THE EXTENT OF THE USE OF EXTENSIVE READING IN PROMOTING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

1.1 Introduction

Extensive reading is a careful cognitive effort that chanced individual to decode the words on the paper in order to extract meaning. Therefore, reading involves a contextual comprehension of available dictions of a paragraph that explains the expected meaning (Usman, 2020). Extensive reading can promote good reading habits among the students and students who do less reading can be inculcated into the habit of reading through extensive reading. Students may find that they can successfully read after completing the books given to them for reading (Zinal, 2016). Fluency in reading is really essential in developing reading comprehension skills in the target language since increased fluency assists comprehension and improves language learning attitude (Nuttal, 2010).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Language acquisition without reading is difficult. Reading is a good way of comprehension. A good reader is able to understand sentences and structures of a written text. One important way to develop communication competence is through extensive reading. Students by reading extensively will be exposed to different new scope of vocabulary which is necessary in reading comprehension (Pazhakh and Soltani, 2010).

People learn to read by reading, and the ability to read proficiently is best achieved through extensive reading. Likewise, there is widespread consensus that there is a correlation between communication competency and extensive reading, for which communication competency and reading comprehension can be regarded as a mutually beneficial process. This mutual benefit means that vocabulary facilitates learners' ability to decode meaning from the context (Teng, 2015).

Communicative competence is manifested within the national standard through the interpretive mode, interpersonal mode, and presentational mode of communication (Mart, 2012). The interpretive mode of communication is characterized by the ability to interpret and understand spoken and written language whereas the interpersonal mode of communication describes the ability to maintain conversation between two or more individuals. The presentational mode of communication is highlighted by information presented through spoken or written language. When combined, these three modes of communication represent authentic real world communicative settings (Mart, 2012).

Reading is an indispensable tool in learning that forms an integral part of any learning situation, and the bedrock of education. Therefore, access to information is crucial to individual advancement as well as corporate educational development. Adetunji (2007) described reading as the act of translating symbols or letters into word or sentences that have meaning to an individual. It is also the understanding of what is seen in a text, which is the ability of the reader to take incoming visual information, process that information and obtain meaning from it. Information is indispensable. According to Yusuf (2007), bridges the gap between knowledge and ignorance. One of the major avenues for acquiring information is reading. Reading is the foundation upon which other academic skills are built. It offers a productive approach to improving vocabulary, word power, and language skills.

Communicative competence has always been the goal of every language classroom wherein instructions are geared toward the components on organizational, pragmatic, systematic and psychomotor (Brown, 1994). From the communication competence perspective, it is important to address academic reading as a meaning-based activity that is purpose and comprehension-driven. Reading is motivated by the reader's particular purpose and propelled by increasing comprehension of the texts. Further, given that language is embedded in contexts and tasks, academic reading assessment should focus on contexts and purposes and address narrow language abilities as they emerge from the local context. Whether it involves primary school children or university students, it seems clear that most comprehension is linked to a purpose, and it is thus important to examine reading within the context of that purpose.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to investigate the Extent of the Use of Extensive Reading in Promoting Communication Competence in Secondary School.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the importance of reading cannot be overemphasized, because no learning activity or situation can take place without reading. But one of the major problems facing Nigerian students is their inability to communicate effectively (Ajayi, 2012).

Communication competence problem can be conceived to be linked with the absence of reading habit among students or non-challant attitude to reading to the use of the internet. Although there are many reasons why people read, but observations and researches have shown that there is a low reading habit among students in recent times, especially in developing countries, because reading is not considered as a relevant leisure activity as it does not form part of children's social interaction and watching on television. Another major problem that leads to the absence of reading habits among students is on the advents of ICTs like the internet, cell phone, video games and other viewing gadgets.

Umar (2009:10) is of the view that students now have viewing culture instead of reading culture because of the advents of these ICTs gadgets. Also the lack of available information resources like texts books both in the school library and at homes also could lead to lack of students forming the habits of reading.

One series problem in reading comprehension is that among students are used to comprehending a passage on sentence level rather than on discourse level. This frailer causes some students to be dependent on understanding every single sentence in a text, even when this is not necessary to fulfill their reading purpose, with the result they tend to rend all texts at the same speed. In addition, the student heavily relies on dictionaries to get the meanings of some new words.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the extent of Extensive Reading Utilization in Promoting Communication Competence in Secondary School using some secondary schools in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To ascertain the teachers awareness of the benefits of extensive reading;
2. To identify the types of reading materials available for extensive reading in schools;
3. To determine the extent teacher engages student in extensive reading; and
4. To determine the techniques/strategies teachers employ in developing extensive reading for communication competence.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• To what extent are teachers aware of the benefits of extensive reading?
• What are the types of reading materials available in schools for extensive reading?
• To what extent do teachers engage students in extensive reading activities?
• What techniques and strategies do teachers employ to develop extensive reading skills for communication competence?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between extensive reading and student communication competence
• H1: There is a significant relationship between extensive reading and student communication competence

1.7 Significance of Study

Extensive reading is a useful strategy for students to improve their communication competence. The study provides other researchers with some reliable instruments, action procedures, and experimental findings for use in future research.

To the researcher's knowledge, there are no studies about the effect of extensive reading on communication competence in the context of Nigerian secondary schools. Most of the studies were conducted on the effect of extensive reading on reading proficiency or the effect of extensive reading on other skills separately. However, most of the related studies approve that using extensive reading is an effective tool for achieving communication competence.

Finally, the research will also help school owners to come up with better reading strategy to improve the communication competence of their students through the active role of teacher. It will also help sensitize the government in improving the syllabus as well as raising the standard of learning so as to student communication competence by making available all the necessary materials within the school setting so as to encourage extensive reading among secondary school students.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Extent of the Use of Extensive Reading in Promoting Communication Competence in Secondary School using some secondary schools in Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

1.10 Definition of Terms

Reading: Reading is a process of constructing meaning through dynamic interaction among the reader's existing knowledge, the information suggested by the text being read, and the context of the reading situation.

Extensive Reading: Extensive reading is the teaching of reading in terms of language skills by studying reading texts intensively in order to practise reading skills such as distinguishing the main idea of a text from the detail, finding pronoun referents, or guessing the meaning of unknown words.