Reading Strategies: A Catalyst for Enhancing Comprehension and Summary Writing' Proficiency, among High School Students in Lagos State

Abstract

designs the effects of the use of reading strategies on the development of students '
proficiency in reading comprehension and summary writing That is, it sought to
determine whether students exposed to reading strategies would improve and perform
better in reading comprehension and summary writing than those not so exposed. A
total of 240 senior secondary I (SSJ) students and 50 teachers were randomly selected
./i"OI7l four randomly selected senior secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. Two
separate questionnaires of the Likert scale type were administered on the teacher and
student samples. Five reading passages were used to teach students some relevant
reading strategies such as predicting, thinking aloud, inferring, questioning, context
clues and summarising. The pre-test and post-test exercises were used to collect data
in both comprehension and summary writing Data collected were analysed using
percentages, mean, standard deviation and ANO VA statistical tools, at 0.05 significant
level. Findings showed that while teachers were aware of some reading strategies and
techniques ofsummary writing, students were not; the use of reading strategies had a
significant positive effect on students' performance in reading comprehension; reading
strategies positively affected students' performance in summary writing; and there was
a significant difference in performance between students who received reading
instructions using reading strategies and those who did not in both comprehension and
summary writing Based on the findings, recommendations were made on how to
create more awareness about reading strategies, their benefits and how to cultivate
their use to enhance the performance of students in reading comprehension and
summary writing