Effects of Literature Circleson Selected Senior Secondary School Students' Achievement in English Reading Comprehension in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

There is ample evidence that students perform poorly in English language reading tests mainly because of methodological challenges in the area of reading comprehension instruction. Many teachers do not apply learner-centred reading comprehension instruction strategy where students may take active part in the learning process. Rather, they rely on the strategy that gives them total dominance during lessons. This study investigated the effects of learner-centred Literature circles instructional strategy on senior secondary school students' achievement in English reading comprehension in selected schools in Niger State. The study adopted a pretest, posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design. Three schools were purposively selected from each of the two local government areas that were randomly selected for the study and assigned to experimental and control groups. Instruments used for the study were the Teachers' Instructional Guides, Reading Comprehension Achievement Test, and Verbal Ability Test. Treatment lasted eight weeks. Data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance and Scheffe Post Hoc test at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed a significant main effect of treatment on students' achievement (F(293) 16.385; P<0.05). Participants in Literature circles group had higher posttest achievement mean score (X=53.45) compared to the control group (X=38.90). Also, verbal ability had significant effect on achievement. The High verbal ability group had the highest posttest achievement mean score (X-53.16). followed by the Average ability (X-48.44) and the Low ability groups (X= 43.23). The study concluded that Literature circles instructional strategy could be effective in improving reading comprehension achievement in the senior secondary school, irrespective of verbal ability level, and therefore recommended its use at that level of education.