Relationship between Reading Attitudes and Tele-viewing Habits
of Secondary School Students in Kwara State, Nigeria
Bolajoko Margaret Tunde-Awe
Department of Arts Education
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
This paper examined the relationship between reading attitudes and televiewing habit of secondary school students in Kwara State, North Central, Nigeria. The study was a correlational type. Its sample comprised 800 Senior Secondary School II students sampled from 28 co-educational public secondary schools located in the three Senatorial Districts of the state. Two researcher-designed instruments were used: Reading Attitudes Questionnaire (RATQ), which measured learners’ attitudes to three types of reading behaviour; and Televiewing Habit Questionnaire (TVHQ) which elicited information on their viewing interest and hours. RATQ and TVHQ had reliability indices of 0.721 and 0.850 respectively. The analysis was done with Percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics. The findings revealed that a total of 65.75% of the students had a generally negative attitude towards reading; and 40.24% and 36.0% of them had a very high interest in watching television programmes for 4 and 5 hours on weekdays and weekends respectively. Also, there was a positive but relatively low significant relationship between the students’ reading attitudes and their televiewing habit (r=.0395 df 798 P≤0.05). These findings implied that excessive televiewing habit could displace students’ reading time and the consequence is a gradual development of a negative attitude to healthy reading habits. Consequent upon these findings, it was recommended among others, that parents should serve as role model in reading and always supervise their children’s viewing interest. Also, government should air more of educative programmes that reinforce learners’ reading abilities, general intellectual and moral development.
Keywords: Reading Attitudes, Reading Habits, Televiewing Habit.