Sight Vocabulary, Oral Reading And Comprehension Performance Of Junior Secondaryschoolstudents In Jebba, Kwarastate, Nigeria

This study examined the reading performance of Junior Secondary School (JSS) students in Jebba, Kwara State, Nigeria, in three core reading dimensions: sight vocabulary, oral reading and reading comprehension. A descriptive survey design was adopted. Through stratified random sampling with proportional allocation, 180 JSS 3 students (97 private and 83 public) were selected from the ten secondary schools in Jebba, Moro Local Government Area. Data were collected with the Alternative Diagnostic Reading Assessment (ADRA), a three-phase instrument developed by the researchers to measure sight vocabulary, oral reading and comprehension (30 marks each). The ADRA was validated by experts and pilot-tested, and its test-retest reliability over a three-week interval was r = .88. Data were analysed with means, standard deviations and frequency counts; supplementary analyses used Welch's t-test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Mean scores were 19.87 (SD = 6.94) for sight vocabulary, 17.77 (SD = 6.68) for oral reading and 14.43 (SD = 5.63) for comprehension, all within the average band (11–20) of the performance scale, with comprehension the weakest. Inferential comprehension was particularly weak (35.6% correct). Private-school students outperformed public-school students on all three dimensions, and oral reading was the strongest predictor of comprehension. When conventional informal reading inventory criteria were applied, only 8.9% of students reached the instructional level in comprehension. The study concluded that the students' word-level skills were moderately developed but their comprehension lagged. It recommended targeted instruction in vocabulary development, oral reading fluency and comprehension strategies, especially inferential comprehension, with particular attention to public schools.