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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │Issue 9 │2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1030078 EFFECTIVENESS OF VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING COMPREHENSION IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUMi Hanna Onyi Yusufii Dr., Department of Educational Foundations and Curriculum, Faculty of Education Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria Abstract: The study was aimed at determining the effect of vocabulary instruction on students’ performance in reading comprehension in junior secondary schools in Kaduna State, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest research design was used for the study. The target population of the study consisted of 39,227 JS II students in public junior secondary schools in Kaduna State. A sample size of 117 JS II students was used in the study. The sample size was arrived at using purposive sampling technique. Sixty seven (67) JS II students were sampled for experimental group while fifty (50) students were used as control group. Both groups were taught for six weeks. A pre-test was administered to both groups prior to the six weeks of teaching to establish the homogeneity of the two groups. A close reading comprehension test was used to assess students’ performance in the reading comprehension task. Data collected in the study was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. At descriptive level, mean and standard deviation were used to respond to the research question while t-test was used at inferential level to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that the experimental group performed better than the control group. The study concluded that it takes fairly intensive vocabulary instruction to guarantee measurable gains in reading comprehension. It was therefore recommended that teachers should include vocabulary instruction in teaching reading comprehension to facilitate more The article has been presented at the 10th Pan African Literacy for all Conference PALFA 2017 held at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. Date: 27th – 31st August 2017. i Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 739 Hanna Onyi Yusuf EFFECTIVENESS OF VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING COMPREHENSION IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM understanding. Curriculum planners should equally include vocabulary instruction as one of the teaching techniques in the basic education curriculum. Keywords: comprehension, performance, vocabulary instruction, reading 1. Introduction Vocabulary instruction is fundamental to reading comprehension. It entails helping students to acquire new words for use in daily life, and more specifically, the basis for learning any language. Vocabulary instruction focuses on helping students learn the meaning of new words and concepts in various contexts and across all academic content areas. Teaching reading comprehension using vocabulary instruction means providing explicit instruction on important words from text and teaching students strategies to help them learn word meanings independently (Kamil et al., 2008). Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyse it, make sense of it, and make it their own. Strong readers think actively as they read. They use their experiences and knowledge of the world, vocabulary, language structure, and reading strategies to make sense of the text and know how to get the most out of it. They know when they have problems with understanding and what thinking strategies to use to resolve these problems when they pop up (Readingrockets.com, 2016). One big part of comprehension is having sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of many words. Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read, what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny, and so on. Thus, one can say that comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning. Increasing vocabulary instruction is a fundamental part of the process of education, both as a means and as an end. Lack of adequate vocabulary instruction is already an obvious and serious obstacle for many students. Kame'enui and Simmons cited in Calderón and Minaya-Rowe (2004) highlighted the causes of reading comprehension failure to include inadequate instruction, insufficient exposure and practice, deficient word recognition skills, deficient memory capacity and functioning, significant language deficiencies, inadequate comprehension monitoring and selfevaluation, unfamiliarity with text features and task demands, undeveloped attentional strategies, and inadequate cognitive development and reading experiences. European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 9 │ 2017 740 Hanna Onyi Yusuf EFFECTIVENESS OF VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING COMPREHENSION IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR BASIC EDUCATION CURRICULUM Vocabulary instruction aids in activating and building background knowledge to make connections to text, increase reading comprehension and fluency while reading. Vocabulary instruction has been proven to increase reading comprehension in studies conducted by Oyetunde (2009), Olaofe (2013), Yusuf (2016) but according to some other studies, many widely used methods of vocabulary instruction generally fail to increase reading comprehension (Block, & Mangieri, 2006; Mezynski, Pearson & Gallagher; Stahl & Fairbanks cited in William, 1998). A major motivation for vocabulary instruction is to help students understand various texts they are about to read. Since traditional instruction is not having this effect, there is need to examine the effect of vocabulary instruction on students’ reading comprehension. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of vocabulary instruction on students’ performance in reading comprehension in junior secondary schools in Kaduna State, Nigeria. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/1117 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 9 │ 2017 741