Ekiti State University,

ABSTRACT — The study examined the reading ease of basic science text materials and students ’ learning outcome among Year One Junior Secondary Schools in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study adopted quasi-experimental research design of pre-test, post-test control group on all Year One Basic science students in Ekiti state, Nigeria. 1760 students were purposively selected from 22 Junior Secondary Schools in the three senatorial districts of Ekiti State, Nigeria. The common Basic science text materials used in the schools selected were also sampled. The research instrument used for the study was the Basic Science Vocabulary Test while Flesch Reading Ease Formula was used to determine the reading ease of the text materials. Four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels. The data collected were analyzed using t-test statistics, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study revealed that STAN and Longman text materials were fairly difficult for the intended users. The result also revealed that the group that received an explicit Basic science vocabulary instruction achieved significantly better in the tests than those who received instruction through conventional method. The study further showed that vocabulary knowledge significantly influenced students ’ level of comprehension of Basic science at the Junior Secondary Schools. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that teachers should make effort to teach identified difficult words in the text and be more aware of the vocabulary load and sentence length of the text materials before assigning such to any particular class