English Textbook’s Readability and Junior Secondary School Students’ Performance in Reading Comprehension.
Keywords:
Fry Readability, Cloze Tests, Readability Graph, English Textbooks, Junior Secondary School.Abstract
This study investigated the English textbook readability and secondary school students’ performance in reading comprehension in Ondo state, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey research. The population consisted of all the public secondary schools in the State. The sample size was 680 JSS 3 students randomly selected from 24 public secondary schools, and Macmillan Brilliant English Student’s textbook (Book 3). The Fry Readability Graph was used to determine the readability level of the comprehension passages used while Cloze Tests on 3 reading comprehension passages were used for data collection. The data was collected from the book through the application of the Fry Formula ratings converted into readability/grade level and students’ performance in Cloze Tests. A major finding shows that the prescribed English textbook matches the students’ level, yet the majority of them read at a frustration level. Findings on the rural/urban performance in Cloze Tests show that students in urban schools outperformed their counterparts in the rural areas (urban schools mean value = 1.72 (SD=0.78) while rural schools mean value=1.41(SD=0.60).In other words, school location had a significant influence on students’ performance in Cloze Tests. Therefore, the study recommended among others, that teachers should be involved in the selection process of book prescription for learners. Also, all educators should make text readability a foremost criterion for book selection. Last but not the least, the Ministry of Education in Ondo State should partner with textbook writers and book publishers and make text readability cardinal point of their partnership.
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