Gender and School Type as Correlates of Secondary School Students’ Extensive Reading Habit and Writing Performance in Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

Reading is a critical skill, both within and beyond the classroom. The nature of writing too cannot be described without reference to literacy, because the latter subsumes the former. This study investigated the relationship between extensive reading habit and writing performance of secondary school students in Ilorin, Nigeria, based on gender and school type. The research is descriptive in nature. Senior Secondary 2 students were purposively sampled based on the variables of the study. Two schools from each of Ilorin East and South and four schools from Ilorin West were proportionately sampled for the study. Fifty students were selected through the simple random sampling technique from each of the eight schools sampled for the study. A total of four hundred respondents were therefore involved in the study. The data collected through the Students’ Reading Habit Questionnaire (SRHQ) and a Students’ Writing Performance Test (SWPT) were analyzed using mean ratings, percentages and the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient at 0.05 significance level. The findings of the study revealed that there was a significant relationship between students’ extensive reading habit and their writing performance. Also, no significant relationship between students’ extensive reading habit and their writing performance in relation to gender and school type even though a greater percentage of the students (88.7%) recorded low writing performance and ambivalent reading habit. The study recommended among others that teachers should make reading and writing activities at the secondary school extensively functional irrespective of gender and school type.