listening and reading comprehension abilities? (c) Which of the word identification skills is or are most strongly related to reading comprehension? (d) Will good comprehenders perform better than poor comprehenders in word identification skills? v (e) What effect do the individual variables have on students' reading performance? The study included 150 form III students from six schools in the Kaduna State of Nigeria; and the test contained 160 items on word identification, listening and reading comprehension skills. The study found: (a) significant correlations between total word identification skills and reading comprehension; more importantly, the contextual analysis skills had the strongest correlation with reading comprehension. The factor analysis showed comprehension and the cloze procedure loading heavily into one factor. (b) significant correlations between listening and reading comprehension (c) significant differences in scores of good and poor readers in word identification and listening skills. (d) no relationships between the students reading performance and their first language, parents’ education and occupation or the school location (e) the day-school students performed better than boarding- school students (f) the female students performed better than male students. Among the conclusions drawn from the results were that classroom instruction should integrate listening and reading skills, particularly at the secondary school stage, when students are beginning to take notes and thus require greater ability to listen, comprehend and write; and that instruction should place greater emphasis upon contextual analysis in order to enhance the students' reading performance. Major recommendations for future studies included similar studies that would generalize the results to a larger population; and the development of standardized reading achievement tests for use in Nigerian schools.
Description
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Curriculum and Instruction) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 1982
Keywords
A STUDY,, RELATIONSHIPS,, IDENTIFICATION,, COMPREHENSION,, NIGERIAN,, SECONDARY SCHOOL,, STUDENTS.
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