An Assessment of Teaching Reading Skills at College of Education and Legal Studies Nguru, Yobe State

Citation: Yerima MAINA, Khamis Hamza IBRAHIM & Ayuba SABO (2023). An Assessment of Teaching Reading Skills at College of Education and Legal Studies Nguru, Yobe State. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 11, Number 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660

AN ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING READING SKILLS AT COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND LEGAL STUDIES NGURU, YOBE STATE

By

Yerima MAINA

Khamis Hamza IBRAHIM

Ayuba SABO

Abstract

This paper investigates the challenges of teaching reading skills to the NCE English students of College of Education and Legal Studies Nguru, Yobe State. Two methods of generating data were used namely interview and questionnaire. The findings indicate that the factors affecting the teaching of reading are: the teachers, the students and the school authorities. The study concludes that the teachers should expose the students to extensive reading approach by recommending them some suitable reading texts which could develop their vocabulary pool. Finally, some recommendations were made that the teacher should encourage the students to voluntarily find the meaning of one unknown word and it usage daily which at the end of each month, the students would have at least 30 number of vocabulary items. Also, more time should be allocated for reading and students should be recommended a text for extensive reading which could increase their vocabulary pool.

Keywords: reading, skills, problems, English, methods

1.1 Introduction

Our beliefs about what we teach influence the way we teach. That is why it is important that reading educators, have a good understanding of what reading is. In their scholarly study, Richards and Renandya (2002, p. 273) observed that good reading texts also provide good models for writing, and provide opportunities to introduce new topics, to stimulate discussion, and to study language (e.g. vocabulary, grammar and idioms). Reading, then, is a skill that is highly valued by students and teachers alike. As it is generally accepted that English language is not only an official language in Nigeria but also a medium of instruction at all levels of education i.e. primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. However, despite the fact that English language is used as the language of instruction at all levels. Many scholars and educationists such as Amuseghan (2007), Sa’ad & Usman (2014) and a host of others have lamented the falling standards and poor performance of students in schools. As generally accepted, knowledge and competence in language development require the effective use of the four skills of language namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. In view of this, this paper focuses mainly on reading skills.

Reading is an active process and one of the receptive skills in language. It is the beacon to understanding language and using it effectively in all contexts. Part of the reasons of students’ poor performance in English language is that they do not have sound reading skills in English language (Ibrahim, 2008, p. 109). Reading remains the backbone to accumulating diverse knowledge that helps students to excel in their academic pursuit.

Reading is the complex cognitive process of dealing with symbols to derive meaning. It is a form of language processing. It is a means for language acquisition and ideas. Like all languages, it is a complex interaction between text and reader, shaped by prior knowledge, experience, attitude and the language community – which is culturally and socially situated. Readers use a variety of reading strategies to decode and comprehend. This view is adopted by Sweet & Snow (2003). For others in defining reading they use words such as recognizing, perception, and thought. Suyitno (2017) contends that reading comprehension is a mental process: the reader goes through in an effort to understand the content of a reading text.

Shehu (2015) investigated reading comprehension problems encountered by foreign language students with a case study of Albania and Crotia. The study unravels that reading comprehension difficulty occurs frequently even in students who are good in decoding and spelling. This difficulty in reading comprehension occurs for many reasons, the three most important ones are vocabulary, working memory and absence of extensive reading. He further claims that it is affected by many factors which vary from new words to the type of text students’ work with in the classroom. Also, students face difficulties in both approaches, bottom up and top down approaches.

Similarly, Mohammed and Rashid (2017), investigated the reading comprehension difficulties among EFL learners of Yarmouk University in Jordan. They observed that the secondary school EFL learners face difficulties in unfamiliar vocabulary and limited available time to cognitively process the text. They conclude that policymakers and teachers need to find effective ways to tackle this problem in order to engage learners in a meaningful reading experience. Also, the close observation of the classroom will be useful in identifying the barriers faced by the teachers in teaching reading besides providing insights into the current practices in the classroom.

On their part, Kashim and Raisha (2017) based their study on EFL students’ reading comprehension problems among fifty of the fifth semester students from the English Department at Syiah Kuala University. The study uncovered that the “the students encountered a number of reading comprehension problems both linguistics and non-linguistics. The linguistic reading comprehension problems which interfered with the participants’ reading comprehension mostly were new vocabulary meanings, word complexity, compound complex sentences, conditional sentences, word derivation, word order, complex sentences, compound sentences, reduced relative clauses, passive voice and tenses. While the non-linguistic reading comprehension problems which interfered with the participants’ reading comprehension the most included lack of cultural knowledge, text length, lack of reading strategy knowledge, difficulty to differentiate between the main and supporting idea, working memory problems, difficulty to connect ideas and inability to do speed reading. They conclude that students should be aware of their difficulties in reading comprehension and make efforts to overcome it (Kashim and Raisha, 2017).

