ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF READING ENGLISH HOMEWORK ON STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION: THE CASE OF GRADE 9 AT GEDO HIGH SCHOOL WEST SHOA ZONE

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine if reading English homework had effects on students’ reading comprehension. The research design was an experimental. The subjects were grade 9 students at Gedo High School. But the researcher was teaching grade 9Aand 9B students only. So, grade 9th ‘A’ and 9th ‘B’ students were participants of the study. The experimental design also needs small number of participants. Grade 9th A students were assigned as experimental group while grade 9th ‘B’ students were assigned as control group purposively. Pre-test, post-test and post interview were used as tools for data collection. First, both groups were administered pre-test. Then, both the experimental group students and control groups were taught reading lessons. But the researcher assigned reading English homework assignments to only experimental group students. After the experimental group students were treated with reading English homework assignments, the ten sampled experimental group students were interviewed their views about the reading English homework assignments they were assigned. Finally, both groups were administered post-test. Data were analyzed by comparing their scores. Hence, the findings shows that there were no difference between the scores of experimental and control groups in pre-test while there was a significant differences in scores of the experimental and control group students in post-test. The experimental group achieved better scores in post-test than the control group. This may be due to the reading English homework assignments were assigned them and follow up discussion was continuously made. Thus, the researcher recommended the teachers to assign reading English homework assignments and do follow up discussions continuously to improve the students’ reading comprehension achievements.