DEBRE MARKOS UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

AN ASSESSMENT ON THE CHALLENGES OF STUDENTS’EFL READING

COMPREHENSION: GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT ABAY MINCH GENERAL AND

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN FOCUS.

BY: MELAKU SHITAYE

SUBMITTED TO: YESHAMBEL TADELE. (PhD)

MAY, 2021

DEBRE MARKOS, ETHIOPIA

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would like to thank the Almighty God who has brought me and looked after me.
Then, I would like to express my thanks and appreciations to my advisor, Yeshambel Tadele
(PhD), for their invaluable comments and suggestions which helped me shape and restructure
this work.
I would also like to thank gratitude English language teachers and students of Abay Minch
general and secondary school for their sincere participation and their provision of data in the
study.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and my friends in god who have helped me so much.

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ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to assess factors that affect students’ reading comprehension and its
possible solutions. To achieve this, descriptive research design and mixed research method were
employed. From the total population of 960 grade 10 students, 80 students were selected by
random sampling technique. Questionnaires were major data collecting instrument and semi-
structured interview and classroom observation were supportive tools. To collect the relevant
data, semi structured interview was conducted with teachers to crosscheck the previous result got
by the above tools. The researcher also used classroom observation to make the study more
reliable. The data collected from the students and teachers through different instruments were
presented in the form of percentages and tables. The data were analyzed using both quantitative
and qualitative procedures. The major findings were poor foundation of students in reading, poor
teaching reading techniques and strategies, low student motivation and shortage of reading
materials at students’ home and in library. The main conclusion is that factors related to students,
teachers and home tend to be very serious. Based on the major findings and major conclusions,
recommendations have been forwarded

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................................iii
CHAPTER ONE..........................................................................................................................................1
1. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................1
1.1. Background of the Study..................................................................................................................1
1.2. Statement of the problem..................................................................................................................2
1.3. Research Questions...........................................................................................................................6
1.4. Objective of the study.......................................................................................................................6
1.4.1. General Objective of the Study......................................................................................................6
1.4.2. Specific Objectives........................................................................................................................6
1.5. Scope of the study.............................................................................................................................7
1.6. Significance of the study...................................................................................................................7
1.7. Limitation of the Study.....................................................................................................................8
1.8. Operational Definition......................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER TWO.........................................................................................................................................9
2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE...............................................................................................9
2.1. Meaning of Reading.........................................................................................................................9
2.2. Importance of Reading....................................................................................................................10
2.3. Meaning of Reading Academic Purpose.........................................................................................12
2.4. Reading Comprehension.................................................................................................................13
2.5. Reading Techniques........................................................................................................................13
2.5.1. Scanning..................................................................................................................................13
2.5.2. Skimming................................................................................................................................14
2.6 .Comprehension Strategies..............................................................................................................14
2.6.1 .Monitoring Comprehension.....................................................................................................15
2.6.2 .Graphic Organizers..................................................................................................................15
2.6.3 .Story structure..........................................................................................................................16
2.6.4. Answering and generating techniques......................................................................................16
2.6.5 .Summarizing............................................................................................................................16
2.6.6. Multiple Strategies...................................................................................................................17
2.7. Assessment of Reading comprehension..........................................................................................21

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 2.7.1. Teacher Related Factors...........................................................................................................21
2.7.2 .Student related Factors.............................................................................................................22
CHAPTER THREE...................................................................................................................................28
3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY..................................................................................28
3.1. Research Design.............................................................................................................................28
3.2. Participants of the Study.................................................................................................................28
3.3. Sample Size and Sampling Techniques..........................................................................................28
3.4. Data Gathering Instruments............................................................................................................29
3.4.1. Questionnaires.........................................................................................................................29
3.4.2. Classroom observation.............................................................................................................30
3.4.3. Interview..................................................................................................................................30
3.5. Data Collection Procedures.............................................................................................................30
3.6. Method of Data Analysis................................................................................................................31
CHAPTER FOUR.....................................................................................................................................31
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION............................................................................................................31
4.1. Difficulty of Reading Comprehension............................................................................................32
4.2. Factors Related to Students.............................................................................................................33
4.3. Factors related to school (textbook, teachers and library)...............................................................35
4.4. Factors related to outside school.....................................................................................................37
5. Data from Classroom Observation.....................................................................................................42
CHAPTER FIVE.......................................................................................................................................45
5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................45
5.1. Summary........................................................................................................................................45
5.2. Conclusions....................................................................................................................................46
5.3. Recommendations..........................................................................................................................47
REFERENCE............................................................................................................................................48
APPENDIX:..............................................................................................................................................51
Appendix A...........................................................................................................................................52
Appendix B..........................................................................................................................................53
Appendix C...........................................................................................................................................55

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CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

English language skills are essential in attaining proficiency. These skills are either receptive or
productive skills. Receptive skills involve reading and listening while productive skills consist of
writing and speaking. Learners acquire receptive skills by receiving the language from oral or
written material. In this case, learners decode the meaning to comprehend the receptive material.
The importance of reading as a language skill can never be underestimated. It is one of the
essential means through which information can be obtained especially for educational purposes.
Reading serves as one of the most commonly utilized language proficiency skills across the
globe. In addition, lack of reading ability results in poor academic performance among students.
They also face various challenges outside the academic environment due to reading deficiency
(Mundhe, 2015).

Learners who do not understand reading material cannot enjoy reading. Along with that, lack of
understanding might be as a result of insufficient knowledge of vocabulary. This indicates that
there is a strong correlation between reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.
Therefore, EFL learners must acquire adequate knowledge of vocabulary to comprehend text.
EFL students who developed a habit of dislike for the foreign language tend to have many
difficulties in understanding reading materials related to the language. In addition, prior
knowledge (schemata) helps learners to comprehend reading materials and construct meaning
(Nozen et al., 2017; Vacca, 2002). In this regard, EFL learners who fail to connect their previous
knowledge and predict the possible meaning of the text can face difficulties in understanding the
text. This might be due to lack of in-depth knowledge of English derivation. Nezami (2012), the
most noticeable issues faced by the teachers today is insufficiency in reading comprehension
among students of higher institutions of learning. This deficiency might affect their academic
performance.

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A great number of students without sufficient vocabulary knowledge or effective learning
strategies mostly face reading comprehension difficulties (Nor & Rashid, 2018). They mostly
encounter a series of continued failure during their studies due to bad experiences they had from
the beginning (Hart & Risley, 2003). This connection seems logical since students need high
level of vocabulary in order to comprehend reading materials. Researchers pointed out that the
degree of learners’ vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge, and grammatical knowledge are
some of the significant difficulties influencing the reading comprehension (Koda, 2007).Nergis
(2013) posited that deepness of vocabulary knowledge, syntactic consciousness and
metacognitive recognition are some of the important factors influencing the reading
comprehension.

Other studies have shown that grammatical knowledge plays a vital role in reading
comprehension (Mehrpour & Rahimi, 2010; Mecartty, 2000; Zhang, 2012). In addition, Shiotsu,
and Weir (2007) stated that the learner’s level of syntactic knowledge plays a role in their
understanding of reading materials. In other words, learners with insufficient knowledge might
not be able to achieve a higher level of reading ability. Therefore, readers need L2 syntactic
knowledge to integrate their background knowledge and word’s meaning (Koda, 2005).

Based on the condition highlighted, this study aims to examine reading comprehension
difficulties among EFL learners, particularly Abay minch general and secondary school students
The study is expected to provide valid conclusion that can help in understanding and providing
possible solutions to the problem.

1.2. Statement of the problem

Many researchers investigated that reading comprehension is difficult for students. Chawwang,
(2008) investigated English reading comprehension problems for EFL learners. The study found
that most of the students face difficulties in reading English texts. Inadequate vocabulary
knowledge was recognized as one of the main issues (Gunning, 2002). Vocabulary knowledge
plays an important role in understanding complex reading materials such as textbooks,
particularly those containing technical expressions (Carlisle, 2000; Qian, 2002). This is because
students with poor vocabulary knowledge face problems in understanding technical words such

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as super ordinate, synonyms, antonyms, or words with multiple connotations (Nuttall, 2000;
Carlisle, 2000; Vilenius‐Tuohimaa, Aunola, & Nurmi, 2008).

Text problem influences reading comprehension. Meaning that, learners’ fluency in language
enables them to have more in-depth understanding of text. Hence, oral ability is prominent when
it comes to recognize how skilled a reader can be since students acquire new vocabulary through
listening. Having adequate vocabulary helps students in clarifying the strange words by relating
them with the context in which they are used (Dennis, 2008).

Another problem facing EFL learners is ability to understand complex sentences in reading
comprehension. Complex sentences are sentences that consist of several clauses, and at times
contain conjunctions such as although, because, furthermore, and however (Scott, 2009). Other
causes of difficulties in reading comprehension among EFL learners include coordinating
conjunctions, prepositional phrases, participial phrases, and nominalizations. They cause a lot of
difficulties in reading comprehension because they make the writings more complex and difficult
to comprehend (Nuttall, 2000). However, Trehearne and Doctorow (2005) further identified
other factors such as useful learning methods, reading habits, text form, and effective reading
comprehension strategies.

Other factors influencing reading comprehension skills include exposure to the text organization
and concentration (Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2004; Meniado, 2016).According to Davoudi and
Yousefi (2015), causes of difficulties in reading for many learners include environmental,
instructional, and biological sources. Learners who face reading difficulties have comprehension
problems, and for some students, these comprehension problems could be due to imprecise or
ineffective word recognition and decoding methods. The environmental circumstances influence
the learners’ reading comprehension. They have many problems in understanding reading
materials in a disorganized environment. However, those in a peaceful and controlled
environment may have more effective reading ability. Students in an insecure domicile find it
difficult to concentrate on their reading. But if they find themselves in safe environments,
efficiency in their reading comprehension tends to improve. It is proven that learners lose focus

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in reading comprehension in a noisy place such as areas with high volume of televisions or
radios (Dennis, 2008).

For others, comprehension problems could be due to deficiencies in language or cognitive

processes. Also motivation and concentration are factors that might influence comprehension,
since particular group of readers could understand simple words or expressions, but face
difficulty in understanding longer sentences (Laing & Kamhi, 2002; Anmarkrud & Bråten,
2009).

