READING STRATEGIES: A CATALYST FOR ENHANCING COMPREHENSIVEAND SUMMARY WRITING PROFICIENCY AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA
READING STRATEGIES: A CATALYST FOR ENHANCING COMPREHENSIVEAND SUMMARY WRITING PROFICIENCY AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Summary/Abstract: English Language is a foremost and most prestigious language in Nigeria. It is the lingua franca, official language, medium of instruction in schools, the language of the media, politics, business, administration and most social interactions. It is a core school subject which every student must study and pass at a minimum of credit level before any employment or further educational pursuit can be guaranteed. Thus, English language is a major index for measuring the quality of the senior (high) school certificate examination and failure in English is tantamount of failure in the whole examination. Despite the high premium placed on English language, the students’ perennial abysmal performance in all its components in high school examinations continues to cause disquiet among all the stakeholders (West African Examinations Council, WAEC, 2010). The Chief Examiners’ Reports (WAEC 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010) have painted gloomy pictures about high school students performance in reading comprehension and summary writing thus: ‘students perform poorly in that though the comprehension passages were straightforward and easy to follow, the candidates engaged in mindless lifting or copying of the passages as they could not put the answers in their own words; also the hallmark of good summary writing which are relevance and conciseness, exclusion of detail and extraneous materials were completely forgotten’. These perennial reports have provoked this study. Consequently, there is need to overhaul the English learning process by focusing attention on the complementary skills of reading and writing as tools for effective communication. Summary writing is advanced comprehension which requires deep understanding of the passage and the skill of paraphrase. The purpose of the study is to train English language teachers on the efficacy of using reading strategies to enhance comprehension and summary writing and subsequently to engage those teachers to teach high school students reading comprehension and summary writing employing appropriate reading strategies. This is because Song (2007) decried the absence of reading comprehension strategies in reading programmes in ESL classes.

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