Dr Margaret Uchenna Chukwurah & Gloria Ukongkwen Ikongshul
Abstract
The study investigated reading culture and English Language performance of senior secondary school students in Northern Education Zone of Cross River State. Ex-post facto survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study comprised all the 62 public secondary schools in the education zone. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 1,200 respondents from twenty schools in the zone. Three null hypotheses were tested at .05 alpha level of significance. Data collection was done with the use of two instruments tagged “Students Reading Culture Questionnaire (SRCQ), which had the cronbach-alpha reliability coefficient of 0.87, and English Language Performance Test (ELPT) developed by the researchers with a reliability coefficient of 0.82. The findings of the study showed that students who utilized library, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facility and students with home reading culture have higher English Language performance than those who do not. The study recommended, among others, that reading culture should be inculcated at an early stage of childhood and nurtured to adulthood, so that academic achievement can be enhanced through developed reading competence in students.