Metodología de Desarrollo RUP

Mmuodumogu (2001) investigated the effects of three methods of instruction on Senior Secondary School students’ vocabulary achievement. The study was to compare the effectiveness of instructions involving: instruction in individual word meaning only;

instruction in deriving meanings from context only; and instruction involving a combination of the two (integrated method).

The group for instructing in individual word meaning only began its treatment with a general introduction to the instructional programme, which served to create awareness of the need to learn vocabulary. The lessons for the group focused on providing word-meanings and explaining the source of such clue to the meaning. The group was guided to give meaning of words used within contexts, and to explain what gave them clue as their correct meaning. Words, which lend themselves to different meanings in different contexts, were used to highlight how contexts give different meanings to the same word. Instruction in deriving word meanings using only contextual clues and not morphological clues given to the two experimental groups. The third group received instruction in individual word meanings and in deriving the meanings of words from context simultaneously.

A total of nine hundred students located in three schools were randomly selected and involved for the study. These students were randomly assigned to three major

groups, which were sub-grouped into the four in each major one, for the purpose of applying a Solomon-four group design experiment.

The major instruments that were used for data collection were researcher made tests. The tests which consisted of 20 vocabulary items were given to all the pre-test and post-test groups, which also tested students’ knowledge of words in isolation and in contexts. The test were in three forms: some tested the students to supply the definitions or synonyms of some words listed in isolation and multiple choice tests which involved choosing the correct meaning of a word from four distrators. Again, students were required to state the meaning of the words as used in the sentences or paragraphs.

The method of data analysis took after the research design and the hypotheses advanced for the study. After the Solomon four-group design was applied to all the groups the pre-test and post-test scores of all the groups were collated according to their groups. The t-test was used to compute and compare results for those that involved two groups only (pre-test and post-test). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compute the mean scores of those that involved more than two groups. The mean scores of the four sub-groups within the three major groups were then compared to find out their average group performance and thereafter, determined the best performance group.

The research findings indicated increase in the reading gains of the students, pointing to the effectiveness of the investigated reading methods. Results have equally indicated the combination of the methods (interactive method) to be the most effective.

2.9.4 Effects of Reading and Writing Approaches

Ngochal (2001) investigated the effects of an integrated approach to reading and writing instruction on students’ critical thinking. This study examined the effects of integrated reading and writing instruction on University of Jos remedial students’ critical

thinking. Specifically, the study was designed to find out whether students who were taught reading and writing interactively would perform better in a critical thinking test and therefore perform better in comprehension tasks than students who were taught either reading and writing separately or reading or writing only.

The sample was made up of three hundred and sixty students of the Remedial Sciences Department, University of Jos. This was divided into three major groups of 120 students each, and each of these was further sub-divided into four groups to facilitate the use of Solom-four-group design.

The experimental groups (groups 1 and 2) in major group A were given instruction in reading only. Those in major group B were given instruction in writing only, while those in major group C were taught reading and writing integratively. The instruction took twelve weeks for each group. At the end of the instruction, all the (2 sub-groups) were given a critical thinking comprehension test. The t-test was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the group that received integrated instruction in both reading and writing performed significantly better in the critical thinking comprehension test than those who were given instruction in either reading only or writing only, and those who did not receive any instruction at all, the control group. The findings were interpreted in terms of their implications for reading and writing instruction in schools.

Reports on empirical studies have pointed out what has been done in the area of reading and reading development. This cuts across the primary to secondary up to the university level. These studies have respectively touched on important aspects of the reading and reading development. Aboki (1998) worked on developing a reading readiness training programme for parents and teachers of pre-primary and primary one children. This investigation saw the application of reading strategies such as: Literary