EFFECTS OF LITERATURE CIRCLE AND MULTIMODAL LITERACY STRATEGIES ON ENGLISH AS-A-SECOND- LANGUAGE STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TO READING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

This study determines the effects of Literature Circles (LC) and Multimodal Literacy strategies (MML) on public Senior Secondary School students' attitude to English reading comprehension in Niger State, Nigeria. The study adopted a pretest-posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design. Three out of 25 local government areas (LGAs) in Niger State were randomly selected. Three public schools purposively selected from each LGA were randomly assigned to LCS, MLS and Control groups.. One intact class of senior secondary II students from each of the schools was used Treatment lasted eight weeks. The instruments used were: Verbal Ability Test (r=0.68), Attitude to Reading Comprehension Questionnaire (r=0.62), and Teachers' Instructional Guides. Data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance and Scheffe post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed a significant main effect of treatment on students' attitude to reading comprehension (F2,386)= 3.404; n2=.017). The participants in MLS group obtained the highest attitude mean score (X=54.42) followed by those in LCS (X=53.22) and Control (X-51.96) groups. There was no significant main effect of gender on students' attitude to reading comprehension. Also, there was no two-way significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on students' attitude to reading comprehension. Two-way interaction of treatment and verbal ability had no significant effect on students' attitude. The three-way interaction of treatment, verbal ability and gender had no significant interaction effect on students' attitude. It was concluded that literature circles and multimodal literacy instructional strategies enhanced students' attitude to English reading comprehension in public senior secondary schools in Niger State. Based on findings, appropriate recommendations were made.