Reading Skills Acquisition among Adult Learners in Basic Education Programme in Lagos State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Reading skills, Adult Basic Education, Adult learners, Literacy development, Reading Constraints.Abstract
This study investigated the constraints associated with reading skills acquisition among learners of Adult Basic Education Programmes in Lagos State, Nigeria. The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of 546 respondents selected through simple random sampling from the six major zones of Lagos State. Data were collected using the Questionnaire on Constraints of Reading Skills in Adult Basic Education Programme with a reliability coefficient of 0.87 established through Cronbach Alpha. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that major constraints affecting reading skills among adult learners included difficulties in pronunciation, comprehension, fluency, sentence construction, and age-related sensory impairments such as poor hearing and vision. The study also found no statistically significant gender difference in respondents’ perceptions of the constraints affecting reading skills among Adult Basic Education learners. However, a statistically significant age difference was found in respondents’ perceptions of the impact of reading skills on adult learners. Younger learners demonstrated more positive perceptions of reading skill development than older learners. The study concluded that reading skill challenges remain a major issue among adult learners in Lagos State. It was recommended that facilitators should possess adequate andragogical competence and adopt flexible instructional approaches that accommodate learners’ pace and learning needs.
