Gamta, Tilahun (PhD)Jemere, Molla2021-10-222023-11-092021-10-222023-11-091987-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/28288This s~udy was primarily inta~led to measure how fast students at the freshm:lD 1 evel read 0 Since it would be meaningless to evaluate only speeds , comprehension was also testecL A secondary purpose of the study was to test whether there .JOuld be significclDt speed performance differonces bet1rJeen and among subj ects with di fferent reading backgrounds ,. The sample population, which consi.sted of 120 Social Science freshmen lVere random:j.y selectedo Then reading speed and comprehension tests were administered 0 A que'St ionnaire "Jas also admini stered to the sample population 0 The result of the reading speed tests, which is 96 wop , mo , shows that the subjects are desperately slow readers when compared with both native and non - native speakers of Englisho H01rleVer, the comprehension result, which is 64%, is rel ati vely good " The results of the q uestionn8ire,K·:·C":.·~; In the case of school locations, indicated no statistically sjgnificant speed p erformance differences between and among those with favourable awd unfavourable reading backgrounds . As the findings show, the reading abilitie s in general and the reading speed levels of the subjects of this study in particular have been ignored and there is a need for paying attention to the problem by people concernedoenThesis