AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF READING SKILLS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AT THE SECONDARY LEVEL

Abstract

Reading comprehension is an essential part of learning the language and the required English textbook is the main teaching tool for Pakistani secondary school learners. The present investigation evaluates the reading skills of English language learners at the secondary level and English textbook in developing students' reading comprehension and scrutinized the relationship between the textbook's content, structure, and complexity and reading skills development.  The objectives of the study are (1) to investigate the role of English textbook in developing reading comprehension at the secondary level and (2) to analyze the content, structure, and complexity of the English textbook in relation to reading skills development. A descriptive, quantitative research design was used. A structured questionnaire and a reading comprehension achievement test were used to gather data from 200 students of government secondary schools using convenience sampling. While the Chi-square test was utilized to ascertain the relationship between textbook features and students' reading comprehension achievement, descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, percentages, and mean scores, were employed to examine students' perceptions. The results showed that students generally thought the English textbook was reasonably efficient in helping them strengthen their reading comprehension skills, especially when it came to comprehending main ideas, recognizing textual nuances, expanding their vocabulary, and increasing their enthusiasm to read. However, the majority of children showed poor to mediocre reading comprehension on the achievement test, indicating inadequate development of higher-order reading skills. The study comes to the conclusion that strengthening the structure, content, and instructional activities of textbooks can improve students' reading comprehension and facilitate more successful secondary English language learning.