Influence of Morphological Awareness on the Reading Comprehension of Students at the Tertiary Education Level in Ebonyi State (Published)
This paper examined the influence of morphological awareness on the reading comprehension of students at the tertiary education level in Ebonyi State. The study utilized the descriptive survey research design. Three objectives and three research questions were posed to guide the study. The target population comprised 22000 undergraduates from the south east part of Nigeria. A sample size of 220 respondents was selected using the simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Data were analyzed using the statistical tools of mean and standard deviation. Findings showed that morphological awareness had a positive impact on student’ reading comprehension. Result of the study also revealed that students’ knowledge of inflectional morphemes improved their reading comprehension. Result also showed that awareness of the differences between inflectional and derivational morphemes enhanced students’ reading comprehension. Based on these findings, one of the recommendations was that curriculum planners should make Morphology a compulsory course to be taught at all levels of education in the university to enhance morphological awareness among undergraduate students and improve their ability to spell words, read words and understand sentences.
Keywords: Morphology, Reading Comprehension, Undergraduates, morphological awareness
Pre-Reading Activities and Their Effects On English Reading Comprehension of ESL Basic School Pupils (Published)
The study sought to ascertain the effect of pre-reading activities on the English reading comprehension of upper primary pupils in Ho-West Basic Schools of the Volta Region of Ghana. The study adopted the concurrent mixed method design which aimed at gathering both quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously. The sample size of the study consisted 18 upper primary teachers and 99 upper primary pupils. The sample was drawn using census, simple random and purposive sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Questionnaire data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviation while the interview data were thematically discussed. The findings showed that pre-reading activities motivate and sustain pupils’ interest in the actual reading activity. They also activate the building of related information in such a way that new information is easily assimilated into learners’ existing fields of knowledge. Though pre-reading activities play a critical role in the reading comprehension classroom, the study revealed that a significant number of teachers do not use them. The few who do, neither use a variety of them nor use them regularly. The study recommends that curriculum developers and implementors should incorporate appropriate and regular pre-reading activities for assigned texts in the reading comprehension classroom.
Citation: Agbevivi S.L.G and Adogpa J.N. (2022) Pre-Reading Activities and Their Effects On English Reading Comprehension of ESL Basic School Pupils, British Journal of Education, Vol.10, Issue 16, 51-66
Keywords: Achievements, Classroom, English, Reading, Reading Comprehension, pre-reading activities
IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION BY USING COMPUTER-BASED CONCEPT MAPS: A CASE STUDY OF ESP STUDENTS AT UMM-ALQURA UNIVERSITY (Published)
This study aims to investigate the impact of using a computer-based concept mapping technique on a group of pre-medical Saudi students’ reading comprehension. These students were registered for an ESP course during the second term of the academic year 2013-14.Twenty-five male subjects were engaged in this experiment which lasted for seven weeks. Participants completed a five-week training period on how to manipulate CMapTools software to generate concept maps to aid their reading comprehension. The findings indicate that using computer-generated concept maps as a learning strategy has a positive impact on students’ reading comprehension level. It is found the students’ mean score in a reading comprehension test has increased from (11.04) to reach (15.64) after they have completed their five-week training period to restructure their reading texts. The students have also shown very positive views towards this technique and report that it has made their reading process more tangible and interesting. They even claim the possibility of using this technique to facilitate learning other language skills and not only reading. These results verify the efficacy of this technique and the researcher recommends its application in Saudi institutions.
Keywords: MapTool., Reading Comprehension, background knowledge, cognitive load, concept maps