Reading is considered as one of the essential skills by all types of people, and perceived as being
vital for people’s job prospects. Even though learners are expected to meet effectively different
kinds of academic reading in schools during their stay, in Ethiopia, a great number of students
have been reported that they have poor comprehension ability and poor habit of reading in order
to meet their academic reading requirement Meredith (2000), M. (2012), & Atakiliti, G. (2011).

In the instructional process, students’ interest and motivation on an intended lesson is necessary
for the progress of instruction so that they will pay attention on what they learn will succeed.
Students’ attention is not confined only to physical presence, but it to their mental presence.
Also, in the classroom their interaction should take interest in the class work and listen to the
teacher attentively and give responses. Interaction is a stimulus (Mukkal l 1998:104) response
situation with some degree of verbal and non-verbal exchange that would result in positive or
negative feeling in the individuals who function as the agent of the interaction.

Some students, in the researcher’s experience, do not participate properly especially in EFL
classroom. They present in the classroom but they do not pay attention to do the reading
comprehension activities. Unless students take the opportunity to participate and practice their
language tasks in the classroom, they may not have other opportunities to develop language skill.
Liu (2005) found out that students who experience interests and participations tend to have better
academic performance compared to students who do not participate.

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Hence, likewise, students’ lack of interest for reading comprehension lessons the inability to
participate in reading classes substantially affect students’ language learning and academic
performance. Unfortunately, the problem is or will be worse and a great risk in EFL setting
where learners have little, if any, exposure to the target language outside the classroom.

Despite the growing importance and expectation for verbal and written language practice in the
classroom for foreign language, still the prevalence of poor participation in language classes,
especially in reading comprehension classes, has been increasing. Thus, it was needed to explore
the challenges of students’ EFL reading comprehension in EFL classroom situations.

Ethiopian learners’ reading comprehension problems have been investigated however; they don’t
change the learners reading comprehension skill. Hence, Ethiopian learners who learn English
are in poor need to be investigated. there are sufficient research papers done to understand
students’ reading comprehension problems in EFL reading classroom but the researcher to find
students EFL problems of reading comprehension. It is profoundly important to understand this
phenomenon in Ethiopian high schools in general and in a specific school in particular.

The researcher has observed and experienced some manifestation of reading reluctance and
problems among many learners in the specified school. The problem those students experienced
cannot be reduced without knowing what made them experience reading comprehension
problem while they are learning reading in the EFL reading classroom. To this end, there is a
need for exploring of students’ reading comprehension problems and their reading performance
in reading EFL comprehension classroom.

The researcher observed that many of grade 10 students of Abay minch general and Secondary
school students faced reading problems in reading EFL classroom. Students are not often active
participants and do not even answer reading comprehension questions correctly and confidently
in the reading comprehension classroom teaching and in the university entrance exams as well,
and this makes it urgent to examine this phenomenon by understanding of students’ reading
problems and their reading performance in reading comprehension classroom so as to ultimately
enhance EFL reading teaching learning in English classroom.

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1.3. Research Questions

The following are research questions that will be answered in the study.

 What are teacher related factors that affect students’ EFL reading comprehension?
 What are student related problems that influence EFL students reading comprehension?
 What are reading materials related factors that affect students’ EFL reading
comprehension?

1.4. Objective of the study

1.4.1. General Objective of the Study

The general objective of this study is to assess students’ EFL reading comprehension problem of
grade 10 at Abay Minch general and secondary school.

1.4.2. Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of this study are to:

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  Investigate teacher related problems that affect students’ EFL reading comprehension.
 Examine student related problems that influence students’ EFL reading comprehension.
 Identify reading material related problems that affect students’ EFL reading
comprehension.

1.5. Scope of the study

The scope of the study is limited to Abay Minch general and secondary school at grade 10 in
Amhara Regional State West Gojjam zone, Sekela Woreda. It may have been better involving
many schools in order to get more information about the study. Of course there are other high
schools in this Woreda; however, the study is limited to only one school at grade 10 students
EFL reading comprehension problems. Thus, the main scope of the study is studying about
challenges that affect students’ EFL reading comprehension.

1.6. Significance of the study

The study has the following benefits. The result of this study will help students to enhance their
EFL reading comprehension. It is also helpful for foreign language teachers who have been
complaining why their students are reluctant to participate and unable to perform in reading
comprehension classroom. This study aims at to explore grade 10 students’ EFL reading
comprehension problems in reading performance. The result of the study is also useful for both
teachers and students in improving the teaching learning process with respect to reading skill.

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The implication and recommendation will stand from the results of the study. It involves all the
concerned body so as to help students reading in EFL context.

In brief, this study helps all concerned bodies such as curriculum designers, schools, parents,
teachers, and students to understand the students’ EFL reading comprehension problems which
affect their language learning.

1.7. Limitation of the Study

Although there are large number of students, sections and another additional high school, the
study is focused on only one high school.

This study is limited to Abay minch general and secondary school only at grade 10 level. The
researcher is obliged to his study because of time constraint, financial problems and work load.
Due to this, the study is restricted to Abay Minch general and secondary school specifically
focused on at grade 10 students.

1.8. Operational Definition

In this study, the technical terms like assess, comprehension and factors are used with their
definitions as follow:

Assess- to analyze critically and judge definitively the factors affecting students’ reading.

Comprehension- the process in which a student interacts with a written text and derives meaning,
which can be exhibited in a manner appropriate to the demands of the teacher/ researcher.

Factors- things those affect students reading comprehension.

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 CHAPTER TWO

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents a review of related literature concerning reading comprehension. The
review first states the meaning of reading for academic purpose. Following this, the importance
of reading, the reasons for poor reading comprehension, as well as of reading comprehension,
and comprehension strategies are clearly discuss together with their components.

2.1. Meaning of Reading

Reading is defined by many scholars in different ways. For example Brumfit (1996) defines: like
the other language arts, reading too, is one form of communication. The exchange of ideas
between the writer and the reader is the ultimate goal of reading. A writer puts his ideas into
writing so that readers share his view. For Nuttall (1996) and Ur (1996) reading means getting
the message out of the text, as much as possible that the writer puts into it or simply
comprehending the meaning or the general picture of what the writer intends to convey. For
instance, Grellet (1981) defines reading as a process of extracting and understanding the required
information from a text. Pressley (2000) states reading as a hierarchy of skills, from processing
of individual letters and their associated sounds to word recognition and to text processing
competencies. According to this definition, reading begins as the first day of identifying a single
letter. Similarly, Williams (1984) states reading as a process of decoding symbols: looking at
words and understanding what has been written. Both the definitions stated above indicate that
reading begins at the primary level where children are made to acquaint themselves with letters
and combination of letters to form words. Reading could also be seen beyond this level. With
regard to this level of reading, Davis (1955) states reading as a mental process in which a reader

9
endeavors to interact with the message in a text. Wallace (2003) explicitly deals with the
definition of reading as reacting to a written text by which the reader communicates with
understanding of the specific and general messages. For Harmer (1983) reading involves both the
eyes and the brain where the eyes receive messages received.

2.2. Importance of Reading

The four major language skills, reading is one of the instruments for communication of thoughts
from one person to another, and it is a means to gain several things. For instance by reading
newspaper, magazines and other sources one can learn about the current social, economic and
political situation of the world. With regard to this, Cross (1950:338) has the following to say,
“Much of the success of the students in school and in later life depends up on how well they can
read, and how well they can use the meanings which they have gained from their reading
situation.” The ability to read in English has more importance for students in such a way that it
meets the everyday reading needs later in life (Thompson, 2001). Reading is needed in both
classroom and real life situation. According to Bright and Mc Gregory (1972), the major
language skill that enables learners to understand ideas, facts, concepts and thoughts is reading.
This is to mean that learners make use of reading in the environment out of school in their daily
routine. Donough and Shaw (1993), also maintain emphatically that reading is one of the
important foreign language skills. Reading in enhances language proficiency of students at all
levels. On this point Donough and Shaw (1993:89) note the following “as a skill, reading is
clearly one of the most important; in fact in many instances around the world we may argue that
reading is the most important foreign language”. Another scholar Sesnan (2003) refers to the
importance of reading by saying “reading is one of the basic skills which everyone accepts is
essential for survival in the modern world”. In strengthening this idea, Irwin (1967) in N’Namid
(2005), says skills in reading are most important to enable students to understand the social and
economic situation of the world and their environment.

The scholars have suggested that reading has two purposes. First, if a person has an effective
reading ability, he will succeed in his academic performance; secondly, reading ability also helps
one for good social life with the society. Reading skill for students contribute a lot not only in

10
their high school level but also it helps in their university level with regard to this, Bright
(1970:16) says: “further education depends on quantity and quality of reading. All the important
study skills require quick, efficient and imaginative reading. Therefore, the degree of
effectiveness and large amount of reading determine learner achievement in their work”.
Findings suggest that one of the best ways to help students to increase their ability in other
language skills is through giving them appropriate practice in reading, Bright (1970). In general
scholars agree that reading is not only the most important language skill that enables the learner
to grasp ideas, facts, concepts and thoughts but also it is a skill that plays a role in developing
other language skills. Thus, if reading is as important as this, it needs to be practiced as early as
possible in the primary and secondary level in order to develop successful reading ability
gradually at higher levels. However, as has been explained in the statement of problem above,
many research workers have concluded that the reading ability of both secondary and tertiary
level of students too has been below what is expected of them. To this end, the researcher believe
that if reading comprehension practice of students at primary and secondary level could be
handled appropriate according to the best current practices and language teaching and learning
methods and approaches, the problem of the higher students reading ability might be relieve. In
the discussion, the researcher has tried to assess briefly the concept of learning a foreign
language in relation to reading and the importance of reading in the language. The above
discussion seems to suggest that the ability to read in a foreign language, that is a medium of
instruction is extremely important. This is due to the fact that this ability positively affects the
students’ success not only in the language but also in all the other subjects that are taught in that
language.

