EL ANÁLISIS DE CONFIABILIDAD Y LOS MODELOS DE HAZARD PROPORCIONALES

Research into reading attitudes posits that attitudes can have an impact not only on reading but also on vocabulary growth and academic achievement (Stokman 1999; Briggs 1987). Seitz (2010) argues that students who have negative reading attitudes do not enjoy reading and they fail to engage in reading. Consequently, they may develop a lifelong aversion to reading. Once learners are apprehensive or averse to reading, they are likely to read less and be exposed to little vocabulary which may hamper their comprehension of academic texts. Shen (2008) opines

that vocabulary which may be acquired through reading is a major prerequisite and causative factor in comprehension. Negative reading attitudes may not only cause learners to avoid reading but they may also exclude learners for access to rich sources of new knowledge, which in turn impacts negatively on their performance in the content subjects. Research indicates that negative reading attitudes cause learners to have poor study habits and low levels of reading comprehension. Cook (2006) reports that reading is a basic skill for learning and a foundational skill for academic success. If learners have a poor perception of themselves when it comes to reading, such an attitude will not only result in poor study skills but it will also affect their performance in the content subjects as learners also tend to be unwilling to study what is learnt at school.

Some scholars have found a positive albeit rather weak relationship between reading attitudes and academic performance (Bakar, Tarmizi, Mahyuddin, Elias, Luan & Ayub 2010; Sallabas 2008; Narmadha & Chamundeswari 2013). The study by Bakar et al. (2010) investigated the relationship between university students’ reading attitudes and academic performance in Malaysia. The respondents were 1484 university students who were following the education, science, humanities, and agriculture and engineering programs. Data were collected by self- reported questionnaire on a sample, using a cluster sampling technique based on the different faculty of studies in the university. Results indicated a weak correlation between students attitude towards reading and academic achievement (r =0.16, p < 0.001).

Another study by Sallabas (2008) investigated the relationship between positive reading attitudes, willingness to read and academic success among secondary school learners. Sallabas found a weak relationship between positive reading attitudes, reading comprehension and academic performance. In his study, 143 Iranian Grade 8 secondary students were given two informative and narrative texts together with multiple-choice questions. The questions were used to determine the degree of reading comprehension by students. The study also used a 20- itemed ‘Attitude towards Reading Scale’ to collect data. The attitude scale’s Cronbach alpha co- efficient was 0.86 and information about students’ academic success was obtained through

data forms. After determining student’s reading attitude scores and reading comprehension achievement, a correlation between reading attitudes, comprehension level and academic performance was tested. Findings indicated a weak correlation of 0.03 suggesting an almost non-existent relationship.

In another study, Narmadha and Chamundeswari (2013) investigated attitudes towards learning Science and academic achievement in Science among students at the secondary school level in India. Participants in this study were 422 students from secondary level in different systems of education, namely, state, matriculation and central board schools. The state and matriculation schools are public schools that accommodate even learners with lower I.Q. However, the matriculation school standard is considered higher than the state board syllabus but lower than the central board schools’ standard (Narmadha & Chamundeswari 2013). The central board schools are private schools that have an interest in teaching and learning science. The ‘Attitude toward Learning of Science Scale’ was used to assess the attitude towards learning Science and the marks scored in Science were taken from their half yearly performance. Results showed that type of school had an effect on attitude to learning science and science performance. For example, students at the central board schools had a higher positive attitude towards learning Science compared to students in state board schools but did not differ with students in matriculation board schools at the secondary school level. Similarly, students at the central board schools performed better in Science compared to the students in state and matriculation board schools. A positive correlation was found to exist between attitudes towards learning Science and academic achievement in Science among the students.

The research reviewed for this study has contributed immensely to the current study. However, the reviewed research studies on reading, vocabulary, reading attitudes and academic performance were conducted outside Swaziland where the home setting and schooling differ from that in Swaziland. There has been no research conducted in Swaziland on the relationship between reading ability, vocabulary, reading attitudes and academic performance at high

school level. Therefore, the current study seeks to fill that gap as it explores high school learners’ reading ability.

2.5 Conclusion

This chapter has reviewed the literature that guided the current study. It has also shown the importance of the firm development of reading skills to bring about comprehension during reading. I have also shown the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension, showing in particular that both vocabulary depth and breadth are important for learners to understand what they read. The principal importance of exposing learners to books during pre-school years so that they develop love for reading has also been discussed. The role of teachers to foster positive attitudes for children to enjoy reading has shown the importance of positive attitudes in helping learners enjoy reading and to read with understanding; an attempt that yields success at school.

CHAPTER 3