A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF READING ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

ABSTRACT Reading is an essential skill that every child of school age should acquire. The reason is that students who are able to read very well and understand what is read often perform better academically than their counterparts who struggle to read. This clearly demonstrates that there is a very close relationship between reading and academic performance. Hence the researcher’s interest to investigate how reading influences the academic performance of students, especially some first year students of Kanton Senior High School. To investigate the topic, the researcher conducted test, interviews and also made personal observations. The purposive sampling technique of the non-probability sampling approach was used to sample the population for the study. The study population of twenty-five (25) students was sampled through personal observation the researcher made on students reading in the classroom. Three (3) teachers from the Department of Languages were also selected for the study. Two (2) interview guides were prepared, one for the students and the other one for the teachers. A comprehension passage was equally given to the students to read and answer questions on it. Multiple choice and open-ended questions were designed in accordance with recall, comprehension, analysis and synthesis steps for the students to work on. The data gathered were analyzed and results converted into percentages and tabulated. Findings were made and conclusions drawn.