2.3. Meaning of Reading Academic Purpose

Reading for academic purpose is different from reading for leisure. When reading a novel one
would read the book from cover to cover but academic reading can be more of a selective
process. Reading is a complex process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive
meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition of communication and
sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and
the reader, which is shaped by the readers ’prior knowledge, experience, attitude and language

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community, which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous
practice, development and refinement. Reading is a highly interactive phenomenon (Carrel et al.,
1997). This interaction takes place through the activity of reading. This is itself a complex
interplay between local level bottom-up strategies (identification of meaning from the level of
word upwards) and increasingly more global level of top-down, higher order mental process and
background knowledge.

According to what have been explained by all the scholars mentioned above, the comprehension
of reading is not a passive activity even at the primary level since the reader interprets analyses
and interacts with the message in the text even though the level of interpretation varies from
grade to grade level. Students are considered to be reading when they looks at a written word
sentences or phrase and knows what it means. In the process of reading, there are usually
interactions between the readers’ background knowledge and textual information. Supporting
this idea Richards (1977) also notes: In addition to this, reading is what happens when people
look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in text. The text and the reader are the
two physical characters necessary for the reading process to begin. However, the interaction
between the text and the reader that constitutes actual reading.

From the definitions stated above reading is an active process where the students deal with the
written material in guessing and predicting in relation to his or her previous knowledge.

Reading calls for analyzing and interpreting the message, which is beyond mere careless writing.
To conclude the definition of reading here, it has to be clear that, reading is not as simple as
saying words in pattern, but it understands the concepts of the reading materials itself.

2.4. Reading Comprehension

The two terms are inter-related with each other. Besides this, comprehending is to understand
and to attain the level we need to read. In relation to this Gray (1960) tells “…during processing
leads to the contraction of understanding or comprehension. As we read constantly,
comprehending strategies making connections and inferences, summarizing and synthesizing
information, and perhaps even critiquing or analyzing the text in some ways.” In contrast,
people often speak of reading and comprehending as two different or connected processes. As

12
Grellet (1981) said “well, he can read it, but he does not understand it. I take the position that
reading comprehends without understanding, a person maybe noticing and responding to graphic
symbols but not processing them in a meaningful way that is required of readers.”

2.5. Reading Techniques

2.5.1. Scanning

Scanning is a rapid reading technique to locate a specific bit of information that the reader needs,
such as data, name or figure. In scanning, readers attempt to find only information they demand
passing quickly over all the irrelevant information. The 10 readers involve moving their eyes
quickly down the page until they find what they are searching for (Grellet, 1981 Nuttal, 1982;
William, 1984 Lamp and Johnson, 1999). The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific
information without reading the whole text (Brown, 1994) as cited in Roods, 2001)

Here below are some ways to scan a text:

A) State the specific information you want to search

B) Use heading and other aids that will help you identify sections might contain Information you
-are looking for

C) Try to anticipate how the answers will appear and clues you might use to help you locate the
answers

D) Read selectively and skip irrelevant sections of the passage Scanning is not a thorough
activity mainly because the reader uses it to locate isolated, specific or scattered information.

2.5.2. Skimming

Skimming refers to the process of quickly running one’s eyes over a text to gain an overall
understanding of the content of the written text. Skimming is mainly concerned with finding
main ideas or overall theme (Grellet, 1981; Nuttal, 1982; Davis, 1995; Scrivener, 1994).

Here are some ways of skimming a text:

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A) Read the title.

B) Read the first sentence of every paragraph.

C) Read the headings and sub headings.

D) Notice any italicized or bald face words or phrases.

E) Notice any picture, chart or graph.

F) Read the summary or last paragraphs.

Skimming requires knowledge of finding main ideas of different paragraphs. As Davis

(1995;184) explains “since the main idea of a well-organized paragraphs is in most cases, either
in the first or last paragraph, and the general idea of a text is usually in the introductory
paragraph or in the concluding paragraph.” Therefore the best way to teach skimming is to have
students to read the first and the last paragraphs in full. Skimming gives the reader the advantage
of predicting the purpose of the passage, the main topic or the whole message. Finally, skimming
is used when readers’ purpose is to get the general picture or overview of the content of the text.

2.6 .Comprehension Strategies

Research indicates that good readers of all ages engage in conscious active comprehension
strategies before, during, and after reading (Pressley & Wharton-McDonald, 1997). Before
reading, for instance, they may define their goals for reading and consider what they already
know about a topic and the structure of a text. During reading, they typically activate relevant
prior knowledge, make connections among important ideas, construct and test hypotheses,
paraphrase key points, and try to resolve any comprehension difficulties that arise. As they read,
they may make notes in the margins or underline portions of a passage. After reading, they may
reread or skim the passage, summarize it, or take notes.

Good readers often continue to reflect on the meaning of a text long after they have read it.
Finally, good readers use strategies flexibly depending on the type of text they are reading and
their purpose for reading it. Much of the research on reading comprehension has centered on the
question of whether it is possible to improve students’ understanding and recall of texts by

14
explicitly teaching them to implement the strategies that good readers use. The answer is a
resounding “yes.” From their analysis of studies, the National Reading Panel (2000) concluded
that there is solid research support for the following strategies:

2.6.1 .Monitoring Comprehension

This includes a variety of instructional techniques for helping students learn to gauge how well
they understand a passage and to apply “fix-up” strategies for correcting comprehension
problems. The America National Reading Panel (2000) reported that these strategies helped
children throughout the elementary grades become more aware of their comprehension
difficulties. Other evidence indicates that strategies involving comprehension monitoring are
especially helpful for students with learning disabilities (Vaughn et al., 2000).

2.6.2 .Graphic Organizers

Across many studies, graphic organizers have proven to be useful in helping students visualize
relationships among structural elements in a text. Graphic organizers are known by a number of
names, including story maps, concept maps, or semantic organizers. While most of the studies
reviewed by the National Reading Panel (2000) involved students in the upper elementary and
high school grades levels, evidence also indicates that use of graphic organizers as a component
of a comprehension program is helpful for those with learning disabilities (Ae-Hwa et al., 2004),
and students at risk for reading difficulties (Williams, 2005). Much of the research on graphic
organizers has focused on their use as a tool for helping students understand text structure. The
use of graphic organizers is often accompanied by instruction on using “signal words transitional
expressions to identify, for instance, a compare/ contrast or cause/effect framework (e.g.,
Williams, 2005).

2.6.3 .Story structure

Much research on the reading comprehension of students in the upper grades has focused on
teaching strategies for identifying key information in narrative text (Baumann & Bergeron, 1993;
Idol &Croll, 1987). These strategies have typically involved training students to ask themselves

15
questions about the basic components of stories as they read: characters, setting, goals of the
characters, actions taken, and outcome. In some studies, students were taught to record this
information on graphic organizers. The National Reading Panel (2000) found evidence that these
techniques improved comprehension and recall of stories, most notably for poor readers. Most
learners readily internalize the basic form of narratives as they read and listen to stories;
struggling readers, however, are often slower to develop awareness of story structure (Montague,
et al., 1990) and are particularly likely to benefit from explicit instruction.

2.6.4. Answering and generating techniques

Many studies of strategy instruction have focused on teaching students strategies for answering
questions or generating questions of their own before, during, or after reading. Questions help
students actively engage with a text, check their comprehension, and construct memory
representations. From a review of research on strategy instruction that involved question-
generation, Rosenshine et al. (1996) concluded “students at all skills levels would benefit from
being taught these strategies” (p. 201). Question-generation has proven to be an especially
beneficial strategy for students with learning disabilities (Vaughn et al., 2000).

2.6.5 .Summarizing

Summarizing involves identifying the main idea in a paragraph or composing a concise

statement of the central concepts from a longer passage, either orally or in writing. As a strategy
performed either during or after reading, summarizing helps readers to focus on main ideas or
other key skill concepts that have been taught and to disregard less relevant ones. It may
encourage deeper engagement with a text and encourage students to reread as they construct a
summary (Kamil, 2004). Summarizing taught either alone (Armbruster et al., 1987) or as one of
several strategies (Palincsar& Brown, 1984) has been shown to improve comprehension and
memory for what was read (National Reading Panel, 2000). Summarizing is a complex activity
that involves paraphrasing and reorganizing text information. Research indicates that students,
particularly struggling readers, benefit from explicit instruction on identifying main ideas as a
step in the process of constructing a summary (Weisberg and Balajthy, 1990).

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2.6.6. Multiple Strategies

Many studies of strategy instruction have involved a combination of two or more of the above
techniques (Palincsar& Brown, 1984; Pressley et al., 1999). Proficient reading obviously
involves more than use of a single strategy, and a considerable amount of research has
demonstrated the effectiveness of integrating several strategies. The emphasis in multiple
strategy instruction is on adapting strategies and using them flexibly (Kamil, 2004). Many
approaches to multiple strategy instruction such as “reciprocal teaching” (Palincsar& Brown,
1984) include cooperative learning or peer tutoring. Comprehension in Making Connections
incorporates the strategic approaches recommended as vehicles for teaching comprehension
skills.

However, the idea is constantly reinforced that these skills (e.g., Main Idea, Compare and
Contrast, Fact and Opinion) are not to be viewed as ends in themselves but rather are to be used
strategically in the service of comprehension. Units should be organized around a common
theme which provides opportunities for students to make connections among several related
texts. Students often find expository texts with their varying organizational structures more
challenging to read than sequentially organized narrative text (Carlisle & Rice, 2002).

2.6.6.1. Text Making in Connection

The texts in Making Connections represent a range of genres including both narrative and
expository text. Students thus practice applying strategies in a variety of reading situations. The
texts should be well organized and coherent with ideas explicitly linked by signal words and
transitional expressions. When addressing the targeted skills, teachers help students to identify
common discourse structures such as sequencing and cause/effect, and the graphic organizers
included in the Student Books help students visualize these organizational frameworks. The texts

17
provided in Making Connections help students learn to recognize the typical characteristics of
various discourse frameworks and to use this knowledge strategically.

Although “authentic” texts are often not so precisely structured, research suggests that after
practice with carefully crafted, “considerate” texts, students are generally able to apply the
strategies they have learned to other material such as textbooks and trade books (Williams,
2005). The Teacher’s Edition accompanying each level of the program contains recommended
strategic procedures for before, during, and after the reading of each text.