Poor performance of students in the school of languages in topics such as comprehension passages, vocabulary development and tenses has roused a lot of concern among teachers of English language. The fact is that their inability to use the reading skills effectively affects their performance not only in learning the English language but in other fields of knowledge. This is so, because it manifests in their inability to comprehend a summary or comprehension passages whenever they are assigned to do. As such, this gives the research a practical importance. These problems and how to overcome them lie with the teacher to assist his students overcome these challenges. As such, it is against this backdrop that this paper seeks to investigate the problems encountered by teachers of English language when teaching reading skills to students of College of Education and Legal Studies, Nguru. Also, to investigate the extent to which the teaching methods of the teachers contribute to these problems. However, this paper limited to students of English department only.

2.1 Methodology

One of the instruments used in generating the data was interview. Therefore, a series of interviews were conducted by the researchers. The information gathered from the interviews were used to illuminate on the research problem.

The information gathered was carefully written down for record purposes. As such, a questionnaire was formulated to find out the extent to which these problems hindered the effective teaching of reading skills in NCE classes. The questionnaires were distributed and responded to accordingly by the lecturers.

4.1 Results

Based on the interview conducted by the researchers, the responses of the interview were as follows: the lecturers who taught English language to the NCE students of English were asked how old they were. Their ages ranged from 33-60 years. With regards to their work loads, some lecturers reported that they do not have any load apart from the lectures while others reported that apart from the lecture schedules, a huge task had been assigned to them by the department which consumed most of their times. The researchers further asked the kind of teaching methods used by the lecturers. Some lecturers use lecture method, others use student centred-method while others adopt the eclectic method when teaching the students. However, it was reported that only 2 hours per week was allotted to the course, reading skills. The researcher further asked the lecturers under study whether they had any teaching qualifications i.e. certificate in education. Interestingly, 90% of the concerned lecturers had had course(s) in education. Some of them had undergone NCE programmes, others had B.A. Ed. the rest had PGDE. And, also, the years of teaching experiences of the lecturers ranged from 3-30 years. The researchers further asked the lecturers their maximum qualifications. We have learnt that 85% of the lecturers had first degree, only 15% had Master’s degrees. They were asked on the number of students in a class. It was found out that the population in a class ranged from 175 to 200.

The lecturers taking the NCE in the Department of English were interviewed on problems encountered when teaching reading skills. Almost all the lecturers had the same problems. Some of the problems encountered include: lack of comprehension by the students and students’ inability to understand the grammatical structures. Another problem pointed out is the population explosion of the students. One lecturer reported that majority of the students are semi-literate because they hardly bring out themes of passages giving to them. This is despite the fact that lecturers used to give out the passages far before the commencement of the actual lectures. Unfortunately, one-third of the students had no reading materials which consequently hindered the effective teaching of reading skills. Furthermore, some of the lecturers admitted that lack of good academic background on the part of the students is the root cause of the students’ problems. They claimed that whenever a reading material is presented to students, they hardly asked questions, even if they do, only questions related to the meanings of vocabulary are asked. The lecturers submitted lack of reading culture among the students as part of the problem. Half of the students are observed to have slow speed of reading. With regards to the responses gathered from the interview, and based on the problems pointed out, a questionnaire was formulated using a five-point Likert scale rating system. The copies of the questionnaires were distributed to the lecturers and they provided with useful information about the problems they faced while teaching reading skills to the NCE students. The table below showed the percentages of the respondents’ responses as indicated in the table below:

Table 1: Factors Affecting the Teaching of English Reading Skills to the English Students of College of Education and Legal Studies (percentage of respondents)

Factors	Strongly Agreed	Agreed	Undecided	Disagreed	Strongly Disagreed	Total
1.Poor perception of the students by the lecturers	80%	-	-	-	20%	100%
2.Lack of reading material		40%	-	40%	20%	100%
3.Absence of sound reading culture on the part of the students	60%	20%	-	-	20%	100%
4.Students poor background in English	20%	60%	-	20%	-	100%
5.Poor teaching methods	-	20%	20%	60%	-	100%
6.Inadequate time to cover the course	-	40%	-	40%	20%	100%
7.Unconducive classroom	-	80%	-	20%	-	100%
8.Difficulty of the reading skills	-	40%	20%	20%	20%	100%
9.Limited vocabulary of the students	-	80%	20%	-	-	100%
10.Lack of guidance by the lecturers	-	60%	20%	20%	-	100%

Table 1 shows that 80% percent of the respondents agreed that poor perception of the students by the lecturers impeded the effective teaching of reading skills while 20% strongly disagreed. This was followed by the lack of reading materials by the students, where 40% agreed and 20% strongly agreed to the claim. 60% of the respondents strongly agreed that absence of sound reading culture on the part of the students hindered the effective teaching of reading. Similarly, sixty percent agreed that students’ poor background in English impeded the effective teaching of reading skills. However, the same number of respondents disagreed to the claim that poor teaching method is a factor affecting the teaching of reading skills. Nevertheless, those respondents when interviewed have revealed that 70% of them used eclectic method of teaching. With regards to whether inadequate time to cover the course hindered to the effective teaching of reading, 40% of the respondents agreed and the same number i.e. 40% disagreed to the claim. In another development, 40% have agreed to the claim that poor classroom climate hindered the effective teaching of reading skills while 40% have disagreed and 20% strongly disagreed. 40% of the respondents admitted that the difficulty of the reading materials impeded the effective teaching of reading skills where twenty percent of them strongly disagreed and another twenty percent disagreed while twenty percent remain neutral. 80% of the respondents have agreed that limited vocabulary of the students impeded the teaching of reading skills. 60% of the respondents admitted that lack of guidance by the lecturers hindered the effective teaching of reading skills.

