EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTION IN FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS ON SENIOR SECONDARY TWO STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPREHENSION IN BOKKOS LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of instruction in figurative expression on senior secondary two students’ achievement in reading comprehension in Bokkos Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to determine the extent to which instruction in figurative expressions could influence the literal and inferential reading comprehension ability of senior secondary two students in Bokkos. Two objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study employed quasi-experimental research design specifically the non-equivalent pretest posttest non-control group design in which two intact classes were used. The population was made up of 942 senior secondary two English students drawn from the twenty five (25) public secondary schools in Bokkos Local Government Area. The sample consisted of 47 students drawn from a population of 942 senior secondary two students in Bokkos. The instrument for data collection was Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT). The data collected were analysed using mean scores, standard deviation and t-test for independent variables at 0.05 of level of significance. The result showed that after exposure to figurative expressions in constructivist classroom, the experimental group outperformed the control group in literal and inferential reading comprehension level. After treatment, the students in the experimental group grasped the meaning of varied figurative expressions and were able to transact with texts and construct the writers’ message(s) in the texts. There is therefore a significant relationship between instruction in figurative expressions and students’ response to reading comprehension at the literal and inferential levels. It was therefore recommended that English teachers should be trained to integrate constructivist strategies to teach figurative expressions in reading comprehension classrooms. It was also recommended that teachers should use questions, collaboration and discussion to harness students’ background knowledge for multiple interpretations of figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, personification, irony, symbols and hyperbole.