These include activating prior knowledge, establishing a purpose for reading, monitoring
comprehension, generating and answering questions, completing graphic organizers, and
summarizing. One of the features of Making Connections that differentiates it from most other
programs on the market is the emphasis on strategic behavior during reading, especially
monitoring comprehension to identify “trouble spots.” Children are encouraged to interact with
the text and each other by circling unfamiliar words and phrases as they read, in an attempt to
resolve these comprehension difficulties.

The constant reinforcement that students receive to think strategically as they reflect on
previously read texts in the Background Knowledge part of a lesson, as well as on all the texts in
a unit via a feature called Text Connections, should help prepare them to view all reading tasks
as problem-solving opportunities. There is support for combining multiple strategies students
have learned and adapting them for different reading purposes.

Vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are strongly related. This is true at all grade
levels and in all languages throughout the world, (Anderson &Freebody, 1983).

2.6.6.2. Word Consciousness

There are several groups of students for whom vocabulary development should be a priority.
These include students with language-based learning disabilities, those from underprivileged
backgrounds, and those learning English as a second language. Students with language
impairments or learning disabilities usually have a more difficult time acquiring new vocabulary
than their normally achieving peers (McGregor, 2004). On entering school, children from

18
different socioeconomic backgrounds differ widely in their exposure to language in the home, in
the size of their vocabularies, (Hart &Risely, 1995; Snow et al., 1998), and in the extent of their
world knowledge (Neuman, 2001). It is typical for students who are in the process of learning
English to have limited second language vocabulary (Calderón et al., 2005), an obstacle that
adversely affects their reading comprehension. It is estimated that, on average, children learn
about 3,000 new words per year during their school years (Nagy & Anderson, 1984). Because
this number is far more words than can possibly be taught directly, it is assumed that children
learn most new words incidentally through exposure to oral and written language; therefore,
direct teaching of vocabulary is unnecessary. Teachers can foster incidental word learning by
ensuring that students have frequent encounters with words, especially words that they are likely
to encounter in a variety of contexts (Beck et al., 2002).

Vocabulary in Making Connections Beck et al. (2002), suggest that words can be categorized
into three groups. On one extreme are high-frequency words that most children of a given age
probably already know. On the other extreme are low-frequency words. The above scholars
suggested that vocabulary instruction is most productive when teachers select what Stahl and
Stahl (2004) have termed “Goldilocks words”—those that fall between the two extremes and are
likely to be encountered in many different contexts. The texts created for Making Connections
contain a rich assortment of such words and sufficient context clues for children to infer their
meanings. The texts represent a variety of genres and content areas to help children expand their
fund of general knowledge and related vocabulary.

A strategic approach to vocabulary development is encouraged at every level of Making

Connections. Fluency in Making Connections Lessons for Making Connections includes the
rereading of texts for two key purposes. The first purpose requires that students reread to
identify/ underline the key ideas for the target skill. The second recommends that students reread
a text with the specific goal of increasing speed and reading with appropriate phrasing and
expression. The Teacher’s Edition contains ideas for using teacher modeling and peer-mediated
activities to help children build both fluency and automatic word recognition.

2.6.6.3 .Repeated Reading

19
A consistent research finding is that while repeated readings certainly lead to improved fluency
and comprehension of a specific passage, the overall impact on reading skills is somewhat less
robust (Therrien, 2004). Rashotte and Torgesen (1985) found that the extent to which the
benefits of repeated readings of one passage transferred to other passages depended on the
number of words the passages had in common. Because the units in Making Connections are
organized around a common theme or topic, the texts within the unit share some terminology.
This feature may help facilitate the development of automatic word recognition and fluency by
giving children repeated exposure to words. Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Decoding
Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to isolate, identify, and manipulate the individual
sounds— phonemes—in spoken words. While phonemic awareness is certainly not the only
important factor in learning to read (Scarborough, 2005).

To summarize the above literature review, text comprehension is a complicated process.

Many aspects of reading need to be considered, such as word perception and inference making
for a text comprehension process to happen. This shows that reading and understanding is a
different process where learners have to engage in a process before they can understand a piece
of reading material. The problem is much bigger for reading in second or foreign language
because not all of the learners have the sufficient vocabulary to understand apiece of second or
foreign language reading materials. The scholars also put forward different reasons for poor
reading comprehension and comprehension strategies.

Thus, to improve the effectiveness of students’ reading comprehension, one should identify
students’ problem and forward appropriate strategies to be implemented by the students to
improve their reading comprehension.

2.7. Assessment of Reading comprehension

2.7.1. Teacher Related Factors

Teacher related problems are more of professional matters. For example, teachers’ failure to
activate learners’ schemata leads to students reading difficulty (Grabe, 1991). This strengthens
the idea that most teachers are uncertain about helping about with language preparation

20
(Williams, 1984). According to him, they also lack knowledge for selecting or devising reading
comprehension tasks. Besides, their excess help inhibits students from developing the necessary
reading skills. Over simplification increases students’ dependency rather than independency
(Nuttall, 1982). Briefly, teachers ’little idea about how to teach reading comprehension yields
students reading comprehension (Dean, 2000).

Once teachers understand what is involved in comprehending and how the factors of reader, text,
and context interact to create meaning, they can more easily teach their students to be effective
readers. Teachers can support their student to become competent comprehension by teaching
decoding skills, help students build fluency, build and activate background knowledge, teach
vocabulary words, motivate students, and engage them in personal responses to text.

In order to comprehend, readers must be able to read the words. Some level of automatic
decoding must be present so that short-term memory can work on comprehending, not on
decoding, words. Teachers help students get to this level of automatic decoding by providing
instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics at all grade levels. If students put too much
mental energy into sounding out the words, they will have less mental energy left to think about
the meaning. While teachers in the intermediate grades work with phonemic awareness and
phonics, teachers in high school level support students’ continued development of automatic
decoding through guessing words from the context and high frequency word activities.
Background knowledge is also an important factor for creating meaning, and teachers should
help students activate prior knowledge before reading so that information connected with
concepts or topics in the text is more easily accessible during reading (Keene & Zimmermann,
1997; Miller, 2002). If students do not have adequate background knowledge, teachers can help
students build the appropriate knowledge. Duke (2003) suggested that one way to add to world
knowledge is to use informational books with all students. By using information books, students
build world knowledge so that they will have the appropriate information to activate at a reading
time. Teachers also support students’ acquisition of world knowledge by establishing and
maintaining a rich, literate environment, full of texts that provide students with numerous
opportunities to learn content in a wide variety of topics. Another way teachers help students
build background knowledge is to create visual or graphic organizers that help students to see not
only new concepts but also how previously known concepts are related and connected to the new

21
ones (Keene & Zimmermann, 1997; Miller, 2002). Teachers should teach students how to make
text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections so that readers can more easily
comprehend the texts they read.

2.7.2 .Student related Factors

Although it varies for each student, a number of factors can interfere with reading
comprehension. Beside school and home related factors for poor reading comprehension, the
learners are a factor for the effectiveness of reading comprehension outcomes.

According to different researchers of the field: example, Linda Balsiger

(www.bendlanguageandlearning.com), and Gough and Tunmer (1986) the following points can
be categorized.

2.7.2.1. Weak Decoding Skills

Decoding means the ability to exploit regularities in the mapping between words and their
alphabetical representation (Bruck, 1990). Many students who appear to have basic decoding
skills suffer from poor reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is the ability to derive
meaning from written material, for a variety of text formats. For expository fact based text,
readers should be able to identify the main idea and supporting details. For literary texts, students
are expected to identify elements such as characters and character traits, setting, plot, climax and
resolution. Other concepts that are important for decoding skill are; cause-effect, compare-
contrast, opinion verses fact, derivation of meaning from context and influence (or decoding
between the lines).

Many students appear to have basic decoding skills, but are actually weak in many of the
underlying fundamentals. When they reach secondary school, their decoding skills cannot keep
pace with the written material they are required to read. They may guess at words based on word,
or the context of the story. Poor reading accuracy results in misread or omitted words, which can
change the meaning of sentences and interfere with reading comprehension. In addition, as
reading material becomes increasing fatiguing and there are fewer resources remaining to drive
meaning from text. However, when we see in the targeted school students might have such

22
problem. Failing to use his skill in reading is meant, failing the full understanding of the text.
Therefore, students should know the basic decoding skills for understanding of what they read in
proper way.

Prosody means reading with intonation, inflection, and appropriate phrasing (pausing at commas
as ‘reaching periods’). When readers run sentences together and read without appropriate
prosody, it is difficult for them to ‘chunk’ the language for meaning. For comprehension purpose
sentences should be read correctly so that they sound similar to spoken language.

Literacy skills are based up on the foundations built by spoken language and consequently oral
and written language are intimately connected. Considerable research supports the simple view
of reading namely that reading comprehension is the product of two key skills: oral
comprehension and the ability to decode individual written words in text (Gough, Hoover, and
Peterson, 1996). While decoding is a process unique to reading, the above researchers maintain
that the comprehension process is common to both spoken language and reading.

Thus, according to the above scholars, students need skills of prosody to understand the text in
the way as if they read the correct form of speaking. The reader must familiar with reading
ability before knowing the meaning. But from the researcher experience many students have
difficulties in reading itself.

2.7.2.2. Weak Language Processing Skills

Some students have weak language skills for higher-level language syntax. In higher grades,
written syntax becomes longer and more complex-with elements such as embedded phrases,
pronoun, referents, and passive tenses. Students with weak language skill “lose” the meaning of
the sentences when the syntax becomes complex, and have difficulty parsing and linking the
different parts of the sentence.

2.7.2.3. Vocabulary

After elementary school, vocabulary growth occurs largely through reading. As study shows,
children’s books contain 25 less common words for every 1000 written words. Weak readers

23
typically read less frequently. As vocabulary lags, more unknown words are encountered,
reading becomes progressively more difficult. This sheer vocabulary size has been associated
with reading and achievement for nearly a century (Pearson et al., 2007), and most reading
comprehension studies operational vocabulary knowledge with vocabulary breadth measures.

