Assessment of English reading comprehension of pupils completeing primary education: a case study of Meru municipality zone

Abstract

This study was undertaken with the aim of providing information on the level of the ability of pupils completing primary education to read messages written in English with understanding. The study attempted to find out how broad their language experience was, by assessing their ability to read directions on modern technological items. The study also tried to find out their ability to read any other information intended for public utility.

Psycholinguistic theory of reading was employed. This was necessary as it was felt it would best explain the phenomenon of reading comprehension.

The data were collected from 120 standard eight pupils in four primary schools of Meru municipality zone. They were assessed on a passage, sets of directions and other messages written in English.

The assessment discriminated strongly between the pupils who did well and those who did not, and this indicated a wide range of proficiency levels among them. The ones in the lower half of the score band, in fact those for whom primary education may be terminal, showed lack of sufficient comprehension of common messages written in English.

This work is presented in five chapters. Chapter one introduces the work, giving reasons for it. Chapter two reviews related literature while chapter three deals with the methodology employed. Chapter four deals with data analysis and interpretation and finally chapter five gives conclusions and recommendations.