THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF EXTENSIVE READING OF GRADE 11 STUDENTS: THE CASE OF ABOKER PREPARATORY SCHOOL IN HARARE REGION

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to assess the Practice and Challenge of Extensive Reading of grade 11 students. For this study, Aboker Preparatory School was purposively selected to be the setting of the study. A descriptive research design and mixed data collection method were employed to achieve the research objectives and to address the research problem. To this end, questionnaire, semi structured interview, and document analysis were used to collect data from the participants in the study. A sample of 75 students, 3 English language teachers and a librarian, were selected. Then, quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was analysed based on the content of the information that was provided by the respondents. The data, therefore, that were collected from different sources were organized, described and interpreted in an integrated manner using descriptive methods of data analysis. Finally, the finding of the study showed that grade 11 students do very little or no practice of extensive reading in the school. Teachers made little attempt to encourage the students to practice extensive reading outside the classroom. The students like to read different reading materials in English; they have also the awareness and good attitude about the advantage and the benefit ER has for their overall academic performance. However, they do not practice, as their main goal is to pass the entrance examination. On the other hand, the school has not provided a variety of ER materials to motivate students read. Time constraints, lack of supplementary reading materials and student’s background are the major challenges students face in the practice of ER. To that end, this thesis provides recommendation that could bring about a change in the practice of ER. Thus, teachers should encourage students to practice ER by integrating it with IR. The school has to provide the library with a variety of ER materials to expose the students to different types of reading.