In terms of vocabulary students’ needs not only the knowledge of the word: pronunciation,
spelling, meaning, and the feature of words (e.g. noun, adjective and verb) storing large
members of words in mind, but also ,as Kieffer (2007) states that students should be able to
contextualize the vocabulary terms they have read and understand. Students can be encouraged
to make connections between words and their own knowledge and experience.

Such instruction is aimed not just at teaching new words but also at helping students think and
talk about language to promote “word consciousness” (Nagy, 2005). Baumann and his
colleagues (Baumann et al., 2005) explored using explicit strategy instruction to teach students to
knowledge of word parts (prefixes, suffixes, and root words) and various use types of context
clues to infer the meaning of new words. This approach enabled the students not only to learn
and remember words taught in the lessons, but also to apply these strategies to infer the
meanings of new words.

2.7.2.4. Memory

Reading for comprehension requires the ability to hold information in memory across sentences
in order to derive over all meaning from a paragraph or a passage, concepts from multiple
paragraphs must be retained in memory and linked together. Students with memory weakness
have difficult “holding” information in memory as they read, and may not be perceive how
paragraphs build up on ideas or how ideas are linked together. One of the researchers in the
field, Numminen (2002, p98), states the following.

Memory and reading are in close interaction with each other. Insufficient working memory
capacity or poorly organized long-term memory can cause, for example, difficulties with reading
or reading comprehension. The target groups of plain language may have specific memory-
related difficulties which increase the challenge of reading.

24
Therefore, if students fail to understand reading comprehension, one of the reason could be their
ability to memorize words is poor and some strategies are very important.

2.7.2.5. Lack of Active Processing

Some students have excellent decoding skills but are not actively processing the material they
read. They need to learn to actively engage with written material through techniques such as
wondering, predicting, clarifying, linking ideas, relating materials, to their own life experience,
and visually picturing scenes in a story or passage.

Students may not be able to understand reading passages because of several reasons. Ellis and
Tomlinson (1980) identify several causes for failures in understanding passages such as: luck of
familiarity with certain types of writing, misreading the written words and thinking that he or she
has seen one word when in fact it is different word printed in the text. Giving a word meaning to
lexical item i.e. misunderstanding the meaning of a word, misunderstanding structural meaning
of a word such as, either …or, neither….nor, almost, to some extent, partly and however etc.
additionally, students found it difficult to appreciate the organization of a text and to relate the
ideas with in the text.

Bad reading habits can also affect comprehending reading passages. According to Nuttall
(1982:37) some of the bad habits of the slow reader are: Practicing comprehension lesson as a
means of improving the learners’ written work. Accuracy in a written work is the main aim of
the structure lesson not the comprehension lesson. So, the concern of the teacher in a
comprehension lesson should be with, whether the learner, has understood the meaning rather
than with correcting grammatical mistakes.

2.7.3 .Text Related Factors

If a text is difficult to understand, it is consider the reading comprehension. What makes a

reading text difficult? To throw some light on the question Nuttall (1982) examines some text
that many people would find difficult and suggests three situations in which the difficulty of the
text can be revealed:

25
(1) A text is difficult if a reader is not familiar with the code in which it has been expressed;

(2) the difficulty can be related to the amount of previous knowledge that readers brings to the
text; and (3) the difficulty can be seen in the complexity of the concepts expressed.

Nuttal (1982) states texts with lack of exercises on inferences may aggravate difficulties in
reading. Besides this, Wallase (1992) suggests that this practice emphasizes the pedagogic nature
of texts over their authenticity. Texts which do not let students practice such skills halt the
development of their reading comprehension. Then the reading will be poor reading
comprehension.

Harmer (2001) reflects that comprehension difficulty comes from the words used in texts. For
instance, long words will have contributions to reading difficulty. Nuttal (1982) has strengthened
the above idea by supporting that idioms, words with several meaning, metaphors, irony and
jargons also make texts ambiguous. Similarly, sentences may cause reading difficulty. As Nuttal
(1996) and Harmer (2001) said that long sentences could be difficult to understand while
reading. Meanwhile, like long sentences, complex sentences may also hinder the ability to
understand what they read even if the words in a text are easily understandable (Ellis and
Tomlinson, 1980: Nuttal 1996). These writers add on that this complexity will be prevalent with
subordinate and coordinate structures. Therefore, texts which are overloaded with these
structures may not be clear and easily understandable to the reader.

On the other hand (Ulijin and Storther, 1999: Allderson, 2000) say texts which are in over
unfamiliar topics in a text hinder comprehension. In addition these texts, the texts with abstract
or obscured information may be vague and caused difficulty to the reader. Lastly, the quality of
the comprehension questions, in this regard is a factor that brings difficulty in reading. The
problem occurs when the questions emphasize testing and if they are inappropriately set, then the
quality of the quality of the question will be ‘questionable’ (Grant, 1987).

26
 CHAPTER THREE
3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research Design

The major aim of this study is to find out the students’ EFL reading comprehension problems of
grade 10 students at Abay minch general and secondary school, the researcher will use
descriptive research design which aims to get data about the current status of event. Researcher
will use mixed type of research method and it allows researchers to use both qualitative and
quantitative approach (Creswell, 2009). There upon, this mixed research approach will be
employed since using both qualitative and quantitative will be helpful to address the research
questions properly. In other words, mixed method will be used because the research questions
designed will not be answered using either qualitative or quantitative alone

27
3.2. Participants of the Study

The total number of grade 10 students in Abay Minch general and secondary school is 960; from
this 487 are male students and 473 are female students. These 960 students are placed into
sixteen sections, in the academic year of 2013 E.C. And also, there are only 4 secondary English
language teachers to all grade 10 students. And also, there are only 4 secondary English language
teachers to all grade 10 students

3.3. Sample Size and Sampling Techniques

Because this research proposal will use mixed research method, the researcher will need to use
different sampling techniques. For the quantitative research, 80 students will be selected from the
population of 960 students by simple random sampling. This simple random sampling method
will help the researcher to give equal chance for students and to get relevant information for the
research through closed ended questionnaire.

In Gish Abay town, there are two Secondary and one Preparatory school. From the two schools,
Abay Minch general and Secondary School will be selected by comprehensive sampling method
as the researcher is working there as an English language teacher, the school is found near to the
researcher.

In this school, there are 16 sections at grade 10 and four EFL grade 10 language teachers. The
researcher takes the aforementioned number of students so as to make the study manageable and
effective. And also, all sixteen sections have been through with 4 English language teachers.
These 4 teachers will be selected through comprehensive sampling technique since the number
of teachers manageable.

3.4. Data Gathering Instruments

28
The data will be collected through three tools of data gathering namely; questionnaire,
observation and interview. Then the data will be classified and analyzed based on mixed
approaches of data analyzing (i.e. quantitative and qualitative approaches.)

3.4.1. Questionnaires

Questionnaire is the most widely used technique for obtaining information from subjects under
study. A questionnaire is relatively economical, has the same questions for all subjects.

This study aims to explore students’ EFL reading comprehension problem. In adapting the
questionnaire, the researcher will make a slight modification making the language easy and
bringing it to the level of high school standard. This questionnaire will use to obtain a self-report
data on students’ EFL reading comprehension problem.

The questionnaires will be adapting in the form of a five-point Likert Scale by considering
the students’ English language ability to make the questionnaires easy to understand. The
questionnaire will be using to collect data on the students’ use of the students’ EFL reading
comprehension learning. This questionnaire will include items in which each item has five
possible responses: always, usually, sometimes, rarely and never. A maximum of 30 items
questionnaires will be adapted to identify reading comprehension problem the employed by high
school students.

3.4.2. Classroom observation

Researcher to collect data about students’ EFL reading comprehension problem, classroom
observation will use the major data gathering tool because it study fact at close variety with
many of the present context about the problems of reading comprehension problem and to
examine fact while it go on and to obtain challenges of reading comprehension. To this point,
Lewy (1979:163) explained that “Observation is useful to indicate how the lesson is divided in a
variety of activities.” Similarly, Selinger and Shohamy (1989) have point out that “observation
is most often used in foreign language learning research to collect data on how learners use
language in a variety of settings, to study language learning and teaching process in the
classroom.” Thus, the researcher will use observation checklist to assess the students’ EFL

29
reading comprehension problem. It is directly will observe in the classroom. Therefore, the 4
English teachers will observe once while students learning students’ EFL reading comprehension
skills and every activity will carefully record by checklist.

3.4.3. Interview

To get Views about how to assess students EFL reading comprehension problem, the researcher
employed semi- structured interview. Selinger and Shohamy (1989) state that the use of
interview as a data collection instrument permits a level of in-depth information, free response
and flexibility that cannot be obtained by other procedures. A semi-structured interview used to
collect related information from 3 English teachers. Unfortunately, one teacher will not interview
from the four sampled population. The interview questions will be employed as it allowed a
wider freedom to ask future questions and it will help to control the direction of the interview to
obtain the desired data. The necessary ideas about the reading comprehension problem will
discuss. In doing, checklists will use. Every activities and teachers’ response will record.

3.5. Data Collection Procedures

In this research study, the data will collect in the following procedures. Firstly, classroom
observation will approve out in classrooms. So, the factors that affect students EFL reading
comprehension will identify. Then, the questionnaire will administer to 80 students. Lastly, semi-
structured interview will conduct with 3 English language teachers.

3.6. Method of Data Analysis

In order to assess on the challenges of students EFL reading comprehension and data gather
through classroom observation, questionnaire and semi-structured interview will analyz and
discuss by using both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. First, statistical tools
such as percentage will use to analyze and tabulate closed-ended questionnaire. Then, data which
will obtain through open-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interview and classroom

30
observation will analyze interpret and discuss qualitatively. The methods will complement one
another and the data with similar categories will organize thematically with triangulation
methods

CHAPTER FOUR

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, based on the objective of the study and the nature of the methodology employed
in the study, findings of the research instruments are presented and discussed.

As already mentioned under the method of data collection in chapter three, each of the data
collection instrument was used to address the leading research questions raised under the
objectives of the study in different ways. For example, the questionnaires were answered by
students, the interview questions were answered by teachers and classroom observation was
completed by the researcher to address the broad question, that is, “what are the factors that
affect students’ reading comprehension?”

