Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ reading comprehension engagement,
performance and challenges at Bonga MehalKetema Secondary School secondary school.
Specifically, it was aimed to assess the practice of the engagement of students in reading
comprehension; identify the extent of students’ performance in reading comprehension;
examine students’ reflection on their practice of learning reading at grade ten and to find out
the reading challenges experienced by grade 10 learners. To this end, one school in Bonga
town was purposively selected to conduct the study.137 grade ten students from this school
were participants of the study by using simple random sampling technique. Descriptive
research design was used to conduct the study and necessary data were collected through
tests, classroom observation, interview and questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed
using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of the study revealed that the
reading engagement concerning reading comprehension, additional reading materials,
guessing what the text will be about and reading a large text quickly to get an overall idea
about the text of the majority of the students was low. The study revealed that the majority of
the students were very low in reading performance in reading for meaning, reading for
reference and reading to infer. From this, the students reached the grade without some
proficiency in reading for meaning, reading for reference and reading to infer at their early
grades. Students’ poor vocabulary knowledge, lack of knowledge of structure of sentences
and lack of background knowledge of the students are challenges for students reading
performance. Lack of materials like text book for students, reference materials and access to
internet were also among the challenges. Finally, the study recommended that teachers
should provide an opportunity for students to read on their own in order to develop
autonomous reading skills. Teachers should provide exercises which include support for
reading for meaning, reading for reference and reading to infer skills and reinforcing
background knowledge, understanding of language structure and vocabulary skills. Reading
Strategies should be used for integrating comprehension as a part of each reading lesson,
including activities to use before, during, and after reading. Building students’ understanding
and meaning-making skills, including background knowledge, sentence structure, and oral
language, is essential for developing their overall literacy and communication abilities.
