The impact of reading skills on students’ writing a case of Amuman MA basic school

Abstract

Reading is one of skills considered important in language learning and like the other skills, the mastery is influenced by some factors. This study sought to investigate the impact of reading skills on students’ writing using students of Amuman M/A Basic School as a case study. Also, the study specifically aimed at assessing various methods being used for the teaching of reading comprehension to the students; also, on the part of students, the study sought to identify the main challenges/problems encountered by students in reading comprehension and investigated the effect of reading skills on students’ English writing performance. The study adopted a qualitative case study approach to thematically analyse the data collected from fifty-six (56) students and 2 teachers. Purposive sampling technique was used for the sampling of the respondents. Data for the study was collected through interviews, classroom observation and reading assessment. The study revealed that phonics method was the commonest method used by teachers. Furthermore, it was revealed that most students encountered problems such as poor vocabulary mastery, poor fluency and issues with background knowledge when reading in reading comprehension. The study recommended that teachers should make frantic efforts to ensure that students gain interest in reading, both at school and outside the school environment. Again, strategies such as dictation and pronunciation drills must be infused in language teaching to ensure that students improve their language competency through reading