4.1. Difficulty of Reading Comprehension

In this subcategory, it is aimed to indicate how students feel about themselves and how teachers
feel about their students’ difficulty of reading comprehension through using English language.

When students were asked about the difficulty level of reading comprehension, 11 (16.17%)
students responded that reading comprehension is always easy and other 17 (25%) students
replied that reading comprehension is mostly easy. But on the contrary 18 (26.47%) and 22
(32.35%) students replied that reading comprehension is always difficult and mostly difficult
respectively. However, to the same general questions, two teachers responded that reading was

31
always difficult for their students and four teachers answered that the difficult level of their
students’ reading comprehension was ‘mostly difficult’.

From the result of Table1, it is clear that most of the students encounter reading comprehension
problem. This means low performance in students’ reading comprehension can have direct
negative impact in their total education result. As Cross, (1990) described, much of the success
of the students in school and in later life depends up on how well they can read, and how well
they can use the meanings which they have gained from their reading situation. Teachers’
response also indicated that the problem is real and tangible. It is not difficult to guess as they
were facing this challenge in their every reading lesson teaching. When we compare students’
and teachers’ responses, less than half of total students’ reply failed under ‘reading
comprehension is always easy or mostly easy’. But when we look teachers’ response not one
teacher dared to reply the same as that of the above students. This is because teachers were
answering about their students as a whole and students’ reply was based only about himself/
himself

4.2. Factors Related to Students

Under this section, one of the factors (student related factors) and the possible components, like
interest to learn the language, fear of reading in the class and others that affect reading
comprehension are presented and discussed.

Table 1 Students’ response on factors related to students.

1 Factors Agree Disagree

M F T % M F T %

1. Reading is difficult skill than 25 16 41 51.4% 20 19 39 48.6%

1 other skills

32
 1. I am afraid to read passage in the
2 class. 15 20 35 42.6% 25 20 45 57.4%
1. I don’t have interest in learning 2 2 4 5% 35 41 76 95%
3 English language
1. The possibility I have to join 6 9 15 22% 35 30 65 78%
4 university/college is very low
1. Grammar is more important than 20 20 40 50% 18 22 40 50%
5 reading comprehension
1. I don’t know reading strategies 30 20 50 80% 17 13 30 30%
6 and techniques

Note: M= Male, F= Female and T= Total

Regarding reading, 41 students (51.4 %) answered that they think reading skill was a difficult
skill than other skills, and 39 students (48.6%) students responded that they disagree that reading
skill is more difficult than other skills. When teachers were asked these questions, all 4 teachers
responded that students certainly found the reading skill difficult. When students were asked
whether they were afraid of reading text in the class, 35 students which is 42.6%, responded that
they are afraid of reading in the class. The other 45 students (57.4%) disagreed. Concerning the
belief of students if grammar is more important than reading skill 40 (50%) of the students
responded that they think that the knowledge of grammar is more important than reading skill.
But 40 students, (50%) of the total students responded that the knowledge of grammar is not
more important than reading skill.

Regarding whether students know reading strategies and reading techniques, 50 students (80%)
responded that they do not have the knowledge of the reading strategies and reading techniques
to understand the reading passages. On the other hand, only 30 students (20%) responded that
they have the knowledge of how to read the text by using different reading strategies and reading
techniques. On the other hand, students’ response for the interest of learning the English
language, and to the possibility of joining the university was 4 and 15 students respectively. In
language teachers’ ‘Appendix B’ interview. Appendixes B, three teachers responded that
students have no interest to learn English language was ‘very’ greatly’ and the other one teacher
response was ‘sometimes’. For students’ lack of interest to go further in their education, three

33
teachers responded very greatly and the other one teacher responded sometimes. It is possible to
deduce from the table 4 that student related factors contribute largely to the whole problem. For
example, if a student thinks reading skill is difficult than others skills (listening, writing and
speaking), it is the starting point of the problem. Language skills are integrated with each other.
Besides this, the majority students believed that the knowledge of grammar is more important
than reading skill. The researcher himself was facing this challenge from his students. Even if the
respondents’ numbers of the students are not many, some students have no interest to learn
English language and others have no hope to join higher education. This means that these
students do not have motivation to develop their reading ability. According to Mc Cormic and
Pressely (1997: 267) in describing reading interest and reading ability improvement say that,
“one of the reasons good readers are proficient readers is that they read so much: A great deal of
reading to the point of automaticity.” People who have great interest preserve with reading as
reading interest is a driving motivational force that leads to improvement in reading proficiency.

4.3. Factors related to school (textbook, teachers and library)

In this subtopic the other factor related to school, such as students’ English textbook, English
teachers and library are presented. Responses by students and teachers are also presented and
analyzed.

Table.2. Students’ response to factors related to school. (Text, teacher and library)

2 Factors Related to School (text, Agree Disagree

M F T % M F T %
teacher, and library
2. The passages have difficult 3 29 59 73.75 1 11 21 26.25%
1 vocabularies. 0 % 0
2. Textbooks are available on time. 3 34 70 87.5% 6 4 10 12.5%
2 6
2. The titles of the passages are 2 13 33 41.25 2 24 47 58.75%
3 attractive (relevance). 1 % 3
2. English teacher is good at 2 26 50 62.5% 1 12 30 37.5%
4 teaching reading comprehension 4 8
2. There are enough books in the 2 18 41 51.25 2 19 39 48.75%
5 school library to improve 3 % 0

34
 reading.
2. Teachers are motivating us for 1 10 28 35% 2 23 52 65%
6 reading equally as other skills. 8 9
2. The passages are difficult to 1 26 45 56.25 1 18 35 43.75%
7 understand. 9 % 7

From the above table, concerning the difficulty of vocabulary in the passage 59 (73.75) students
responded that the passages in the textbook have difficult vocabularies, and 21 (26.25%) students
responded that the passages have no difficult vocabulary. Again for the question of difficulties
of passage in the book, 45 (56.25%) students answered ‘agree’ for the difficulty the passage in
their textbook and the rest 35 students (43.75%) did not agree.

Concerning the availability of textbook for students on time, 70 (87.5 %) of the students replied
‘agree’ and the rest 10 students responded ‘disagree’. On the other hand, for the title
attractiveness of the passage 47(58.75%) disagreed and the rest 33 (41.25%) students agreed.

When students were asked if teachers are good in teaching reading comprehension, 50 students
(62.5%) answered positively, but 30 students (37.5%) responded negatively.

Regarding the shortage of comprehension books in the library, 39 students (48.75%) responded
that there are enough books, but the rest 41 students (51.25%) responded that comprehension
books found in the library are not enough. According to the response obtained from the
participant in table1, there were factors that were found affecting students’ reading ability.

These are the difficulty of vocabulary and the relevance of the title in the textbook. If there are
many new words found in the text students’ understanding of the passage will be limited.

When teachers were interviewed about their using the strategies that should be used in the
reading skill, these were the responses given by T1, T2, T3 and T4

From the four teacher respondents, one teacher replied according to the level of understanding of
the students it was very difficult to go through all the strategy and techniques, so even if he tried,

35
he could not get good accomplishment. (T3). But the only one teacher answered this question
positively and said;

Yes, I usually use all stages of reading during reading lesson. These are pre-reading,
while- reading and post –reading. In addition, I teach all reading techniques like skimming,
scanning like, intensive and sometimes extensive reading.

In each passage, I encourage students to read the passage by using different techniques and guess
the meaning of words from the context (T4). The other three teachers replied ”No”, and their
reasons were, the classroom was not comfortable because of large number of students in one
section or class and there was no access to apply all techniques at once.(T4). The other reasons
given by the teachers for not teaching reading technique and reading strategies was that the
students were not interested while they were teaching reading comprehension (T1and T2) and
there was shortage of time to complete the ‘large volume’ of textbook in the given time(T1).
From the teachers’ response one can understand that teachers did not give much attention for
teaching their students how to use reading techniques and reading strategy for better
understanding of the text. Research indicated that, good readers of all ages engage in conscious
active comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading (Pressley & Wharton-
McDonald, 1997). But teachers’ responses reflected that they did not concern to apply reading
the strategies and techniques and the problem become more difficult. One of the reasons students
do not manage with the book is that, majority students’ ability and average knowledge to
understand the book is not balanced. In addition to this when teachers were interviewed, all
teachers (4) replied that shortage of vocabulary was a great factor that affects their students’
reading comprehension.

4.4. Factors related to outside school

In this subcategory factors related to outside schools like students’ availability of time to read
books, the accessibility of additional books at home to improve their reading and good
foundation of English language at lower grade and students’ family help to develop their reading
are presented and analyzed.

Table.3 Students’ response for factors related to outside school.

36
 No. Factors related to outside school Agree Disagree

M F T % M F T %

3.1 I have enough time to read English books 15 2 3 43.75% 3 15 4 56.25%

0 5 0 5

3.2 There are other materials, English books in 10 1 2 27.5% 3 28 5 72.5%

my home and I read them. 2 2 0 8

3.3 I have good foundation of English 20 1 3 45% 2 20 4 55%

language in my previous grades. 6 6 4 4

3.4 I get enough help from my family 19 1 3 46.25% 2 23 4 53.75%

concerning reading 8 7 0 3

From the above table 3, regarding having enough time to read books, 35 students
(43.75%)responded that they have enough time to read books and 45 (56.25%) of the respondent
answered that they do not have enough time to read English books. Next to the time factor,
students were asked if there are books written by English language and whether they read they
read these materials or not, only 22 students (27.5%) agreed for the accessibility of extra books
found in their home and they read them. But the majority number of the respondents, 58(72.5%)
replied there were no books to read in their home. When students were asked if they had good
foundation of English language in previous grades, 45% and 55% responded “agree” and
“disagree” respectively. Lastly regarding getting enough help from their family, 46.25% of them
responded that they agreed, 53.75% of the respondents disagreed.

From the students’ response of factors related to outside school, the shortage of time is the one
that affect students reading ability, it is very clear that students need time to do their home work
and to study, but most students in our area (which is almost rural) spend their time by helping
their family especially girls, they are expected to do more.

37
The reading process requires continuous practice, development and refinement. Reading is a
highly interactive phenomenon (Carrel, et al.1997). This interaction takes place through the
activity of reading.

