Reading in the junior secondary school phase

M.Ed.The overall concern of this investigation lies in the need to improve secondary school reading performance. This concern is of great importance given the centrality of reading to the English First Language course and to the whole of the secondary school academic curriculum. Poor reading ability is an obstacle to later academic success and, for this reason, it is crucial that each pupil's reading ability and experience is developed as early as possible in the secondary school years. This investigation is based on the premise that the importance of the Standard 6 and 7 reading programme, in particular the significance of teaching reading comprehension has been underestimated and needs to be given greater attention within the English Language programme at Secondary School. The central focus of this investigation is to address the issues of reading attainment and monitoring. More specifically, my first concern is to clarify the nature of reading attainment and the factor-s involved in promoting it at Standard 6 and 7 levels. My concern for monitoring and reading attainment centres on the fact that, without adequate monitoring of individual readers and reading programmes , one is unable to assess to what extent readers are progr-eaamg, Hence the direction of this research will be to: outline a model of reading which will clarify classroom practice, reading attainment, growth and assessment. outline the comprehension demands which fluent readers at secondary school level can be expected to cope with. indicate general principles arising out of research which can be used for developing reading at secondary school level. investigate ways of monitoring and to investigate those factors which affect individual reading attainment and overall programme effectiveness