Investigating Reading Comprehension Problems Encountered by Grade Eighth - Basic Level

Abstract

This study aimed at examined the reading comprehension skills of the 8th level students, in basic education namely Sahafa schools, while touching lightly on the other aspects of learning, such as developing communicative skills through active classroom interaction. A number of strategies and classroom techniques were adopted to accomplish the intended goal. Right, from the outset a pre-test exam was adopted to categorize the sample into two distinct groups, namely experiment and control group. The population of the study was a hundred pupils, both girls and boys, selected from Sahafa School. The pre-test exam heavily concentrated on exploring the students’ knowledge of vocabulary, the use of pronouns, speech acts, requests, models, metaphors and diverse lexical choices. A number of reading texts have been selected from the syllabus and texts from other sources to test their vocabulary and reading abilities. These linguistic aspects have been chosen as primary tools for the analysis due to the fact that they are closely related to the method to be employed to soar up the level of classroom interaction. It took a course of 45 days to inject the desired dose of knowledge into the experimental group before administering the post-test. A number of statistical techniques were adopted to analyze the results which reflected a noticeable improvement on the part of the experiment group. Questionnaire for the tutors was also used as data collection technique. Judging by the results attained from the pre-and post tests, it could be safely admitted that the three hypotheses drawn out in the present research have been satisfactorily confirmed. The findings revealed that reading and communicative skills can, consequently be developed through intensive classroom interaction through the employment of the right type of language, tutor’s dedication and students’ willingness.