Investigating problems facing college students’ reading comprehension skills: the case of Gambella Teachers’ Education College

Abstract

The main purposeofthisstudy wasto investigate factors affecting students’ reading comprehension in Gambella Teachers’ Education College. The participants of the study were a sample of 60 students and five English language teachers who have been purposively selected. Questionnaire, interview and observation were employed to collect the required data for the study. The collected data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.. To this end, a Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16 was used. The result of the data showed that students’ competency of reading comprehension was low. The study indicated that this has happened due to teachers and students related problems.The study indicatedthatstudentsdidnotusedifferent typesofreadingstrategies becausethey havenomuchawarenessaboutthereading strategies.The study showed that thisresultedfrom students’low levelofproficiencyinenglishingeneralandreadingskillinparticular.The study showed that students in the college come from poor educational background without clear awareness of reading comprehension. The study further showed that students did not have a good knowledge about reading strategies. As a result, they did not u se reading strategies frequently. The study also showed that lacktrainingaboutreadingactivities, and this was another factor for the failureof improving students’ reading comprehension ability.Moreover, lackofguidance,practice,motivationandexposuretodifferenttypesofreadingstrategyweresomeoth erfactorsaffectingstudents’readingcomprehensionabilities. Finally, recommendations were given for students and teachers based on the major findings.