4.2 Discussion

The data gathered from the interview and the questionnaire indicated that the problems faced by the teachers while teaching reading skills are informed by the students’ lack of comprehension and inability to decipher what they read, lack of reading materials, absence of sound reading culture on the part of the students. As seen from the data, students’ poor background in English hindered the effective teaching of reading skills. It was found out that only two hours were allotted to the course per week. This is in conformity with Ibrahim’s (2008) study which reported that the course is not given enough time-table to cover all the topics adequately. Also, we have learnt that among the factors impeding the effective teaching of reading skills is the population explosion of the students in a class. The class size is between 175-200 students in a class. In such situation, effective teaching and learning could not take place in such adverse learning atmosphere. The present study agrees with Sa’ad and Usman’s (2017) study which revealed that inadequate facilities resulted to the population explosion of the students was among the problem affecting teaching reading. 

The data further unraveled that the root cause of the problem that hindered the effective teaching of reading skills was students’ limited vocabulary pool. This is in conformity with Mohammed and Rashid’s (2017) study which indicated that learners face difficulties in unfamiliar vocabulary and limited available time to cognitively process the text given to them. Consequently, Nuttal (2005) suggested that learners need to have 5000 words to start independent reading. In a similar study conducted by Kashim and Raisha (2017) agrees with the present study which unraveled that the students encountered a number of reading comprehension problems both linguistics and non-linguistics. The linguistic reading comprehension problems which interfered with the participants’ reading comprehension mostly were new vocabulary meanings, word complexity, compound complex sentences, conditional sentences, word derivation, word order, complex sentences, compound sentences, reduced relative clauses, passive voice and tenses. While the non-linguistic reading comprehension problems which interfered with the participants’ reading comprehension the most included lack of cultural knowledge, text length, lack of reading strategy knowledge, difficulty to differentiate between the main and supporting idea, working memory problems, difficulty to connect ideas and inability to do speed reading.

Furthermore, it was found that lack of guidance by the lecturers impeded the effective teaching of reading skills. This finding agrees with Ibrahim’s (2008) that lack of guidance by the teachers themselves contributed to poor reading skills of the students. However, most of the teachers have teaching qualifications with 3-30 years teaching experiences. That is to say, the lecturers that are taking the course (reading) are qualified considering their teaching qualifications and their experiences However, the present study disagrees with Sa’ad and Usman’s (2014) study which indicated that inadequate qualified teachers is the cause of poor performance in English language in a research conducted in Dutse secondary schools. As regard whether the lecturers use vernacular while teaching, none of the interviewed lecturers use vernacular to explain to the students. They gave their reason that if they could use vernacular to explain, most of the students might not concentrate until the lecturers started explaining in vernacular. As professional teachers, vernacular could be used sometimes for the purpose of understanding.

Moreover, the students’ high concentration on mobile phones affects the teaching and comprehension of the reading skills. Also, the teachers do guide the students by recommending them some suitable reading materials which would guide and improve their reading skills. This study disagrees with Ibrahim’s (2008) which explains that the teachers did not recommend suitable reading materials for student. This lack of guidance by themselves contributed to their poor reading skills.

5.1 Conclusion

The study uncovers that the problems encountered by the lecturers are of three sources: the students, the teachers and the school authority. These problems could be tackled by exposing the students to extensive reading approach. And, also, the students must develop the habit of reading thereby the teachers should guide them by recommending some suitable reading materials. This could enhance the vocabulary pool of the students because once they have large vocabulary; there would be less difficulty in their reading. The class size is too large which makes the classroom debilitating.

5.2 Recommendations

The following recommendations are made based on the findings of this study:

1.  The teachers should encourage the students to voluntarily check the meaning of at least one unknown word and how to use it daily. By the end of every month, they may end up having at least 30 vocabulary items added to their repertoires.

2.  More time should be allocated to the course, Reading Skills.

3.  Students should be recommended a text for extensive reading which could increase their vocabulary pool.

References

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Ibrahim. R.A. (2008). Teaching reading skills in English to sub-degree students of Bayero University, Kano. Kakaki Journal of English and French Studies, 8, 109-153.

Kashim, U., & Raisha, S. (2017). EFL students’ reading comprehension problems:

Linguistic and non-linguistic complexities. English Education Journal, 8(3), 308-321.

Mohammed, U., & Rashid, A. (2017). Investigating the reading comprehension difficulties among EFL learners. Journal of Languages and Linguistics, 7(3), 72-88.

Nuttal, C. (2005). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. Macmillan Education.

Sa’ad, T.U., & Usman, R. (2014). The causes of poor performance in English language among senior secondary schools in Dutse metropolis of Jigawa State, Nigeria. Journal of Research and Methods in Education, 4(5), 41-47.

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Richards, J.C., & Renandya, W.A. (2002). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge University Press.