A Study of the R83dability l eve l o f Grade Ten Tex tbooks and the Compreh en sion Ability of th e Students Usinr.: Them
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Date
1990-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
ThE' p urpo s e c f th is studv 'N;1S t·; det e rmin e both th,',
c orn!=1rche nsi o rl Bb i,lity of s rad8 10 Ftur:l~3nts and the r eada
bi l ity l e ve l of t heir t2xtbo 2 ks usin~ the cloz a pr o c~d ur e
and th a Frv ~ ranh r OGoectivoly .
Th e r eadab il ity l e ve l o f th e taxtbofJks was d e t e r min ed
by ta king three -c n r~- hun d r8 d-v.lOrd sarnplo D8ssages from Bach
of th e f o ur grado t e n t2x,t brJDks, ( r: ;':~ lish For ~·JevJ Eth ir:!p ia
F'1r Gr ad e Ten tlistQJ;:)L.Fo r Gr Clde TGn." G2o graohy Fo r Grild 8
Ten and Bblegy Fr r Gr ade Ten) sd ect8d for th e study, The
fin di nf,s show that the a pprox:ma te: grndc l e ve l s u f th e
hi.s t r;rv. ~eograohy. biology and En ghsh texto o ks Are 15, 11,
3 ond 8 respoct ive l y. Thus . with its l(' ng words ( a n av c: r ag e
of l7 '~ sy llebles per F lO Hnrdsl and s5n t e nc e s ( a n avera,;..:: of
2J.O W l rCS p2r s :mt8nc e ), th e hi story text bonk has b e.:;n
f o und out t o be the most d i f£jcult . The pe rc e n ta~8 cloz&
test me a n scores of 18. ~, f o r hi s t a r :i. 19 . 7 fo r p;ec;;r3ph y,
23.4 for bI o l ogy a nd 26 .3 fe r English co nfirm th 6 findin gs
o f the Fry g r a ph.
In o rd~ r t o determ in e their c umpre h e nsion l e vel, 12 cloz a
tosts (t hre3 from each of the above tex t books) we r e
administered to 90 r r ade ten st ude nts ra nd om ly selected from
thre'8 "government hi" h schoo ls (Yakdit 3.2 , 11e nalik II 3 nd h i g; h E' r
12 ) in Addis Abab~. Then the s tud Gnts were c l as sifi ed into
frustr a t i o n. instructio nAl or indope ndent l e ve ls on t he bas i s
of t hei r cloze resul ts . Th8 findings show th a t t he oercentare
\ _~
of th e s ampl e popul ation who are a t the frust r ati on l ovol
of compre he ns ion is 97.B f or hist c r y, 96 . 7 f or ge ocraphy ,
95. 6 f o r bi o l ogy and 94 .4 f or ~n g li s h ~ It a pp oars tha t th e s e
stud onts do not und erstand t heir textboo ks even with the help
of th eir t e a c hers. This may be f or two r ea sons :
1) As has been comfirmed by earlier findings
(read Mendida, 1988), the comr r ehension ability
a f our s t ud e nts is extremely l ow.
2) Sinc e th e Fry graph and the c lazo procedure use
native s peaker crit eri a , a na wnuld not expect
s e c ond lan f. Ua fe l ea rner s t o r ead and underst a nd
like the natives.
Ba s ed on the fin d in gs, it wa s re c omme nd ed th a t
1) l ong words sh ould be r ep l ao ed by short words
2 ) thir hi sto r y t oxtboo k be writt en in short
se nt e nc e s ,
3) t ho read a bility of textbo oks be d e termin ed before
th ey are mad e availabl e f or cl a ssroom use
4 ) r eading should be taught a s a se pa r ate l essen
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R83dability l eve l o f Grade Ten