Effectiveness of English Newspaper Reading on Reading Comprehension: A Study Conducted on 9th Class Students

Background: Vygotsky’s theory accentuates the importance of social and cultural context and meaning. The newspapers provide contextual, meaningful, and authentic input that makes it easier to understand the passage, syntactical structures, unfamiliar vocabulary, and social and cultural issues as well. Reading newspapers regularly works towards improving learning outcomes and reading comprehension skills. Purpose: The study was conducted in Malerkotla, Punjab, and explored the effect of gender and English newspaper reading on the reading comprehension of 9th-class students. Methods: The investigator intended to conduct that study on 100 randomly selected students. But during the experiment some students got absent, so investigators decided to remove the 8 pairs of students. In the final stage the investigator performed an experiment on 42 randomly selected pairs with respect to gender. The study employed an experimental research design, with 84 students from two selected schools using a lottery approach. The experimental group received instruction while dedicating 45 minutes every day to reading newspapers under the supervision and assistance of teachers. Mean, S.D., Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variances, and balanced two-factor (2x2) factorial design were applied. Results: The results showed that there is a significant effect of English newspaper reading and gender on the reading comprehension of 9th-class students. Reading comprehension of 9th-class students was found independent of interaction between gender and newspaper reading. Conclusion: the study indicates that both gender and treatment type significantly affect reading comprehension scores among 9th-class students, with females and the experimental group performing better than their counterparts. Overall, the analysis indicates that both gender and treatment significantly influence the dependent variable reading comprehension, while the interaction between these two factors does not have a significant effect.