A Study of the Effect of Home, School, and Personal Variables on Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement.

Abstract

The study was designed to investigate the effect of specific home, school and personal variables on students’ reading comprehension achievement, based on the frequency of secondary school students' poor performances in English Language examinations. Based on a sample of two hundred (200) students randomly selected from four senior secondary schools in Oyo East and Atiba Local Government Areas of Oyo State, the study sought answers to five research questions were generated for the study. A descriptive survey research was adopted and the instruments used were Students’ Questionnaire and Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT). Results from the findings showed that although all the variables examined affected students' reading comprehension achievement, the home and school variables were significant while the personal variable was not. It was concluded that the variables, when taken together, would to a large extent predict reading comprehension achievement. It was recommended that parents and teachers have major roles to play in improving students' competence in reading comprehension.

Keywords: English Language; home; Nigeria; reading comprehension; school; self-concept.