The second point of the students’ response was the availability of other material which is written
by English. The result was not good. In order to improve someone’s reading ability, the variety
of the material is very important to motivate reading, and to arouse the interest of readers
knowing more in different fields.

The other important issue revealed by the above table was the students’ reply about their English
language foundation in their previous grade. As the data shows the majority of students believed
that, they had not foundation in English language at their previous grades.

Some teachers stated in their interview that, students’ problem in reading comprehension was
students’ poor foundation in lower grades. A cumulative understanding and knowledge of the
reading skill will make students to read more and be successful in their academic result. But
unfortunately this could not happen. When we see students’ response in case of family help,
again there is a problem. As we can understand one problem is directly or indirectly bound with
another problem. If the students’ families help by guiding how to read and understand passage,
giving advice to overcome challenges that come through English language and support by
providing different English language written materials, the problem can be reduced. Findings
suggest that one of the best ways to help students to increase their ability in other language skills
is through giving them appropriate time to practice reading. However, most parents are not aware
this and students are left alone with their problem. Finally we can conclude that outside school
related factors are one of the major factors that hinder students from reading the passage with
understanding.

The back ground of their family related with the habit of reading also has its own role. The effect
of such activity becomes apparent when the reading interest of those who grow up in literate
family is compared with that of students who grow up in illiterate family. A student with literate
family has a lot of opportunities to get in developing reading interest. Some of the advantages
such students may get are that literate parents may assist their children to read different
materials; they may themselves read in front of their children and tell stories. Such practices may

38
 inspire these students to develop reading interest. Moreover, because of the awareness of the
importance of reading parents may put different reading materials to be read at home. As a result,
there may be found different reading materials. But in the above table we cannot get this.

Table 4 Teachers’ responses about their students’ reading comprehension.

No Teachers’ response Very Sometimes Rarely Never

greatly

4.1 Students are unable to read words 1 3 ---- -----

(passage) correctly.

4.2 Shortage of vocabulary. 4 ---- --- ----

4.3 Lack of the knowledge of grammar. 3 1 --- ---

4.4 Students lack of interest to go further in their 3 1 --- ----

education.

4.5 Students lack of motivation for English 1 3 --- ----

language.

4.6 Shortage of books in the school library to 3 1 1 ---

promote reading.

4.7 Students’ fewer attitudes for reading skill than 3 1 --- ---
grammar.

4.8 Students’ poor foundation of reading 3 1 --- ---

comprehension in their lower grade

4.9 Lack of parental help in providing English 3 --- 1 ---

books

When teachers were asked if students are unable to read words (passages) correctly, two
teachers answered “very greatly” and one teacher responded “sometimes”. Regarding to
students’ shortage of vocabulary, all four teachers responded that the problem was seen
very greatly. Concerning students’ lack of the knowledge of grammar, three teachers

39
responded that the problem is seen very greatly and one teacher said ‘some times’.
Regarding to lack of students interest to go further in their education, three teachers
responded that ‘very greatly’ and only one teacher answered sometimes. For do students
lack motivation for English language, one teacher answered, “very greatly” and the rest
three teachers answered “sometimes”. Concerning shortage of books in the school library
to promote reading, three teachers responded very greatly and one teacher answered rarely.
When teachers were asked if students’ attitude is lesser for reading skill than grammar,
three teachers answered vary greatly and the other one teacher answered sometimes. In
other question, when teachers were asked if they believe students had poor foundation of
reading comprehension in their lower grade, three teachers answered ‘very greatly’, and
the other teacher answered sometimes. Finally if there is lack of parental help in providing
English books, three teachers answered for ‘very high’ and the rest one teacher responded
‘rarely’.

When teachers were interviewed about if there are other factors for students reading
comprehension, the teachers’ response was; yes there are different hindrances, such as
students’ lack of interest towards the reading skill and lack of motivation (T1 and T2).
Another teacher stated that the other major factor for this problem was students’ mother
tongue interference which causes pronunciation problems and lack of background
knowledge to what they read (T4). Shyness, fear of mistake, burden of home work to help
their family especially for female students, unfavorable reading condition at home and
financial problem to buy extra books (T4 and T2) Teachers were also asked what measures
they think should be taken to correct this problem. And the following were their answers:
(T1, T2, T3 and T4).

The reading text in students’ book should be more attractive and manageable to cover and
evaluate their reading skill. (T1)

Two others teachers replied that, focusing on convincing and motivating students to have
positive outlook concerning the skill and helping students to practice according to the
instruction in the textbook will help them improve their students’ reading skill.

40
For this, the role of teacher must be increased. They should help their students by deciding
which reading texts from the book to read and modify based on the level of their students.
Two teachers indicated that informing students to practice independent reading at their
home,(T3 and T4) was also necessary. Another teacher’s response underlined the
responsibility of the community at large to facilitate the library with appropriate books.

The solution of this problem may not be started from the school grant level so the
government, the community and the family together with teacher must co-operate and
facilitate every necessary thing in order to wards such and such problems. Encourage
students to read more by all bodies, to use library and abilities to access and organize
information. Open modern library with enough books. Teachers should play a great role to
develop reading skills. Motivate students to use internet and others. We have to create
good reading habit (culture) among all learners, (T2 andT3).From the above teachers’
response one can understand that students reading problem was deep up to unable to read
words correctly and shortage of vocabularies. Furthermore, students’ lack of interest in
reading may made worse the situation. Since motivation of the learner is very crucial for
learning by itself. According to Grellet (1981), being motivated means that students start
reading the text prepared to find a number of things in it, expecting to find answers to a
number of question and specific information or idea.

Another thing raised by the teachers was students’ poor foundation of reading
comprehension which greatly affected students not to cope with the students’ present
textbook and the exercises found in it. Finally teachers’ response and the data found from
the students were almost similar.

5. Data from Classroom Observation

In this subtopic the researcher’s classroom observation is presented. The observation took
place for 4 English teachers. Each teacher was observed twice when he taught reading
comprehension. The checklist points were prepared in order to crosscheck the data given
by the students and teachers. The points were mainly focused on how teachers were using

41
reading strategies and techniques in terms of teaching reading comprehension and
students’ participation.

Table 5 4= Very good, 3= Good 2= Fair 1= Poor

No Check list points 4 3 2 1

5.1 The teacher motivated students to read the passage. 1 2 1 --
5.2 The teacher helped students to use reading strategies. - 2 2 -
5.3 There are enough student textbooks in the classroom. 1 3 - 1
5.4 Comprehension questions are done as class work or given as a 2 1 1 -
home work.
5.5 Most Students are tried to participate in reading or answering - 1 1 3
Questions.
5.6 Students’ exercise books are checked by the teacher for the - 1 1 2
answer of comprehension Questions.
5..7 Students showed interest in learning new vocabulary. 1 1 2 -
5.8 Students have got chance to read the passage. 1 1 2 -
5.9 The teacher wrote the meaning of new word on the 1 1 1 1
blackboard.
5.10 The teacher checked students’ work. 1 1 1 1

The researcher observed the class twice for each English teacher while they had class for
reading comprehension. From the above data regarding teachers’ motivation for students,
one teacher’s way of motivating was very good and other two teachers were good and one
was fair. In helping students to use reading strategies, three teachers were not good in
helping students to use reading strategies except for two teachers; three teachers were not
good in applying the usage of reading strategies. When we come to whether there were
enough students’ textbooks in the class, “one teacher was very good , in that, the teacher
made sure that all students bring their textbooks to the class and there was at least one
textbook on each desk. The other three teachers were good, in that, there were a few
students who brought their textbooks. But, one teacher’s class was poor because there were
less than ten textbooks for more than fifty students. Regarding the participation of students
in reading the passage or answering comprehension questions, the researcher observed that
in three teachers’ classes the participation of the students was very poor, one class was

42
good and the other was fair. On the other hand students’ exercise books were checked by
two teachers at least once a week and were good, and one teacher was fair, but the other
two teachers were almost poor in checking their students’ exercise books. They only
checked two or three times in three months of time for comprehension questions and other
activities.

In the other two classes students showed their interest to learn new vocabularies by asking
the meaning of new words and wrote in their exercise books when they are told. And in the
other two classes were good. Regarding the chance students got to read the passage, three
teachers were very good in giving chance for those who raised their hand and equally for
boys and girls. The other teacher was good and another was fair. About writing the
meaning of new words on the blackboard, one teacher was very good, two were good, but
one teacher was poor. For classroom observation the last point was whether teachers check
students’ work in the class. One teacher was very good, the other two were good, but the
other teacher was poor because he only stood near the blackboard all the period while he
gave class work for students.

From the above teachers’ responses and class observations, it was found that most teachers
did not give much attention for the students to use reading technique and reading
strategies. If teachers are neglecting these important skills, students also will have the same
understanding about the necessity of using strategies and techniques. The other point the
researcher observed was also that the students have the problem of reading words with
their correct pronunciations and tones. This may show the interference of their mother
tongue and lack of continuous correction from the teachers.

43
 CHAPTER FIVE

5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter consists of the summary, conclusions, and recommendations. In this section,
first, a summary of the study and the major findings are made. Second, conclusions of the
fundamental findings are drawn. Lastly, some possible recommendations are forward on
the basis of the findings of the study.

5.1. Summary

This research was designed to assess factors that affect students’ reading comprehension
the case of Abay minch general and secondary school, grade ten students. It was necessary
to assess factors affecting students’ reading comprehension, to identify the factors that
affect students’ reading comprehension at large and to provide recommendations on how to
improve the teaching of reading comprehension.

The study was a descriptive one that used qualitative and quantitative methods and data to
explore, analyze, interpret and understand the complex reality of the situations that have
been studied from the students’ and teachers’ perceptive. Random sampling technique was
used to select student respondents in the questionnaires. Four teachers were interviewed
and classroom observation was observed twice for each teacher in data gathering
processes. The study, therefore, employed questionnaire as major data gathering tools,
interview and classroom observation were used to supplement the major data. Accordingly,
the data obtained from these tools were processed in order to answer the research question
of this study. These research instruments were helpful in providing significant information
about the factors that affect students’ reading comprehension related to students, school
(teachers, text and library) and outside school.

