GENDER DIFFERENCES AND INTEREST IN READING: EXAMINING THE LITERACY ACQUISITION OF NIGERIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Abstract

This study which investigated the relationship between gender and pupils’ interest in reading was conducted in Enugu, Nigeria. It adopted the non-equivalent, non-randomized control group quasi experimental design. The population of the study consisted of all the primary one school pupils in Enugu East local government area while the sample comprised 118 pupils drawn from four public primary schools. The schools were assigned to experimental and control groups through tossing of coin while gender was purposively selected. The instrument used for data collection was Reading Interest Inventory (RII) which was constructed by the researcher. Data generated were analysed using Mean, Standard deviations and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviations while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using ANCOVA. The findings of the study indicated that gender was not a significant factor on pupils’ interest in reading. It also revealed that there was no significant interaction effect of teaching method and gender on pupils’ interest in reading. It was concluded that synthetic phonics is able to stimulate and sustain pupils’ interest in reading gender notwithstanding. The adoption of fun-filled and activity-based instructional methods such as synthetic phonics for initial reading instruction was therefore recommended.