Improving the Teaching of Reading Comprehension Skills through the Use of Resources and Assessment in Colleges of Education in North-West Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined how to improve the teaching of reading comprehension skills through the use of resources and assessment in colleges of education in north-west Nigeria. Four Collages of Education were selected namely; Kano, Kastina, Zamfara and Sokoto were used for the study. 100 subjects were randomly selected to participate in the study. However, only 68 lecturers actually participated in the survey. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data. The results revealed that while the commonly utilized resources in teaching reading comprehension are text books and journal articles, assessment techniques are homework, impromptu test, and retelling. The study suggested among others, that the use of resources and assessment are significant to the performance of students in reading comprehension and that relevant resources such as language laboratory, video machine, record player, cassette player, radio set, and newspaper articles should be provided and used during teaching and learning of reading comprehension skills. All methods of assessment should be employed appropriately. Government should make available resources for teaching reading and also motivate the lecturers to sustain the use of resources and assessment for an improved performance. This will support in augmenting the quality of their performances and accordingly advance the students’ performance as well which in turns has great effects on the performance of students and teacher education in Nigeria.