Correlates of Hausa Language Reading Ability among Adult Learners in Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

Hausa language is one of the widely spoken and a major language in Northern Nigeria. It is a language that is a used as a medium of instruction in adult literacy classes in some states in Northern Nigeria. There are newspapers, magazines and literary books written in Hausa language to be read for the purposes of information, education and entertainment. This study is therefore an attempt to evaluate the correlates of Hausa Language reading ability among Adult Learners in Borno State, Nigeria. Consequently, three objectives and hypotheses were formulated and tested respectively by the researcher.  Of the 238 adult literacy centres in the State, 24 (12 male literacy centres and 12 female adult literacy centres) were randomly selected by lot with four centres representing each group selected. The sample consisted of 298 adult learners made up of 196 male learners and 102 female adult learners in the 24 literacy centres. Four research instruments were used to collect data for this study. These are: i) Learners Social Learning Environment Questionnaire ii) Mental Ability Test iii) Instructors Teaching and Centre’s Quality Questionnaire and iv) Reading Ability Scale. The findings in this study revealed there are significant positive relationship between reading ability and mental ability, centre quality instructors teaching quality, the relationship between Hausa language reading ability and each of the predictor variables were found to be statistically significant. There were no significant differences between male and adult literacy learners in Hausa language reading ability indices. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made.

Keywords: Correlates, Hausa Language, Adult Learner, Borno State