44
The data collected from questionnaires quantitatively by using simple statistical
techniques, percentage and numerical interpretation. Whereas from teachers’ interview and
classroom observation discussed qualitatively by using a thematic system, based on
inductive data analysis process, developed by the researcher was used to code, classify and
sort out actual words from the respondents. The results of the study show that teaching
reading techniques and strategies were not almost exercised by the teachers, students’
motivation was very low, shortage of reading materials at home and library were the most
major factors that affect students’ reading comprehension.

5.2. Conclusions

The inductive analyses of the empirical results along with theoretical frame work of the
study and review of related literature have provided insight into the reading skills.
According to the empirical findings gained of the inductive analyses data, the interpretive
conclusions have been drawn as follows:

1. It is also possible to conclude that most students have reading comprehension problem
due to lack of interest and poor reading habit. This is likely to show that student related
factors are very serious.

2. With regard to the interest and motivation for reading, most teachers motivated their
students to participate and try to do the exercises the textbook intended to be done. But,
students do not give much attention to answer the questions individually or by group;
rather expect the final answer from the teacher or from few clever students in the classes.

3. Most of the students seem to have limited vocabulary and grammar knowledge.
Concerning students’ vocabulary it was seen as one of the serious factors that cause
comprehension problem. Unless one has strong word power, he/she is likely to be limited
in understanding texts.

4. They also seem to lack of reading strategies and reading technique, which is very
important for their comprehension skill. In the class room observation it was seen that

45
teachers did not apply the required reading skill and they seem to give more focus for
grammar and for covering the textbook.

5. Poor foundation of students’ English language likely affected students to cope with the
exercises found in the textbook related to reading comprehension. There is shortage of
books in the library and students’ home, which could help students to read and have
background knowledge in advance. Families also have lack of awareness and money to
fulfill the shortage of their children additional book.

6. The last point that the researcher wants to make as a conclusion that, the poor teaching
skills of some English language teachers. Some English teachers who were observed
during the classroom seem to be bored of teaching reading, lack skills of teaching reading
skills or neglect the reading exercises and focus on grammar part.

5.3. Recommendations

Based on the above conclusions, the following recommendations have been made.

1. To boost their students’ interest, teachers need to adapt and prepare some interesting
reading texts and lessons in the class as well as outside the class. Students also need to be
exposed to extensive and intensive reading activities to strengthen their comprehension. In
this regard, teachers need to give activities which require their students’ intensive reading
to get the total meaning of the text.

2. Concerning students, since reading is the base for learning, they need to develop the
habit of reading and start reading. Especially in developing the reading habit of students,
school libraries, parents and kebele administrations need to work widely. The more
students familiarize themselves to different books, they develop the habit and interest then
it will be easy to comprehend texts.

3. To develop students’ vocabulary, teacher should follow up and check their students’
answer for the class work and home work by giving correction. Teachers should also relate
new words with the grammar usage that would help students to use in different ways.

46
Reading activities must be given in three phases. If a certain phase is missing, teachers
need to fill the gap instead of neglecting it and being dependent only on the textbook.

4. To develop students’ reading strategies and reading techniques, students have to oriented
and do different task based on pre-reading, while reading and post reading activities in the
text. In addition teachers should bring in to the class different scientific method included in
the literature review of this research.

5. In order to overcome students’ poor foundation of English language in their previous

grade, teachers can help them by preparing tutorial class. Students also show interest to
learn more and give attention by asking teachers ‘difficult’ parts of the lesson.

6. Lastly, schools and educational bureau need to assess the teachers’ language skills,
interests and commitments. Teachers’ efficiency, performance and language skill should be
the crucial point that must be taken in to account. Trainings and courses should also be
offered for language teachers continuously.

47
REFERENCE

Ae-Hwa, K., Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J. & Wei, S., 2004. Graphic organizers and their effects on

the reading comprehension of students with LD: A synthesis of research. Journal of

Learning Disabilities, 37, 105-118.

Anderson, R.C. & Freebody, P., 1983.Vocabulary knowledge. In H. Singer &R.B.Ruddell

(Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (3rd ed.) (pp. 343-371).Newark,

DE: International Reading Association

Anderson, R.C., & Pearson, P.D., 1984. “A Schema-Theoretic View of Basic Processes in

ReadingComprehension.” In P.D. Pearson, R. Barr, M.L. Kamil, &P. Mosenthal

(Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp.255-291). New York: Longman.

Bruck, M., (1990).Word recognition skills of adult with childhood diagnosis of dyslexia.

Developmental psychology.

Calderón, M., August, D., Slavin, R., Duran, D., Madden, N. & Cheung, A., 2005. Bringing

words to life in classrooms with English-language learners. In E. H. Hiebert & M. L.

Kamil (Eds.), Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice (pp. 115-136).

Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Carlisle, J. F., & Rice, M. S., 2002. Improving reading comprehension: Research-based

principles and practices. Timonium, MD: York Press.

Carrell, P.L. and Carson, J.G.,1997. Extensive and intensive reading in an EAP setting.ESP

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 Journal.16 (1).47-60.

Cross, E.A and Carney E.,1950. Teaching English in high school. New York the Macmillan

publishers Ltd.

Cunningham, A.E., & Stanovich, K.E.,1998. What reading does for the mind? American

Educator, 22(1, 2), 8–15.

Davis, K.A., 1995. Qualitative theory and methods in applied linguistics. TESOL Quarterly. 29

(3), 427-453.

Duke, N., 2003. Comprehension instruction for informational text. Presentation at the annual

meeting of the Michigan Reading Association, Grand Rapids, MI.

Grellet, F. (1981). Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 56

Harmer.J., (1983). The practice of language teaching. London: person Group Ltd.

Croll, V. J., (1987). Story-mapping training as a means of improving Comprehension. Learning

Disability Quarterly, 10, 214-229

Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. ,2007. Breaking down words to build meaning: Morphology,

Vocabulary and reading comprehension in the urban classroom. The Reading

Teacher, 61(2), 134–144)

MC. Donough and Shaw, C :,( 2003).Materials and methods. A teachers Guide.2nd edi.

Australia. Black well publishing.

McGregor, K. K., (2004). Developmental dependencies between lexical semantics and reading.

In C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. J. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.), Handbook of

language and literacy (pp. 302-317). New York: The Guilford Press.

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Mekonnen Esubalew. “A study in to reading comprehension problems” (M.A thesis,

unpublished) A.A.U

Metsala, J., (1999). Young children’s phonological awareness and non word repetition as a

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50
 APPENDIX:
DEBRE MARKOS UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Appendix A

Students’ Questionnaire

The researcher conducts a research in the title “An assessment on the challenges of EFL
Students’ reading comprehension, at Abay Minch general and secondary school Grade 10
students.” As you learn English as a subject and involve in reading comprehension, your sincere
responses to the questions below are of great help for the success of my study. Therefore, I
kindly request you to give genuine responses that will be kept confidential.

As you give your response, you are not necessary to write your name. Thank you in advance for
your cooperation.

Sex: Male____ Female_____

1. According to your experience, English reading comprehension is _________________.

A/ always easy B /mostly easy C/ always difficult D /mostly difficult

2. Indicate the extent to which factors below make your reading difficult by putting a tick mark
(√) on one of the four point scales.

(4 = I strongly agree, 3 = I agree, 2 = I disagree, and 1 = I strongly disagree)

Factors related to students, school and outside school.

No Factors related to student 4 3 2 1

51
 .

1 Reading is difficult skills than other skills.

2 I am afraid to read passage in the class.

3 I don’t have interest in learning English language

4 The possibility I have to join university/college is very low.

5 Grammar is more important than reading comprehension.

6 I don’t know reading strategies and techniques.

Factors related to school (text, teacher & library)

7 The passages have difficult vocabularies.

8 Textbooks are available on time.

9 The titles of the passages are attractive.

10 English teachers are good in teaching reading comprehension.

11 There are enough books in the school library to improve reading.

12 Teachers are motivating us to reading equally as other skills.

Factors related to outside school

13 I have enough time to read book.

14 There are English books in my home and I read them.

15 I have good foundation of English in previous grades.

16 I don’t get enough help from my family.

Appendix B

Teachers’ interview

52
I would like to inform you that researcher will be conducted a research in the title “An
assessment on the challenges of EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension, in Abay Minch general
and secondary school, Grade ten students”, your sincere response to my interview questions are
of great help to the success of the study .Therefore, I kindly request you to respond to the
questions genuinely .Your response will be kept confidential, so there is no need to tell me your
name. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

1/ Do your students find reading comprehension difficult or easy? __________________.

2/ If it is difficult, how many of them are in this problem? All, most, some or few of them?

____________________.

3/ Look at each factors and say: vary greatly ______ sometimes _______ rarely
_______ never ________

To tell extent problems your students’ reading comprehension.

3.1/ Students unable to read words (passage) correctly.___________________

3.2/ Shortage of vocabulary.____________________

3.3/ Lack of the Knowledge of grammar.____________________

3.4/ Students lack of interest to go further in their education._________________

3.5/ Students’ lack of motivation for English language._____________________

3.6/ Shortage of books in the school library to promote reading.__________________

3.7/ Students’ fewer attitudes for reading skill than grammar._____________________

3.8/ Students’ poor foundation of reading comprehension in their lower grade.________

3.9/ Lack of parental help in providing English books._______________

53
4/ what other problems you want to mention that affect students’ reading comprehension?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

5/ Do you believe you teach all the strategies and techniques of reading comprehension?

Please explain it? ____________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

6/ what measure do you think should be taken to correct this problem?

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Appendix C

Classroom observation

4= Very good, 3= Good 2= Fair 1= Poor

54
No Check list points 4 3 2 1
1 The teacher motivated students to read the passage.
2 The teacher helped students to use reading strategies.
3 There are enough student textbooks in the classroom.
4 Comprehension questions are done as class work or given as a home
work.
5 Most Students are tried to participate in reading or answering
questions.
6 Students’ exercise books are checked by the teacher for the answer of
comprehension questions.
7 Students showed interest in learning new vocabulary.
8 Students have got chance to read the passage.
9 The teacher wrote the meaning of new word on the blackboard.
10 The teacher checked students’ work.

55