READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS AMONG PRIMARY PUPILS SIX IN AKPABUYO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT This study seek to examine “reading comprehension skills among primary six in Akpabuyo Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria”. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of this study consisted of all the primary six (prim. 6) pupils in Public primary schools in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State totally 100 pupils selected to participate in this study. A breakdown of this figure shows that 40 were female while 60 were male. This population spread across five (5) selected public primary schools in the research area. Purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting a representative sample of one hundred (100) research respondents which comprised of both male and female. An instrument titled; Reading Comprehension Skills Questionnaire (RCSQ) was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument gave a Cronbach Alpha index of 0.80 which was considered reliable. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation in answering the research questions while the null hypotheses formulated were tested using One-sample t-test Analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that word recognition skills, vocabulary skills and sight word recognition skills of pupils are significantly high. From the findings of this study it was concluded that word recognition skills, vocabulary skills and sight word recognition skills of pupils are significantly high. The researcher recommended that; teachers need to adopt diversified instructional strategies in their approach to teaching reading and this should be done at an early stage or primary school level, which is the stage of beginning reading; the conventional classroom method of teaching reading should be discouraged through the provision of reading materials and objects that stimulate learners’ interest in reading.