Perspectives of Gender Differences, Students’ Achievement and Attitude to Reading Comprehension

Osikomaiya Mojisola Olafunke, Popoola Titilayo Elizabeth

Abstract


Reading skills are specific abilities that enable a reader to read the written form as meaningful language and to mentally interact with the message. Reading is seen as an instrument that induces learning which involves a variety of interrelated activities. Comprehension in reading occurs when the reader takes hold of the writer’s message. It is seen as the basic mechanical side of the reading process because the higher order cognitive processes are not called into play as they are with the more sophisticated side of reading that involves understanding and interpreting what is read. Research findings that have identified differences between gender groups in reading performance are not as clear cut. Various interpretations given by researchers often reported discrepancies between males and females in reading outcome. Not much work has been done on the investigation of gender differences, achievement in and attitude to reading, though there are general consensus that girls have been found in many Nigerian researches to have only a slight positive but statistically insignificant edge over boys in language performance. Also, it has been proven that a positive attitude often leads to successful learning and that students learn more effectively and achieve better when they are interested in what they learn. This study is interested in the provision of clear evidence that gender and attitude influence achievement in reading comprehension.   


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