Impact of Supplementary Readers on EFL Students’Performance in Exam

Abstract

This study investigates theimpact ofsupplementary readers on EFLsecondary schoolSudanese students’performance in exam. The researcher used the descriptive analytical and experimental methods. The data was collected by two tools: a questionnaire for secondary school teachers and exam paper for third year students at secondary schools. The sample of the studyconsists of hundred (100) secondary school teachers from Khartoum state and fifty one (51)third year secondary school studentsfromNorthern State. The students were chosen from both Dongla Secondary School for boys and SuperiorSecondary School for girls, for the academic year (2017- 2018). Thirty (30)out of fifty one (51)have studied supplementary readers and the rest (21) haven’t studied supplementary readers. The questionnaire was distributed to hundred (100) secondary school teachers. A statistical analysis was carried out to find out the relationship between teaching supplementary readers and their impact in students’ performance. The data of the study wasanalysed by using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) program. The researcher has found out the following findings:teaching supplementary readers to secondary school students positively contributes to enriching the students’ vocabulary.Teaching supplementary readers helps students to develop their comprehension skillsandprovides an authenticreal context to teach grammar.Teaching supplementary readers develops students’ critical thinking, teaching supplementary readers contributes to develop the students’ language standard and literary appreciation and the students who have studied supplementary readers scored higher marks than those who haven’t studied them in the exam paper that contained the same questions, that is to say supplementary readers teaching has a positive effect in the standard of students. Based on the findings, the study recommends that: The Ministry of Education should choose books that are useful, interesting, motivating and suitable for students’ age. Teachers of English language are recommended to encourage their students to studysupplementary readers to improve their performance in English language. Moreover, teachers of English language are also recommended to teach English through literary texts.Teachers of English language should consider the students’ linguistic abilities and to minimize the difficulties of vocabulary that their students might face during their study tosupplementary readers.Supplementary readers should be used for the purpose of developing students’ creative imagination and language skills. Finally, the researcher based on the findings and recommendations has suggested some topics for further studies on the same area.