The influence of text type on senior secondary students’ reading comprehension

Abstract

The study was designed to examine the influence of text type on senior secondary students' reading comprehension in selected secondary schools in Jos North and Jos South Local Government Areas of Plateau State. The study specifically sought to know the extent to which text type will affect students' ability to answer literal, inferential and critical questions. For the purpose of data collection, 200 students selected from four secondary schools were given two types of passages: a narrative and an expository to read and to answer three types of questions. Frequency count and simple percentages were used to analyze the data. The results showed that text type had influence on the students' ability to answer literal, inferential and critical questions. That is, the students performed better on the narrative than on the expository. These findings suggest the need to design instructional activities in such a way that will promote higher level thinking on the part of the students.